Page 16 of Vicious Deception
Commercial hoods and fire systems. Like for restaurants? What does Axel want with them?
“Stay here,” he tells me lowly. He puts the SUV in park before getting out and closing the door quietly.
I narrow my eyes. Before we left, Ludo gave Axel two orders. One, do the job and come straight back. Two, don’t let me out of his sight. Axel hasn’t followed either of those instructions.
As Axel yanks open the backseat door, two men get out of the van. They look nervous as hell, glancing around the dark parking lot while they wait.
“This is half,” Axel says, tossing them the duffel bag that was in the backseat. “You’ll get the other half when the job’s done.”
One of the men grabs the bag while the other asks, “Time and place haven’t changed?”
“Correct. But for the love of god, bring an unmarked vehicle. Don’t be idiots.” Axel holds up his hand when the men start muttering excuses. “I don’t want to hear it. Just do what I say.”
They nod silently, not taking their eyes off him.
They’re scared of him.
Without another word, Axel marches back to the SUV, climbs in, and drives off. My mind is brimming with questions, but I keep my mouth clamped shut.
Neither of us utter a single word for the remainder of the drive. The silence gives me time to sort through my thoughts. Whatever just happened, I don’t think Ludo knows about it, which can only mean one thing.
I don’t think Axel is who we think he is.
Chapter six
Wren
Theold,woodenstepscreak under my weight as I slowly descend to the first floor of the farmhouse. My mind is foggy from lack of sleep since my nightmares have only gotten worse over the past week.
The night Ludo’s men tried to abduct me, Finn and I ran. He called a friend to come deal with the bodies, and then we gathered up anything that gave away our plans for Ludo. Laptops, drives, blueprints—everything.
We brought it all with us to Finn’s farmhouse. It’s the same one I visited mere weeks ago when Rhett tortured and killed Austin. Apparently, it’s where Finn has been living for the past year. I’m still unsure of who he’s been hiding from, but for the time being, my focus is on other things.
For now, I’m just grateful that we have a place to hide. Finn has access to the guys’ security system—specifically, the cameras they have installed outside. So we know that after the first failed kidnapping attempt, Holloway sent another team to the guys’ mansion. When they didn’t find me, it looks like they searched the house, but we’d already cleared it of any important information.
We’re safe, and we’ve kept the guys’ secrets out of Ludo’s hands. Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve managed to do.
I rub at the never-ending ache in my chest.What if we’re already too late?
The stairs empty into the family room, and Maggie is waiting by the back door. When she spots me, she lifts her head up from where it was resting in between her paws.
“Hey, girl.”
She whines softly as I approach. After I scratch her behind the ears for a minute, I open the sliding door that leads onto the covered porch. Cool air rushes in, causing goosebumps to form on my skin.
Maggie bounds across the porch and into the backyard. The first time she did it, I thought she’d keep running and never come back, but Finn assured me she was fine. He told me German Shepherds need at least two hours of exercise a day, and she loves running around the huge yard.
I quickly learned that she’s a well-trained dog. Even when she’s playing in the yard, she never wanders out of sight—at least not for too long. She always comes back, panting and wagging her tail and often covered in mud.
For a few seconds, I watch Maggie sniff around the yard. The air is thick with a low-hanging fog that’ll burn off in an hour or two. The sun is just beginning to shine through the trees, causing the dew on the grass to sparkle.
A dull ache blooms in my head, so I close the door and move into the bathroom. There are pain pills in the medicine cabinet, so I take a few before thoroughly washing my hands.
The lotion I’ve been using is in here, too, so I squirt some onto my fingers and rub it into the back of my neck. I wasn’t prepared for how itchy the skin would be at this point in the healing process, but Finn told me it’s normal.
There was a part of me that wanted to delay getting the butterfly tattoo until the guys are safe, but then I realized I couldn’t wait. In a way, it helped me feel closer to them again. I’m not sure how else to explain it, other than it felt right.
It took some convincing to get Finn to let me leave the farmhouse, though. He’s been adamant that I stay hidden, and getting my tattoo has been the only exception so far. I think a part of him understood that I needed to do it. Underneath his grumpy, hard exterior, he has a heart, so we took some extra precautions for the appointment.