Page 81 of Vicious Deception
Downstairs, Finn and Meredith are putting the living room back to normal. I wasn’t expecting them to help, but I’m not surprised that they are. Finn can whine about how annoying family can be for hours, but he’s part of ours, and we’re part of his. We’ll do just about anything for each other.
“Hey,” Oliver calls, “does anyone know what happened to that vase that we keep on that shelf by the front door?” He comes into view, a frown on his face.
“The blue and white one?” Finn asks. His gaze flicks to Wren.
“Yeah. The rug we had in there is gone, too.”
“That’s odd,” Elliot mutters, scratching his head.
“The rug is getting cleaned,” Finn says, standing the coffee table upright. “Was soaked with blood from the men we killed. I had some friends come in to deal with the cleanup since I needed to get Wren out of here.”
Oliver perks up. “Do you think they’d know what happened to the vase?”
“Maybe.” Finn turns away then, stooping to pick up a couple books that fell off the table.
“You don’t know, do you, Wren?” Oliver asks. “I know it’s just a vase, but I really like it.”
“I broke it,” she replies quietly, dropping her gaze to the floor. “I’m sorr—”
“She saved my life with it,” Finn says. “Knocked one of the guys over the head to disorient him. It gave me the upper hand.”
Laughing, Oliver slings an arm around Wren’s shoulders. “Well, I can’t exactly be disappointed at that, can I?”
She looks up. “But—”
Swiftly, Oliver moves in and kisses her. “The two of you are far more important than a vase, princess. Don’t worry about it.”
With all of us working together, we’re able to get the house put back together in a few hours. Finn heads home before dinner, and after realizing that a lot of the food in the kitchen has spoiled, we order in.
Benny seems ecstatic to have a whole mansion to explore, so after we eat, he runs off with Meredith on his heels. The guys and Wren seem to have cleanup handled, so when Andrew slinks off to his room, I follow. He’s barely said a word since we left Ludo’s mansion, which makes me think he has something up his sleeve.
I knock on his door, and when he opens it and sees me standing in the hallway, his eyes widen.
“Don’t kill me,” he blurts, stumbling back. “I’m sorry. Really, Rhett. I’d take it all back if I could.”
I glance around his room, half expecting to find something incriminating lying around, but I come up empty. “I’m not gonna kill you.”
He releases a long breath and sinks onto the bed.
“To be clear, if you weren’t family, I would’ve already.” I cross my arms and glare down at him. “And if any of them had died, even that wouldn’t’ve stopped me.”
Andrew gulps, only staring at the floor.
“Is that why you’ve been so quiet? You’ve been scared?”
Nodding, he meets my gaze. “I thought you were just waiting for a convenient time to get me away from Benny.”
“Fair enough.”
“You’re not getting custody of him.” Andrew straightens, chin high. “He’s mine to take care of.”
With a sigh, I lean against the doorframe. It’s foolish that he thinks he can take care of Benny. He’s practically a child himself. He won’t appreciate me saying that, though.
“He wants me,” Andrew continues. “Our plan was to get away from Dadtogether.”
“What about Corinne?”
“What about her?”