Chapter 26 Ransom
RANSOM
I bob my head to the music playing over the speakers I set up in the garage, turning a wrench to tighten the part I’m setting into the car I’m working on.
I’m lost in my own little world, the way I usually get when I’m working on something, but I catch the sound of footsteps a second before Malice comes stalking into the garage, looking pissed.
“Hold on, I’m putting you on speaker,” he says into the phone at his ear.
I straighten up and wipe my hands on the rag I have tucked into my belt.
“We have… a problem,” Vic says over the speaker.
“Willow’s old boss showed up at her apartment.
Someone came to him, asking about if he had sent any girls to the brothel the night we killed Nikolai.
Her boss knew Willow was there at some point, and he tried to blackmail her, saying he’d keep her secret if she fucked him. He’s dead now.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
Fuck.
It’s kind of amazing how Vic’s voice stayed totally even as he spoke, all the way up to the part where he coolly mentioned that Willow’s ex-boss is now dead.
Malice and I look at each other, and I can tell he’s thinking the same thing I am: this is bad.
That means someone almost got to Willow. Someone was asking around, following the breadcrumbs that led from the whorehouse to the strip club. Whoever it was clearly didn’t know exactly who they were looking for, but they got one step closer.
“Carl lied to this guy?” Malice asks, his eyes narrowed as he stares at the car I was working on—although I don’t think he’s really seeing it.
“Yes,” Vic replies. “Either to keep himself out of it or just to get leverage over Willow.”
“That’s something, at least,” I mutter.
Malice nods. “That means whoever was poking around doesn’t know she was there, and the only other person who did know is now dead.” He pauses, then adds, “I’m assuming you’re the one who killed him.”
Vic huffs a breath. “Yes.”
“We can’t relax just because that fucker is done,” I point out. “The fact that someone was looking at all, pulling on those threads and trying to get answers, means someone is out there trying to find out who killed Nikolai. We were right to worry about someone trying to avenge his death.”
Malice curses, gripping the phone tighter. “We need to get the girl here. Now. She has to be under our watch all the time. It’s the only way we can be sure no one can get to her and use her to find us.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” I nod, tugging the rag out of my belt and tossing it down. Guess I’m done working on this car for the night.
Vic makes an affirmative noise too, although he doesn’t speak.
“We’ll be there soon,” Malice says, then ends the call.
He shoves his phone into his back pocket and jerks his chin at me. Moving quickly, the two of us gather some supplies and then climb into his car and speed off toward Willow’s apartment.
Malice is quiet on the way over, and normally, I would probably talk to fill the silence, but there’s too much running through my mind to worry about that.
Willow’s old boss being dead isn’t great, and we’ll have to make sure we cover Vic’s tracks on that. There’s no way in hell we’ll let him get sent to jail like Malice did.
The bigger issue is the thing that prompted Vic to kill the guy in the first place.
This means we need to keep our guard up. Because someone is coming for us.
We knew there was a chance this might happen when we decided to take out Nikolai, but we all agreed it was worth the risk. Avenging our mother was worth it.
We pull up to Willow’s building a few minutes later and get out, glancing around the darkened street before heading up the stairs to her unit, where Vic lets us in.
“Two gunshots to the chest,” he reports immediately. “Muffled them with the pillow, and the TV was still on, so it’s unlikely anyone heard. As far as I know, the apartment immediately below this one is vacant as well.”
“Good.” I nod, unsurprised that Vic has already gotten to work covering up his tracks.
Like it or not, we’ve had a bit of experience with cleaning up messes and getting rid of bodies, so we spring into action immediately.
“Help me get the body wrapped up,” Malice says, jerking his head to our brother.
Vic already has a roll of black trash bags out, and Malice spreads out the tarp we brought.
They roll Carl’s body up in the tarp and then wrap that with trash bags.
Vic has some cleaning supplies in his bag, and we brought even more industrial strength stuff, so we start going to work on the blood that’s pooled on the cheap, fake wood floor.
Luckily it’s not carpet, so the tacky dark fluid comes up easily.
Once the blood is mostly cleaned up, Malice glances over at me. “Start packing up Willow’s shit. Just a few bags, clothes and whatever else.”
Willow seems like she’s in shock, sitting on the couch and staring into the middle distance. She hasn’t reacted or even moved since we came in and started securing the scene, but when she hears those words, she blinks and shakes herself out of it.
“What do you mean?” she asks, looking past me to Mal. “Why is he packing my stuff?”
“Because you’re coming with us, Solnyshka,” he tells her evenly, meeting her gaze.
“What? No!” Willow blurts, surging to her feet. “No. I’m not going anywhere. You can’t do this. I’m not going with you!”
Her voice is high, and she looks freaked out and on edge.
With the night she’s had so far, it makes sense.
“Yes, you are,” Malice shoots back, squaring his shoulders. “I can’t risk anyone tracking down my brothers, so there’s no fucking way I’m leaving you here on your own.”
“No!” She shakes her head, her blond hair flying around her face. “That’s too much. Too far. I have a life, and you can’t just drag me away from all of that. I won’t go!”
I want to step in and reassure her that this is for the best, but before I can do that, Malice has his gun out and drawn on her.
“This is not negotiable.” He narrows his eyes, his voice low. “So you’ve got two options. You come with us, or I kill you right now. That’s it. Those are the only two choices here.”
Something shifts in Willow’s expression as she takes in his words. Her nostrils flare, her soft brown eyes flashing. At first, I think it’s from fear—but then she surprises the fuck out of me by stepping right up to Malice until the barrel of the gun is pressed against her forehead.
My jaw just about drops to the fucking floor, and I can feel Vic stopping what he’s doing beside me as he watches her too.
She looks savage and fierce, almost unstoppable. She’s half Malice’s size, but in this moment, she doesn’t look like it. She looks like a queen.
“Do it then,” she whispers. “Fucking do it if you’re going to. You keep talking about killing me, but you haven’t done it yet. And I don’t think you will.”
The moment stretches and turns heavy as the two of them face off, and I can’t look away from Willow’s gorgeous, brilliant eyes.
I knew she had a tough side to her in there, somewhere under all that sweetness, but I never knew it was this wild.
This brave and unbreakable. She’s clearly terrified, but she’s also pissed off, and it’s like the combination of emotions set something off inside her.
She’s staring death in the face basically daring Malice to shoot her.
Their stare-down drags on for another long moment, the tension thickening the air in the room. Then Malice curses and pulls the gun away from Willow’s head.
He shoves his gun back in his waistband, his gaze locked on Willow as he steps slowly toward her, closing the distance between them and dropping his head until they’re almost nose to nose.
“This just means you’ve picked option A, Solnyshka.
You’re coming with us. There’s no fucking way we’re just walking out of here and leaving you on your own.
Someone is pissed about Nikolai’s death, and they’re after you.
If they get their hands on you, there’s no telling what they’ll do to get you to talk, and I’m not letting that happen. ”
Maybe Willow can pick up on the hint of worry in his tone that’s clear as day to me.
Or maybe his words are enough to convince her that no matter how much she might hate coming with us, Malice is right that she’ll be safer that way.
She stares at him for a long moment, her brows furrowed as a little line forms between them, then her gaze flicks to me and Vic.
She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opens them again, that flash of wildness is gone, and she just looks tired and scared.
“Fine,” she whispers. “I’ll go with you.”
Malice nods curtly, then shoots me a look.
“On it,” I say, heading into her room to start packing up.
Willow scampers in a moment later, clearly not willing to let me be the one who decides what she takes and what she leaves behind. She drags out a battered suitcase and a duffel bag from the closet, shoving things into them as Victor finishes scrubbing the apartment clean.
She’s just tugging the zipper on the duffel bag closed when Victor pops his head in.
“I’ve done my last checks,” he informs us. “The place is clean. Let’s go. We'll take Carl's car back to our place and chop it.”
“Great.” I grab the duffel bag and suitcase, hefting them in my arms as we make our way back out into the living room. It looks good. You’d never know there was a dead man bleeding out on the floor less than an hour ago.
I take point, making sure there’s no one around to witness as Victor and Malice get the body into the trunk of Carl's car, which is parked halfway down the block. Then I go back up for the bags, shoving them in the trunk of Malice’s car before opening the door to the back seat and gesturing Willow inside.
She’s quiet on the drive back to our place, chewing on her lip and staring out the window.
It’s after midnight when we roll into the garage at the warehouse.
Malice maneuvers Carl's beat up vehicle into the garage after us, and Vic pulls up alongside us in his car a second later. I grab Willow’s bags and hold the door open for her as she slides over the seat and gets out, then all four of us head inside.
“I’ll handle the body,” Malice says, flipping on a light.
“Vic, go back through the security footage around Willow’s apartment, cover our tracks, and make sure no one can find out that the fucker came to her place before he died.
Even better, try to create a digital footprint for him somewhere else to throw off anyone who looks into it. ”
Vic nods shortly.
“And then we need to start trying to find out who was asking him questions in the first place,” I add.
Willow glances around, still looking a bit shell-shocked and dazed as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Where am I going to stay?”
Malice flicks a look in her direction. “We don’t have an extra bedroom, so you’ll have to sleep in one of our rooms.”
Her eyes go wide, and she shakes her head. “Can’t I just sleep on the couch or something?”
“No, you can’t. We don’t trust you enough to let you have free rein here. You’ll sleep in one of our rooms so we can keep an eye on you,” he snaps. “So choose who you want to stay with, and deal with it.”
Willow glances at each of us in turn, considering. Her eyes linger on me and she ducks her head.
“Ransom,” she finally says.
Victor doesn’t react to her pronouncement. He’s better at keeping his feelings masked than either Malice or I, but I have a feeling he’s relieved not to have been picked. I can only imagine how having her in his living space would fuck up his carefully cultivated routines.
Malice’s jaw tightens, something that looks a lot like jealousy flashing through his eyes before he hardens his expression and nods. “Fine. Ransom it is.”
I can’t help the grin that tugs at the edges of my lips. I probably shouldn’t care one way or the other, but I like that she picked me.