Chapter 34 Victor
VICTOR
The glow from my computers casts a soft light into the room as I sit in my chair, listening to Willow’s breathing even out on the other end of the call.
It’s a soft, rhythmic noise, and I find myself subconsciously matching it, inhaling and exhaling when she does. She’s asleep. I can tell from the way she’s breathing, and judging from the fact that the cameras in her room show that her bed is empty, she’s fallen asleep on the couch.
I smile at the image of her I can conjure up in my imagination—her delicate body curled up on the cushions, a blanket tucked haphazardly around her, her long lashes brushing her cheeks.
“Goodnight, butterfly,” I murmur softly, then end the call.
It feels almost too quiet in my room without the sound of her voice or her breathing, but I get back to work, hunting through the footage from the drop point again to see if there’s anything usable at all.
As I work, a notification pops up in the bottom corner of my screen, telling me I have a new encrypted message.
Fuck. I don’t even need to check it to know it’s going to be from X.
I break the encryption and scan the message quickly, my lips twisting into a frown.
He’s got another job for us already.
We’ll have to complete it within the next ten days, and it’s blackmail this time, getting dirt on someone and delivering it to X as usual.
I read over the message a few times, committing the details to memory before I get up and head downstairs.
Malice is in the kitchen, sitting at the table with his tattoo gun, adding to the ever growing piece of ink that he’s been working on for a while. He’s hunched over his arm, the room quiet except for the buzz of the machine and his soft breathing.
He looks up when I walk in, raising an eyebrow.
“We have another job,” I tell him.
He rolls his eyes. “Fucking fantastic. What is it this time?”
“Blackmail. But it’ll involve another drop, so that’s another chance to try to put a camera where we can hopefully get something that will lead us to X.”
Malice nods. “That’s something, at least.”
“Should I wake up Ransom and fill him in?”
“Nah, just tell him in the morning. Someone should get some sleep around here.”
We exchange a look at that, and I know Malice feels the same way I do. Ransom is in this shit with us most of the time, but he’s not as hardened as Malice or as detached as I am. We want to keep it that way.
“It’s odd,” I say, watching as the needle of the tattoo gun moves faster than my eye can track, stabbing the ink into Malice’s skin again and again.
“What is?”
“Thinking about what things could be like if we manage to get X off of our backs.”
“Yeah.” Malice grunts. “Doing jobs we want to do and having some fucking control over our lives. Imagine that.”
I snort. “Sounds like paradise.”
“I’ve got some plans, at least. I want to expand the business, make it so we can keep money coming in without having to deal with shit-heads we don’t want to do business with. I think we could do it.”
I nod. It’s not hard to picture. Ransom has the charisma to keep people coming back—and make up for Malice’s outbursts when they happen—and we’re all good at what we do.
But there is one thing that worries me about it.
“I keep thinking about Willow,” I admit.
“And the future. She has a whole new life now. She’s not that scared girl we met at the brothel anymore.
Compared to what her grandmother has given her and can keep giving her, what can we really offer?
We’ve carved out this spot for ourselves in the underground of Detroit, but it’s not like we’re on the top of the food chain. Not even close. What can we give her?”
Malice stops the tattoo gun and looks up at me. “Loyalty. Freedom. A place where she can be herself. Seems like she’s been lacking that in her life, so I think that’s a pretty good start.”
I think about what she told me about her adoptive mother, and how Misty always lied and manipulated her. Maybe my twin does have a point there.
Willow isn’t one to place material things over people anyway.
Ransom walks in before I can speak again, yawning and rubbing one eye. “You forgot to mention the screaming orgasms,” he says, grinning as he joins our conversation.
Malice huffs a laugh, raising one shoulder. “Thought that went without saying.”
Ransom grins and grabs the bottle of whiskey, plopping down at the table. “Can’t believe you were having a meeting without me. The fuck is this?”
“It’s not a meeting,” Malice fires back. “We’re just talking.”
A smile tugs at my lips as I watch them interact. But at the same time, inside, a part of me still feels inadequate. Ransom and Malice joke so easily about how they’ve gotten Willow off, but I’ve never given her the same thing. I’ve never even touched her.
As much as I want to, I still feel like I’m locked up in the cage of my mind half the time. It’s not easy to break free, and sometimes I don’t know if I ever will.
And if I did, if I let go of control completely… I’m not sure what would happen.
“We’ve got a new job, by the way,” Malice says, drawing me out of my thoughts as he fills Ransom in.
Ransom groans, putting his head down on the table for a second.
“Fucking hell,” he groans. “Although I guess it’s good in the long run. It’ll give us another chance to try to find out who X is.” Then he chuckles, but there’s no humor in it. “You know, before he kills us.”