Chapter 37 Willow
WILLOW
My heart is racing so fast, I’m sure everyone in the car can hear it trying to beat out of my chest.
Malice was saying something about how Olivia wasn’t in the car… then there were gunshots, and the sound of some kind of scuffle.
And now nothing. The transmission is totally dead
“Malice?” Ransom shouts, holding a hand to his ear as if that will help. “Malice, what the fuck?”
“Vic!” I call, my voice shaking. “What happened?”
No response from him either.
“Gun it,” Ransom tells Jonah grimly. “They need backup. Now.”
The man we recruited to help us is behind the wheel, and he nods once and steps on the gas.
We managed to run Olivia’s second security team off the road, although they gave us a run for our money.
The side of the car we’re currently in is scraped all to hell, and there are bullet holes in the siding.
We speed past the destroyed black SUV that holds Olivia’s backup security team, leaving it to burn by the side of the road as we race toward where Malice and Vic were supposed to intercept her in the main car.
It’s only about a half mile away from where we took out her backup, so it doesn’t take us long to reach the spot.
“Stay on your fucking guard,” Ransom mutters to Jonah as an SUV sitting in the middle of the road comes into view up ahead. “It could be a trap.”
Jonah grunts in response, slowing our car as both men hold weapons at the ready. I have a gun too, as well as a vest, but I didn’t have to shoot anyone during our attack on Olivia’s other guards. Still, I curl my fingers around the grip of my weapon, feeling sick from the overload of adrenaline.
There are three bodies on the ground, but it only takes a quick glance to confirm that none of them are Malice or Vic.
“Fucking… fuck!”
Ransom bellows the curse, shoving his door open as soon as we roll to a stop. Jonah gets out too, the two of them doing a sweep of the area with their weapons drawn. But even before Ransom shakes his head, some part of me already knows.
There’s no one else here.
No Olivia.
No Malice or Vic.
They’re gone.
“Fuck,” Ransom repeats, staring down at the bodies of the guards. “She had to have known we were coming. That’s why she wasn’t in the fucking car. It was a trap.” He whirls around to face Jonah, gun raised in his hand. “You sold us out.”
Jonah’s eyes go wide, and he raises his own gun in a heartbeat, the two men standing off.
“I didn’t,” he insists, his voice hard. “Listen, I want that bitch dead as much as you do. Maybe even more, because I already lost the person she was holding over my fucking head. I wouldn’t help her. Not for any price. I’d die first.”
“Why the hell should I believe that?” Ransom growls, adding a second hand to steady his gun. His eyes are wild with worry and grief and anger. I’ve never seen him like this before, but I recognize all the emotions on his face—because I feel them too.
We can’t let this be the end. We can’t lose Malice and Vic.
“Believe me, or don’t.” Jonah keeps his gaze locked on Ransom, his weapon steady and his eyes narrowed. “But I’d think twice before pulling that trigger, because I’m a good fucking shot. You shoot, and I shoot back. Best case, we both die. Is that what you want?”
“Maybe I fucking do. If you betrayed us, there’s nothing that could keep me from killing you.”
Jonah snorts, his top lip pulling back in a snarl.
“If Olivia Stanton knew we were coming, it’s because one of you told her, or she found some way to surveil you and figured out what your plan was.
Hell, maybe this whole art show she was supposedly going to was a lie, something meant to draw you out. ”
Ransom’s handsome face contorts with fury at Jonah’s words, and he shakes his head, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallows. “Fuck. Fuck.”
“Ransom.” I swallow, taking a small step forward, desperate to defuse this situation. I’ve already lost two of my men, I can’t bear to see another shot right in front of me. “I believe him. I don’t think he’d sell us out.”
Ransom is breathing hard, and I can see indecision in his features as he fights some sort of internal battle. But finally, he lowers the gun just a little. Jonah mirrors the movement, the two of them slowly ending their standoff.
There’s a sudden noise in my ear, and I jump, slapping a hand to the earpiece situated there.
“Malice?” I blurt. “Vic! Are you there?”
There’s a quiet laugh in response, feminine and almost dainty, and my stomach curls.
Olivia.
“I’m sorry, darling. Your two little fuckboys are indisposed at the moment.”
Her voice filters into my ear like poison, and I know Ransom and Jonah must be able to hear her too, because they both stiffen.
“Where are they?” I demand, my throat going tight.
She just laughs again, ignoring my question as she continues.
“You thought the four of you could take me on by yourselves? Did you really think I’d open myself up to an ambush like that?
Your men should have been more creative.
Did you all forget that I’m X? The Voronin brothers worked for me for years.
I’ve seen their handiwork. They’ve done enough jobs for me that I know how they operate.
So all it took to lure all of you out into the open was the perfect opportunity to attack me.
Except, silly me, I forgot to get into my car. ”
My stomach is in knots, and her taunting tone grates on my frayed nerves as terror skates through me.
“Did you kill them?” I hiss. “Are Malice and Victor dead?”
“No,” she replies smoothly. “I’m not a fool. That would be like breaking a very expensive tool before I even got a chance to use it. They’re alive. But they won’t be for long unless I get what I want.”
“Fuck you,” I choke out, my hand tightening around the grip of my gun.
“Sorry, that isn’t one of the options here, Willow,” she says coolly.
“There are only two options you have right now.” She sighs, clicking her tongue against her teeth.
“Since you’ve clearly decided not to take me up on my offer to spare your life if you signed everything over to me, I’ve decided to take a different tack.
All of Troy’s holdings in exchange for your two men.
Give me what I want, and they’ll live. Or you can keep playing this game and lose everyone you love, one by one. ”
I stare at Ransom as we both listen to Olivia speak, our gazes locked, the sound of my own pulse loud in my own head. Anger and fear and heartache war inside me. Every time I think it couldn’t be possible to hate Olivia more than I already do, she proves me wrong.
“You’re a heartless bitch!” I spit at her. “A fucking monster. You—”
Olivia sighs, cutting me off with a sharp voice.
“And you are wasting time. Make your choice, Willow.” She rattles off an address, then adds, “I will be waiting there. Tonight at eight o’clock sharp.
If you want your men back alive, you’ll come—unarmed—with the paperwork necessary to sign everything you stole from Troy over to me. ”
She cuts the transmission before I can say anything else, and the earpiece goes dead again.
I stand rooted to the spot, trying to breathe through the panic that’s clutching me.
Jonah looks from Ransom to me, the lines of his face deepening as he frowns. “What are you going to do?”
My mind races, and I drag in a breath as I try to think. Numbness and clarity burn away the fear as the course of action lays itself out in front of me. There’s only one thing that matters right now.
I can’t let Olivia kill Vic and Malice. I just can’t.
“I’m going to give her everything she wants,” I tell him.
At eight p.m., Ransom and I approach the building Olivia told us to come to, alone and unarmed.
At first, the address didn’t make much sense, but when we looked it up, I understood immediately why she had chosen this location.
It’s a building that’s under construction, and the company in charge of the project is Oberon—the same corporation Olivia has a large stake in.
She probably chose this as her ideal meeting place because it’s guaranteed to be empty since it’s still being built.
There will be no one around to witness the handoff, and she can control the environment since her company owns the site.
So far, just the foundation and scaffolding have been put up, and in the dusky gloom, it looks like a twisted skeleton.
I have the paperwork with me, everything I’ll need in order to sign everything over to Olivia, and my heart beats a furious rhythm in my chest.
Ransom looks down at me, his blue-green eyes glinting in the light of a few nearby streetlamps. This building is in a part of Detroit that’s being redeveloped, so there are several other construction projects nearby. The area is quiet at this time of night, making it feel like a ghost town.
“Are you sure about this?” he asks.
I nod. “Yeah. I’m sure. It’s what any of you would do for me.”
He looks like he’s about to say something, but then he just shakes his head and pulls me into a kiss. The last few hours have been hell for him, I know, worried about his brothers and not being able to do anything about it. I can feel the anxiety and concern in him when he kisses me.
I wrap my arms around him tightly, and we hold on for a moment, breathing each other in.
“We’re going to get them back,” I murmur against his chest. “We have to do this. It’s the only way.”
“I know.” His voice is thick. “Just… be careful. Okay?”
“I will. You too.”
He holds me for another moment and then drops a kiss to the top of my head.
Letting go of him is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
Without Malice and Victor by my side, I feel like I’m missing an essential part of myself, and the thought that I could lose Ransom too—could lose all three of them—makes terror shoot through me, so sharp and violent that it almost steals my breath.
But I meant what I said. This is the only way.