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“Ah, the great Finneas Fox.” There’s something familiar about the feminine voice, but I can’t place it. “We need to meet. I’ll text you an address, get there as soon as you can.”
1.Villain—Julia Wolf |
2.Hurt Me—Låpsley |
Chapter 21
Transgressions and Penance
Finn
Threewomenwhowereonce my enemies are sitting across from me in a diner booth. The buzzing neon Open sign on the window next to me is giving me a headache and washing us in red like hellions. I certainly feel like I’m in hell.
“How soon can you execute?” I ask.
“Thank you.” Linnie smiles at the waitress refilling our coffee mugs before turning back to me. “We can do it as soon as tomorrow. We just need the art.” They’ve spent the last forty-five minutes walking me through every step of the plan they’d been working toward with Effie.
I scribble a number on a napkin and slide it over to her. “This will get you to Roman who will get you to Cash. I’ll fill him in and make sure he will get you whatever you need. But we can’t do anything until my wife is safely back to me.”
“Understood.”
I slump back in the long booth, trying to figure out why I still feel like I’ve been sucker punched. Even after finding out Effie hadn’t purposefully betrayed me. “What’s in it for you guys?”
“Is helping out a friend not reason enough?” Hadis poses.
“No. Not in our world.”
Marguerite pushes her ketchup-soaked hashbrowns around her plate—I’ve never understood breakfast for dinner, and she’s not making it seem very appealing. She looks to Linnie to answer for them.
“We fucked up,” Linnie says honestly. “Not as much as you, but we weren’t there for Effie. We let her loose on you without any proper training. We tried to use your blackmail plot to our benefit instead of trying to eliminate it. And we were off licking our wounds when Hudson showed up at our door.”
“You’re saying you owe her?” All three nod and I realize that’s not what was bothering me. I know exactly what is. “Why didn’t she tell me what she was planning?”
If she had told me, I wouldn’t have reacted so cruelly. I could have helped her. But what hurts the most is that, even after everything we’ve gone through, she still didn’t trust me enough.
Linnie looks at me thoughtfully. “When no one else was there for her, you were. She called and you came—”
“I fucking put her in that situation.” I slam my palms on the table, the saltshaker tips over and the utensils rattle. Three unimpressed faces stare back at me.
“Yes, you did and honestly, fuck you.” Marguerite shoves a bite of soggy hashbrowns in her mouth and waves her empty fork at me. “She’s a better person than me, because I wouldn’t have forgiven you, let alone felt like Iowedyou.”
I swallow stiffly. My transgressions are piling up, but Effie is the one being punished.
I have to get her back.
My wife belongs at my side, and I belong at her feet.
1The drive from the diner to the Luciano mansion is the most excruciating twenty minutes of my life. My lungs feel splintered, my skin too tight, my heart one beat away from giving out.
I shudder to think what will happen if she doesn’t give her father what he wants, or worse, if he finds out what she was planning behind his back. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, but if something happens to her at the hands of that monster, not hearing her out will be my biggest one. I slam on the gas and shift gears, blazing through the residential streets at dangerous speeds.
I roll down my window as I approach the gate to their drive, one hand on the stick shift, the other on my gun pointed at the guard. “Open the gate.”
“No—” I shoot him in the foot, and he screams, hopping back on one foot.
“Open it or the next one goes in your knee, Hoppy.”
He curses amid groans, but all I care about is the gate hinging open in front of me.Has it always been this goddamn slow?I consider blowing through it partially open to save time as it lazily yawns open.
