AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We have proved that there are ways around that, though,” Ransom points out. “Her being well connected and influential doesn’t make her immortal.”
“No, but it means we have to be more careful than we would otherwise.”
Jonah paces a little, clearly deep in thought. “My men and I have done a few jobs like that. Tight security with a need to lie low and make sure we don’t get fucked over. We managed to isolate the mark and take them out that way.”
“That would be ideal,” Vic says. “Her main strength is her resources. At the end of the day, she couldn’t take us in a one on one fight, but she’d never let it get that close if she had the choice. Do you think we could do that here?”
“I have a few ideas. But first we’ll need to learn her schedule, her habits. It has to be air tight if we’re gonna manage to pull this off.”
Vic starts taking notes, and hope blooms in my chest as we hash out a plan. Olivia has treated everyone she meets like a pawn, and it’s finally coming around to bite her in the ass. It’s what she deserves after everything she’s done.
She’s hurt more people than just me.
And now the fact that she’s so heartless is going to be the thing that brings her down.
34
RANSOM
It’slate at night by the time we leave the tattoo parlor after our meeting with Jonah. The three of us gather around Willow to escort her back to the car, feeling the eyes of Jonah’s people on us as we go.
Any of us are willing to take a bullet for her if we have to, but hopefully it won’t come to that.
We get back to the car without incident and start making our way back to the safe house, talking about the plan and the meeting we just had.
“Can we really trust him?” Vic asks. “We made a lot of progress tonight, but it could be a trap.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think it was. Unless Jonah’s the best actor in the world, he definitely hates Olivia and would probably rather die than help her in any way.”
“I agree,” Willow says. “He could double cross us in the end, but I really don’t think he will.”
“She could try to pay him off,” Malice points out. “That seems like her kind of shit.”
“I can’t say Jonah has integrity because I don’t know him, but he never played Olivia’s games. Plus, the kind of anger and grief that comes from losing someone you love is a more powerful motivator than any amount of money. Working with Olivia would just put him and his daughter in danger if Olivia decided to betray him to clean up loose ends.”
Vic nods. “You’re probably right. Then we’ll trust him until he gives us a reason not to.”
“And hopefully he won’t,” I add. “It’d be nice to actually have something work out for once.”
We get back to the safe house, and Malice and I do a sweep to make sure nothing was compromised while we were gone. Once we know it’s clear, we all head inside, ready to decompress.
Willow drops down onto the dusty couch with a sigh, and it’s clear she’s exhausted. It feels like the attack this afternoon happened a long time ago now, but the stress of the day is probably still weighing on her.
I go over and lean over the back of the couch, running my fingers through her hair. “How’re you holding up?”
She opens her mouth to answer and ends up yawning instead, covering her mouth and blushing a little. “Sorry. I’ve been getting tired a lot easier these days.”
“No one can blame you for that. Shit’s been crazy.”
“Yeah. But I think it’s also because of the baby.”
She puts a hand on her stomach, and it hits me all over again that she’s pregnant. It’s easy to forget sometimes, since she’s not showing yet, and she hasn’t let it slow her down, but her sitting there with her hand on her belly definitely is a stark reminder.
And I can’t lie, the idea of her swollen and round with a baby turns me the fuck on.
But on the flip side of that, knowing that Troy is the father still makes me furious. At least he’s no longer alive to fuck things up or use his kid as leverage. That’s the best case scenario right now.
As I gaze down at Willow, I make a silent vow to love the hell out of this baby as an extra ‘fuck you’ to Troy. We’ll make sure his kid turns out nothing like him, treating him or her better than Troy ever would have. Considering that people from his world seem to exclusively think of their kids as bargaining chips and chess pieces to move around, it shouldn’t be hard to do.
