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The combination of the shows I like and Vic’s running commentary lightens the pain in my chest even more, and after a while, I start to nod off. I can still mostly hear the TV, and I’m not sleeping deeply enough to dream, thank goodness. But lying next to Vic feels restorative in its own way, and I drift in and out, comfortable and relaxed.
I lose track of time, and when the door opens, I blink awake to see Malice and Ransom coming back in.
I rub my eyes as Ransom makes his way over to the bed, sitting down on the other side of it.
“Hi,” I mumble through a yawn.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” he replies, grinning.
Malice comes to sit at the foot of the bed, leaving me with a brother on all sides of me. They’re surrounding me, and it makes me feel so safe. There’s nothing here that wants to hurt me, but if there was, they wouldn’t let it get through.
“Did you get what you need?” I ask, shaking off the last of my doze.
Ransom makes a face, puffing out his cheeks like he’s holding in vomit. “Yeah, and then some. I saw shit I never wanted to see.”
I wince at that, not eager to know the details of whatever weird sex stuff the judge is into. It’s got to be bad, if it will work for blackmail.
“So it was good enough? You guys are going to be safe?”
That’s the most important part of all of this. If whatever this judge gets up to while he’s sneaking around on his wife isn’t enough to keep him in line, then finding out about his weird kinks or whatever will have been for nothing.
“Yeah. Definitely,” Ransom confirms. “I can’t imagine this guy won’t go along with our plan with what we’ve got. I wouldn’t want it getting out if I was into that kind of shit, married or not.”
I sigh with relief, a little bubble of hope rising in my chest. If the men are safe from being arrested, that will help me sleep better at night. I can’t bear the thought of any of the brothers being arrested—especially not Malice, after what he went through the first time he was locked up.
“We’ll go ahead and mark that off the list, then,” Vic says, breaking into my thoughts. “And move on to the next part of the plan.”
“Which is?” I ask, glancing his way.
“Preparing to face Olivia.”
Just hearing her name makes me feel sick to my stomach, but he’s right. Facing off with her is the next big thing we have to do. As awful as Troy was, as disgusting and cruel as he could be, Olivia is the one who set everything into motion. She’s the one we have to set our sights on next. We need to get her off our backs permanently somehow, or we’ll live the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders.
“Do we have anything to work off of?” Malice asks.
Vic nods. “I’ve been digging through Troy’s laptop, and I’ve got some information about his family that we can use. Like most rich assholes, they’re clean on the surface, but it just took a little digging to find what I wanted.”
“Do you think they know that their precious little Troy is no longer with us?” Ransom asks.
“As far as I can tell, no one knows anything. Troy was off the grid up in that house, out of touch with everyone. I feel like if there was news of his death already, it would be everywhere.”
We all nod in agreement at that.
“Even if they wanted to keep it quiet, it wouldn’t be that easy when it’s someone like Troy Copeland,” I say, and the name tastes bitter in my mouth.
He’s dead,I remind myself.You saw him die. Painfully.
That last thought is a bit vicious, but I don’t try to push it aside. I’m learning to embrace my vicious side, which is probably thanks to Malice’s influence. I’m not mad about it though.
“We have a limited window,” Vic is saying as I tune back into the conversation. “I think it’s best if we make our first move before everyone finds out what happened to Troy. Him going off the grid the way he did could actually work in our favor here. We don’t want to waste the opportunity.”
Malice smiles, and there’s a sharp, deadly edge to it.
“I agree. We should pay a little visit to Olivia soon,” he says. “Someone should let her know that things have changed.”
13
WILLOW
