AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That’s what you said about the towel on the bathroom floor,” Vic mutters darkly.
“I left it there for one second,” Malice argues back.
“And that’s one second too long.”
Ransom chuckles. “He’s got you there, Mal. See, Vic? I bet my shoe thing doesn’t seem so bad compared to a wet towel.”
Malice grunts unintelligibly, and Vic just rolls his eyes and strides toward the bathroom the way he does every morning. He always likes to get in there before his brothers can mess up all of his organizational systems.
“You won’t have to deal with our shit for that much longer,” Ransom says, stretching as he swings himself out of bed. “You can have your own room soon and micromanage it to your heart’s content.”
Vic stops in the bathroom doorway, making a face at that. “As much as I want to be rid of your mess, I don’t want to miss sleeping with Willow.”
His words are straightforward and honest, and I grin, touched by how he says it.
We’ve come such a long way from him not even wanting me around. Back then, I never would’ve thought he’d be willing to put up with Ransom’s shoes and Malice’s towels and the mess of four people sharing a small room, just to get the chance to sleep next to me.
But here we are, and it doesn’t feel strange to see Vic want that anymore. Knowing how far he’s come—how far we’ve come together—gives me hope that maybe I can get to a better place too. No matter how hard it is.
Vic had years of trauma holding him back, and he’s managed to change and grow, so surely I can too.
A natural order has sprung up in the time since I’ve been here with the brothers. Vic always goes to the bathroom first, and Malice puts the coffee on, filling the little room with the scent of the dark roast blend all three of them can agree on. Once Vic is done, I go in, brushing my teeth and hair, washing my face, getting dressed. Then Ransom, then Malice.
Vic arranges things for housekeeping, and we sip coffee and get ready for whatever will be happening that day.
Today is a bit different though, because instead of making a plan to go out or do recon or whatever, we start packing up all our stuff.
As part of our plan to stand up to Olivia, I’m essentially taking over Troy’s life. All the things we forced him to sign over to me are mine now, and I’m claiming them.
Thanks to Vic’s help, I have access to his family’s company, access to his money and assets, and even access to his properties. So now it’s time to start taking advantage of that. Instead of the four of us living out of this dingy hotel, we’ll be moving into Troy’s penthouse in the city.
Mypenthouse now, I guess.
With his access to Troy’s laptop, Vic has gotten all the info about the penthouse, and he filled us in on it. It wasn’t Troy’s main house, just somewhere he stayed when he happened to need a place to crash in the heart of the city. The house where he spent most of his time is in a wealthy, residential neighborhood, but even though it’s bigger than the penthouse, there’s no way I could live there. It would feel too much likeTroy. Too much like the place he kept me captive in out there in the woods.
It doesn’t take us long to pack, since none of us have much. We’ve had to abandon everything and run more than once, and I can’t help the twinge of pain in my heart as I realize that pretty much all of our worldly belongings are in this small hotel room.
When we finally pile into the car with everything packed tightly in the trunk, Vic gives us the rundown once more.
“It should be fully furnished,” he says, looking back from his usual spot in the front passenger seat. “As far as I can tell, Troy bought it furnished, so unless he threw everything out, we should have what we need.”
“Hopefully that means it won’t be too hard to settle in.” Ransom grimaces, leaning back in the seat beside me. “I don’t want to even think about how Troy would decorate a place on his own.”
“Probably all pretentious shit. Ugly ass art pieces and shitty furniture,” Malice grunts. “Fuckers like him have no taste.”
The building itself is industrial and cold looking. It stretches up several stories, barely looking any different than the office buildings that loom on the skyline in the heart of the city.
There’s a doorman who watches us with curious eyes as we walk into the building and head for the elevator, but when we put in the code to be let in and then up, he doesn’t say anything.
We go all the way up to the fifteenth floor, stepping out of the mirrored elevator onto a completely quiet hall. Troy actually owned the top two stories of the building, so the floor below ours is currently unoccupied. The penthouse is the only residence on the top floor, and the plush carpet muffles our footsteps as we make our way to the door.
“Here you go, angel.” Ransom hands me the key they took before they burned Troy’s cabin down. “You want to do the honors?”
I take the key from him and twist it in the lock, and the door swings open, granting us entrance to the penthouse.
The inside matches the outside, for the most part.
The appliances are all shiny and silver, gleaming almost like new in the overhead lights. There’s a marble island separating the living room from the kitchen, with leather covered barstools pushed up to it.
