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When Finn lowers his weapon and steps back to make room for me, I can’t wait any longer. I bolt inside. Elliot is just getting up from where he was sitting on the nearest bed, and Axel is on the other, perfectly relaxed.
I barely get a good look at Elliot before I jump into his arms. His eyes are bloodshot, and his posture is drooped, like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
“Wren.” He’s shaking his head even as he holds me tightly. “What’re you doing here?”
“I had to see you. Please don’t tell me to leave.”
“No,” he mutters, and he smiles even as his eyes turn glossy. “No, I’m glad you’re here.”
“How long do we have?” Finn asks.
Axel glances at his watch. “An hour tops, but the less time we take, the better.”
Finn nods, stepping up to Elliot. He checked the bathroom while we were hugging, and now he pulls Elliot into an embrace. “It’s good to see you alive.”
Squeezing Finn, Elliot manages a quiet, “Thanks.”
The moment they pull away from each other, Elliot turns to me. I gasp at the dark red stain on his shirt. How didn’t I notice it before?
“You’re hurt?” I ask, reaching out to him.
“What?” He follows my gaze and glances down at himself. “Oh—no. That’s from a job. Fuck.”
I step back as Elliot pulls off his shirt. Grabbing my hand, he pulls me toward the bathroom, where he starts rinsing the blood out with cold water.
“Tell me what you found on the drive, love,” Elliot says.
“Wait.” Finn casts a suspicious glance toward Axel. “You’re sure we can trust him?”
Sighing, Elliot squeezes out the shirt and then places it under the running water again. “If this was a trap, don’t you think something would’ve happened by now?”
“I suppose,” Finn replies as he moves toward the front door. He’s holstered his weapon, but his hand is still resting on it.
After wringing out his shirt again, Elliot moves to put it back on. But he seems to realize that it’s wet, as if he wasn’t the one who just had it under the water. With another sigh, he drapes it across one of the beds before lowering himself onto it. He pulls me directly into his lap and buries his face in my hair, inhaling deeply.
“Tell me,” he says quietly.
“There were records of payments to two men Ludo is in business with,” I explain. “Raymond King and Fredrick Burbank. But the numbers don’t add up. King and Burbank supply the product, and Ludo distributes, and there’s supposed to be a three-way split of the money.”
Axel leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees and his hands clasped together. He watches me intently, like he thinks I know something he doesn’t.
“Go on,” Elliot says. His hand is warm on my back as he strokes it up and down my spine.
“Ludo isn’t splitting the money evenly,” I say, watching as Axel’s eyebrows shoot up. “He’s under-reporting the amount he’s making from his buyers and keeping more than he agreed to.”
“And it isn’t just with King and Burbank,” Finn adds. “I re-checked some of his other records and found a few more discrepancies.”
“I knew it,” Axel mutters under his breath.
Elliot looks up. “You weren’t aware of what Holloway was doing?”
“No. I never knew the exact numbers in relation to his dealings with King and Burbank, but that alone made me suspicious. Usually, I help Ludo with his books, but he’s always refused to let me anywhere near certain deals. This is one of them. He doesn’t even want me at their monthly meetings.”
“Makes sense,” Elliot says. “Ludo is a secretive man. Doesn’t want information getting into the wrong hands and all that.”
Axel rattles off a list of names, his eyes trained on Finn. “Are those the other deals that aren’t adding up?”
“They are,” Finn says. He’s watching Axel carefully, and I can practically see the gears turning in his brain. My guess is that he’s trying to figure out whether Axel is telling the truth about not being involved with these deals.
