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It doesn’t take long for the greater picture to come into focus as I’m taken over to Charlene’s townhouse. I should be more shocked as I see her sitting in a chair in the middle of an empty living room, some of my paint cans still lingering in the corner, covered with plastic sheets. I should be angrier, too, but I’m surprisingly calm after what just happened. My mind lingers back at the house, on Helen and my babies. This shouldn’t have happened, yet it was all clearly premeditated.
Charlene’s acrid smile finally fits her face perfectly as she sees Toby bringing me in.
“Took you forever,” she says.
“Had some trouble picking her up,” Toby replies.
“Who the fuck are you people?” I grumble as I look at each of them, ultimately recognizing them for who they truly are. Bitterness inevitably glazes my tongue as every word of caution from Kellan, Fallon, and Luke comes back to haunt me. “They were right about you.”
“Oh, don’t take it so personally,” Charlene replies. “Honestly, I didn’t want things to get to this point. I was hoping it would go smoother, but recent events beyond my control have pushed me here. Had I known you were pregnant sooner…” she trails off.
Toby forces me to sit in a spare chair, making sure to keep me in place with plastic cable ties. He tightens the restraints to the point where it hurts my wrists and ankles. The heat has been turned off and it is cold in the house. Charlene is well dressed in jeans and a thick woolen jacket, comfortable in her seat as she smiles and looks at me. There’s a manila folder in her hands that she’s clutching close to her chest.
“What the hell is going on here?” I ask, unable to think of anything else to say.
“What’s going on is that I’m finally getting what I’m owed,” Charlene replies bluntly.
“I don’t understand,” I shake my head slowly.
Charlene looks at me, then at Toby, then checks her phone. “Hold on, everything will become clear in a moment. They’re here.”
“Who’s here?” I ask.
Toby scoffs. “Your knights in shining armor.”
Kellan, Fallon, and Luke burst through the front door and storm right into the living room, but Toby points his gun at my head and clucks his tongue.
“Nah-ah-ah!” Charlene quips as she waves a finger, not getting out of her seat. “We’re keeping things civilized here. Welcome, gentlemen.”
“I should’ve known you’d try to pull something like this. It’s low, Charlene, even for you,” Kellan says, then gives me a worried look. “Are you okay?”
“I… yeah. He shot Helen,” I manage, tears coming down my face and my voice trembling as I remember our friend bleeding out on the floor of my house. “The girls are still there with her.”
Fallon gives Toby a deathly glare. “I smelled your bullshit from the beginning.”
“Charlene, what is this?” Luke asks, trying to keep himself and the Cassidy twins calm. “What are you hoping to achieve here?”
Charlene stands up, a wicked smirk stretched across her red, glossy lips as she hands him the manila folder. “I always said you were the only one with enough common sense for me to actually do business with,” she replies. “Long story short, Luke, my darling. You’re handing Wolfhound Security over to me tonight, or I will have your girlfriend’s brains splattered all over the very walls she painted.”
The words hit me like a hammer, none of them making sense.
30
Avery
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Fallon gasps, his eyes wide with astonishment.
“You were right,” I tell my men. Sitting in the middle of the living room, shivering from fear and cold with my wrists and ankles bound, just highlights the fact that much more. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
“Oh, don’t be sorry, honey,” Charlene replies with a slight grin. “You had no idea with whom you were dealing. And I’m not talking about me or Toby here. I’m talking about these three manly men. I knew they’d be too ashamed of their history with me to ever share it with you. It didn’t take long to figure you out, though, Avery. You’re a good girl. You mean well.”
“It made you the perfect target,” Kellan mutters, his gaze constantly bouncing between me, Toby, and Charlene. He’s looking for a way to diffuse the situation. To disarm Toby and regain control.
But I’m not sure how that’ll happen. Toby planned this rather well. And I definitely bought his good guy act. I was such a fool,and it got people hurt. I can’t stop thinking about Helen and my girls back at the house. God, I hope someone called the police. I hope someone is taking care of Helen.
“So, all this was to get Wolfhound Security?” I ask Charlene. “I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t understand,” she replies. “The five years I spent behind bars were not wasted. I bid my time and studied my adversaries. I understood that Kellan, Fallon, and Luke would be a problem going forward, and I was honor-bound to pay them back in kind for taking everything away from me. So, I drew up a plan and considered every possible scenario. That is what a good strategist does.”
