Page 9 of Coercion

“Levi had her.” He says, fixing me with a hard look. “As far as I knew she was either dead or as good as. And I had my own shit to focus on, I had Roman to deal with.”

I stare back at him, knowing that’s true. Roman was kicking up a shit storm when everything went down with Ruby’s parents. Nico could hardly avenge them while he was fighting tooth and nail for his own empire.

“So how do you want to deal with Levi moving forward?”

“We’ll do what he does to everyone else. We’ll use his resources, learn where his weaknesses are, and when the moment is right I’ll bring that bastard down.”

“I’m not convinced that the information we have on him is accurate.” I say. Oh, I know Jace did a lot of digging, that he spent months working on getting eyes and ears inside the Holtz network but when you look at the detail, when you look at the numbers, it just doesn’t add up.

“I agree.” Nico says. “It’s another reason to watch our backs. Once we have Ruby you can question her, find out what she knows.”

“You think we can trust her?” I ask, curious to see if he thinks the same as me.

He shrugs. “Time will tell. Let’s see how she is at the wedding. See how she interacts with her uncle.” He downs the rest of his drink eyeing the fire once more, no doubt seeing the pile of papers waiting to go on it. “Are you cleaning house?”

“Can’t be too careful considering.” I mutter and we both know what I’m hinting at.

He grunts in reply before downing his drink and leaving me to it.

Ruby

The truck careens to the right. My body slams into the side, my face smacks into the solid metal frame and the impact makes my nose stream with blood.

This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.

When the truck comes to a stop and that awful silence fills the air, I know it’s over. That I’m done for. And yet I can’t accept it. I can’t just wait here for my fate to come and kick me in the arse again.

I crawl out from under the tarp and drop to the ground.

I can hear them. I can hear how close they are.

One of the tyres has blown. They must have put a stinger out to bring us down.

My breath sounds ragged, my body already feels too beaten up, but I refuse to surrender now. I crawl down into the muddy ditch, feeling the stinking water seep into my shoes and between my toes, knowing that’s the least of my worries right now.

But as I make it to the other side, as I manage to scramble behind the spikiest bush imaginable, his voice calls out.

“Come out, Ruby...”

I shut my eyes, that wave of fear hitting me once more, as my uncle’s taunt rings out across the desolate landscape ahead of me.

“Come out now or your little friend gets a bullet in his head.”

I shouldn’t look. I know I shouldn’t. But I do it anyway.

A whimper escapes my lips as I see Finn stood, with a gun rammed under his chin. He looks like he’s already taken a beating. There’s blood all over his shirt. One of his eyes is so swollen he can’t even open it.

I bet they started laying punches the minute they opened the driver’s door.

“You’ve got until the count of three.” Levi snarls, like I have a choice.

He’s going to kill him, even if I surrender. Finn betrayed him, he’s going to make an example of him. Levi isn’t merciful, he’s not simply going to let Finn go if I hand myself over.

I huddle further into the spikes, welcoming the pain. Maybe if I wait long enough he’ll think I’m gone. That I got away.

Only, I know I’m naïve to even believe that.

“One.” Levi shouts out.

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