Page 47 of Vicious Deception

Meredith’s jaw clenches, but she doesn’t rip into me the way I’ve been expecting. “This Ludo Holloway,” she says. “Do you know where he’s keeping the boys?”

“I do.”

Her gaze sharpens, her posture straightening. “Where?”

“Wren, don’t.” Finn steps out from behind a tree.

“You,” Meredith seethes. “Were you involved in this?”

“I’m helping torescuethem,” Finn says irritatedly. “But no, I had very little to do with their capture. I’m not the bad influence you think I am.”

“You got Oliver hurt!”

“Once! And it wasn’t even that bad.” Finn turns to me and rolls his eyes. “Last time I ever try to teach someone how to do a backflip.”

I blink.What?He’s got to be joking.That’swhy Meredith doesn’t like him?

“He had to go to thehospital!”Meredith exclaims.

“Yeah, well, I thought he’d be better at it than he was.”

Meredith bites back her retort, waving a hand at Finn dismissively. “Whatever. That’s not what matters right now. We need to find them.”

“We already have a plan in place,” I tell her. “They’ll be home in a couple days.”

“A couple days? This man wants to kill them!”

“We have reason to believe he won’t yet,” Finn says. “The situation is . . . complicated. We have to move carefully, or there’ll be more collateral damage.”

“But—”

“We have to wait,” he snaps. “That’s not negotiable.”

Meredith looks ready to strangle Finn, but instead she takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. “What can I do to help?”

Crossing his arms, Finn glares down at her. “We have this under control, and we don’t need someone getting in our way.”

“What, you expect me to stand by and donothing?My son’s life is at stake!”

“And you’ll be putting it even more at stake by getting involved,” Finn snaps. “Let the professionals handle this.”

“The professionals,” Meredith says flatly. “What exactly do you do?” She turns to me. “And you? Aren’t you a barista?”

“She’s not helping, either,” Finn says. “Not more than she already has.”

“Wait, what?” I turn to him. “I’m not coming with you?”

“I can’t divert half my attention to keeping you safe,” he replies apologetically. “If you were further along in your training, then it’d be a different story, but—”

“No! I can help. At least with getting the money from the storage units. I know I can’t help during the ambush, but you’re going to need a getaway driver. Can’t I—”

“And if someone sees you?”

“I just won’t be seen!”

Finn shakes his head. “I can handle being the driver.”

Crossing my arms, I glare up at him. “You know you’ll have to get out of there as soon as possible. You need someone else.”

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