Page 3 of Vicious Deception

Ludo moves toward the door, but then he stops. When he turns around to face me again, he’s schooled his expression. The previous frustration and anger are long gone. “Why?” he asks. “Why’d you do it?”

I shrug. “Same reason we took jobs from you. The money was good.”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re really going to stick with that?”

“We have no reason to lie.”

“But you have no reason to tell the truth, either,” Ludo replies, his voice much louder than it needs to be. “Well,youdon’t. I need you and Rhett in good condition. Oliver, on the other hand…”

The air rushes from my lungs. “What are you going to do to him?”

Ludo chuckles, and his smile sends a chill down my spine. He doesn’t say anything, instead opening the door and stepping out.

Panicked thoughts race through my head. I’m moving before I can stop myself, but Axel steps in front of me, blocking my path. His jaw is set, his expression hard, but there’s no pleasure in his eyes the way there is in Ludo’s. When he places a hand on my shoulder, his grip is firm but not forceful.

“You know better than this,” he says lowly.

“Get some sleep, Hayes,” Ludo tells me boredly. “You’ll need to be fully rested for your first job. Trust me, you won’t like what’ll happen if you fuck it up.”

Releasing me, Axel spins on his heel and exits the room. The door slams shut behind him and Ludo, leaving me with my hands balled into tight fists. I don’t move—don’t make a sound—as I listen for them to open Oliver’s door. Instead, their footsteps recede down the hallway.

Are they not going to ask him the same questions they asked me? Ludo said he would. It would be stupid not to.

Although…

Ludo knows about Oliver’s anxiety. For the last portion of our conversation, Ludo raised his voice much more than he needed to. I thought he was trying to intimidate me, but maybe it was so his voice would carry into Oliver’s room.

When he said he didn’t need to keep Oliver in good condition, my thoughts immediately went to the physical. But Ludo has the power to do twice as much damage if he lets Oliver sit in fear and dread first.

Holloway is fucking with his mind.

Goddammit.Going off his meds so abruptly is bad enough. Why this, too?

I have to get him out of here.

Ludo said I’ll be going on a job. It’s not freedom, but it’s as close as I can get. If I can find a way to contact Finn, I could…

Could what? You can’t do anything until Benny is safe.

For a split second—one that immediately fills me with shame—I wonder if Rhett would forgive me if I let his brothers die. It would be so much simpler if I only had to focus on me, Ol, and Rhett. But I can’t. Even if I was sure Rhett would forgive me, I can’t leave two kids at the mercy of the cruelest man I’ve ever met. I refuse to stoop to Holloway’s level of selfishness.

No. It has to be all of us, and it’s on me to figure out a way to get us out of this before it’s too late.

Chapter two

Oliver

Emptiness.

Complete, utter emptiness.

It’s the only thing I feel all day. I sit on the mattress, pace my room, and stare out the window into Holloway’s backyard, but I do it all numbly.

Every once in a while, I hear Elliot moving about his room. He knocks on the wall occasionally, just once each time, and I return it quietly. So far, either the men stationed outside our doors haven’t noticed, or they don’t care.

For most of the day, I keep trying to shake myself out of this god-awful dream. This can’t be right—this can’t be reality. It just doesn’t make sense.

Howdid we not see this coming? It was our responsibility to think of the worst-case scenarios. To be on the lookout for traps. But we were too sure of ourselves. It wasn’t naivety—we’re far past that.

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