Page 195 of Wicked Minds
Sighing, he leans back in his chair, eyes scouring my face with a weary expression. I wait with bated breath as he gathers his thoughts, and no matter how bad I think the situation is, it is nothing compared to what spills from his lips.
“Your mom is trying to sell Aurora. Royce found out and interceded. He’s been working with Dax and Xander for weeks, pretending to be a middleman who can negotiate a sale for her. Tonight, Royce and Logan are meeting your mom to complete the deal. If all goes well, they’ll come home with Aurora and she’ll be all yours.”
I fall into my chair under the weight of his confession.
If all goes well, they’ll come home with Aurora.
But what if everything doesn’t go according to plan?
What if…
My hand covers my mouth as bile burns up the back of my throat.
Before I can utter a single word, there’s the sound of a key in the front door, and I’m out of my seat and running before Grayson can hold me back.
54
ROYCE
My phone buzzes with a new message, and I barely glance at it before stating, “Got a location.”
“Good. We all know what we’re doing?” Dax asks, staring at me first as he waits for confirmation before turning his intense stare on Logan.
For once, Logan’s expression is deadly serious as he nods, cracking his knuckles as though we’re about to dive into a brawl and not meet a five-foot-three woman who wouldn’t risk breaking a nail to take us on. I know he’s found the last couple of weeks hard. Lying to Riley, it’s not something he likes doing. Especially the last few days.
I couldn’t believe it when he told me she overheard me talking to Dax last week. And even though he assured me she had heard nothing, I could tell in recent days that she was suspicious of something.
Fuck. The worry in her eyes when she looks at me these days. It fucking slays. Despite telling her I love her, I can tell she thinks I’m pulling away. I’ve tried to put her mind at ease, but it’s hard when my words say one thing and my actions say another to her.
I just need this night over with so we can go home with Aurora, and for the first time in a long time, everything can be right in her world.
I’ve spent the last four days working closely with Dax and his men to make tonight happen. To give us the highest chance of success. Failure is not an option—not when so much is on the line.
Dax and I have met a handful of times at The Depot. In all instances, it has resulted in making the other bleed, and usually, him besting me in the ring. He’s the only fucker who has ever been able to, but he does it with such charm that it makes it impossible to hate him for it.
Even when he lost to me last week, he took it with such ease, like it meant nothing. I guess for him, it didn’t. It was for fun, unlike his regular fights on the circuit.
Something I have come to realize this week, though… Dax is not purely a fighter on the circuit. There’s no fucking way he could be and have the contacts and manpower he has. He knew exactly who to call about putting together a fake profile for Aurora that I was able to show Lydia at my meeting with her last Friday—proof that I was able to deliver what she wanted—along with generating activity from bot accounts. The guy, Blue, was even able to hide her Craigslist post so whoever it was intended for couldn’t see it, only showing up if Lydia were to sign in. He was also able to hack into her phone and track her whereabouts and who she communicates with. From there, we were ultimately able to determine that she’s not doing business with anyone else that we need to be worried about.
Tonight, he has an entire team of men ready to go. Logan, Dax, and I will be going to the meeting spot, but his team will be spread out nearby, ready and waiting should shit go sideways.
I had initially planned to go with Dax and one of his men, but Logan point-blank refused to be left behind. Even when Ipointed out that we’d be leaving Riley alone with Grayson all day, he still refused to budge. Said she’d forgive him when she found out what we’d done. I’m sure he’s right, I was just surprised.
In fact, I think Logan might be as in love with that little girl as he is with her mother.
Which is deeply,deeplyin love.
Not that I can blame him. The time apart from Riley to arrange all of this has been torture in itself. Not that lying to her and acting as if everything is fine—which has been Logan’s job—would be any easier.
I don’t want her to worry, but fuck, now that we’re here… if we fail…
“You still sure you wanna do this your way?” Dax asks me, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts.
“Yes. Unless she screws us over or we don’t get Aurora, then Lydia leaves alive.”
It’s an argument we’ve gone back and forth on. Dax is pro-killing the bitch who thinks it’s acceptable to sell a little girl to sick men on the internet—a stance I agree entirely with. Fuck, I want to kill this bitch more than anyone… except, perhaps Logan, who has never looked more bloodthirsty in his life.
However, we discussed it, and despite Logan and I both agreeing that Riley would probably be okay with her mom’s demise given the circumstances, we don’t want to traumatize Aurora any more than necessary.
