He kissed me again, and this time I had no hesitation.
He was right. I didn’t know that I needed him until I found him. Before Wyatt, the world was a dour, horrible place. Men were rapists and pigs, and my whole world was dedicated to destroying them. I had nothing and nobody save for my girls, but they could never satisfy me like Wyatt could.
He brought something to my life that I never knew that I needed. Kissing him in the empty safe house was the happiest I’d felt since the day he left. Nothing else could compare.
We were going to win this together. It was the only way, it was always the only way.
The world was against us, but we’d destroy the world and remake it the way we wanted it to be.
31
Wyatt
I could feel the cold steel of the rifle shoved up against my back as they marched me up the long driveway in the hot sun. For the hundredth time since Ethan dropped me off, I wondered what the fuck I was thinking marching right up to Arturo’s compound and demanding to see him.
I was on his fucking hit list. He wanted me dead, end of story. I was banking on the fact that he’d want to talk to me before ending my life, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was going to march me out back and put a bullet in my head, no questions asked, no second thoughts.
The guards walked me up the drive and into the mansion. We continued down the familiar path toward Arturo’s study and for a second, I wondered if I could still get the fuck out of there and maybe save my own damn life.
But that option was long gone, and it wasn’t one I seriously would take. I was committed to this path, and I was going to see it through no matter what happened. Louisa understood that, and she was relying on me. I wasn’t going to let her down again, even if the last time hadn’t been my fault.
I wasn’t going to fail.
My heart was thumping fast in my chest as I walked down the hall, the guards and their guns close on my heels. Another guard was leading the way, and I caught a few awkward glances from the people we passed. I briefly wondered what the staff thought about me getting paraded along with guns at my back, but that didn’t matter. They were paid very well for their silence, I was sure, and they’d probably seen worse.
This was perhaps the most important meeting of my life. I could walk out of there triumphant and alive, or I’d walk out of there a condemned man. I didn’t know which way it was going to go, and guessed that it was probably fifty-fifty. I oversold my plan to Louisa, mostly because I wanted her to agree to it.
I believed I could pull this off. That was the important thing. I believe that if I got in there and spoke with Arturo, I could convince him that I wanted to sell out Louisa and get back on his good side. I believed I could do it.
We finally reached his office doors. One of the guards opened it. Inside, Arturo was sitting at his desk and he didn’t look up as I entered.
“You may leave,” he said to the guards. They nodded, shut the door, and left.
I was alone with the man that wanted me dead. I glanced around his office and sure enough, there was nobody else.
Finally, he looked up from what he was writing. “Sit,” he said, gesturing at the chairs in front of his desk.
I sat down. “Thanks for taking this meeting.”
“You didn’t give me much choice, showing up at my door like that. I should have had you killed.”
“You tried that once.”
“Yes. I did.” He stared at me. “Does it disturb you to hear me admit that?”
“No,” I said. “It only confirms what I already knew.”
“Good. I tried to kill you because you’re a traitorous piece of shit. You deserve to die.”
I nodded. “Maybe.”
“Not maybe. You betrayed me, sold me out. After everything I did for you. I liked you, Wyatt. I saw promise in you. Now, you’re just another body walking around that I’ll have to kill sooner rather than later.”
“I was hoping to discuss just that.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. I only took this meeting because I liked you.”
“How did you find me out?” I asked him.
He smiled. I knew he couldn’t resist telling me his master plan.
“We’d been having intelligence issues lately, leaks and such. I began to plant false stories all over the place, wondering who it was. I caught a few people, actually, including you.”
That surprised me. “So it was just a wide net, and I got unlucky?”
“Pretty much. I never suspected you.”
I clenched my jaw. Dumb fucking luck destroyed me and ruined my original plan. I hated dumb fucking luck more than anything else in this world. I was about control and I couldn’t control the random movements of shit around me no matter how much I planned.