Page 62 of Deliverance

Izzy beamed at me, a proud look in her eyes. “I think it’s the right choice.”

“Me too,” Maya and Liam said at the same time, mock glaring at each other after they spoke.

“Same,” Danny said.

“Agreeing with Danny twice in one day? Are pigs flying?” Grace joked.

Laughter echoed in the room, and I smiled. “Perfect. Let’s do it.”

“I can get the paperwork moving tonight,” Marcus said. “I’ve had the structure ready for a while. We just need a name, and then I’ll reach out to Donna tonight.”

“What do we call it?” Maya asked, looking around at us.

Everyone was quiet as they thought, but I didn’t need to think about it. I looked at Danny, my cousin and one of my best friends. He had been there for me throughout everything in my life, and he was also stupidly good at naming things. He grinned back at me.

“Merrywood,” he said. “For the Merry Men and Sherwood Forest.”

“Robin Hood.” Sebastian nodded approvingly. “I like it.”

“It was a safe haven in the legend,” Danny said. “And that’s what this is, right? A safe haven that you’ve built.”

My throat felt suspiciously tight, and I swallowed hard. “Merrywood it is.”

“Okay,” Alexander said. “Press conference tomorrow. Mercer gives his statement, Evelyn announces Merrywood with Donna Keesecker there at her side. We shift the narrative and get ahead of whatever Drake is planning next.”

“What about Drake himself?” Liam asked, his laptop open on his lap. “What are our next steps there?”

“We have Ginny’s testimony and the manifest,” Dominic said. “What we need now is financial evidence. Asset tracking, deposits, withdrawals—anything that connects him financially to the trafficking operation. We either need original copies or account numbers the SID agents can look at and verify.”

Liam nodded. “Sebastian and I will keep working through shell companies. I’ll get a list of account numbers together.”

“Carefully,” Izzy reminded him.

“We’ve been careful.” Liam rolled his eyes with the mild offense of a younger brother being reminded to clean his room again. I wasn’t worried about it, though. Liam knew what was at stake here. They all did.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get to work.”

CHAPTER 26

EVELYN

“Thank you all for coming,” I said, speaking clearly into the many microphones attached to the podium I was standing behind.

In front of me, members of the press extended additional microphones in my direction, all straining to hear what I had to say.

When Marcus had called Donna Keesecker last night, she had been 100% on board. And she had the perfect building for Merrywood’s public headquarters. A charming brick building in the heart of downtown that took up a whole city block. It was prime real estate that had been in Donna’s family for ages. Made up of several offices connected by a charming lobby. The original wood floors and exposed brick gave the building a solid and steady feel. I had thought the building was a bit too large for what we needed right away, but Donna had made a compelling argument that we could always grow into it.

“You have no idea how many women need this,” Donna told me on the phone last night. “You’re going to change so many lives.”

With the location secured, Maya and Izzy worked overnight to secure temporary signage for the space. Above my headin the entryway of the building, a large banner displayed the nonprofit’s name in pretty, swirly letters.

The letters were the same deep emerald green as the suit jacket I wore with a black blouse and matching green pants. It had magically appeared on my closet door sometime between 1 a.m. when we finally went to bed and 7 a.m. this morning when I woke up. Sebastian’s satisfied grin when I emerged from the bedroom wearing it gave him away, but it fit me perfectly and looked fantastic, so he was allowed to be smug.

To my left, Ethan Mercer stood in a sharp navy suit with a grey tie. He had answered Dominic’s call last night and agreed to participate this morning. When he stepped out of the car this morning, he assured me that Ginny was well-protected with men he trusted with his life. We still had two Archers outside the safe house, and after today, I was doubling the number. We were about to poke the bear, and I didn’t want Ginny to pay the price.

To my right, Donna Keesecker stood swathed in a gorgeous plum wraparound dress that had her looking every bit like the wealthy patron of the city she was. She and Maya had already been talking about fundraising ideas, and she had been overjoyed to have been asked to be on the board. Next to Donna, Izzy stood dressed in a sharp grey suit. She had insisted on being front and center next to me, and I was grateful she was, even as I worried about the target it put on her. But it was her choice, and I had to respect that.

With the players in place, I started changing the narrative Drake had written yesterday.