Page 69 of Devil's Riches

Me: Our grandfather.

Sascha: OMG. Did you talk to him???

Me: Yup. It went about as well as our last meetup with him and Deborah…

Sascha: Ugh, really? I was hoping they would’ve changed their minds about us by now.

Me: I know. Sorry. It sucks, but what can we do? They’ve made it clear – they don’t want anything to do with us.

Sascha: Don’t worry.I have a feeling they’re going to come around to our side and start talking to us soon. You just have to believe! :)

I smiled at her positivity, even though I didn’t believe for a second that the Paxtons would change their minds about us. Even if I managed to prove my father’s innocence to the whole world, that still wouldn’t be enough for them. They were too stuck-up and set in their ways.

Me: Yeah, you never know. It could happen.

Sascha: It will. I guarantee it! Just wait and see. Anyway, I better go. My hair is a disaster so I have to fix it before I head to the clubs.

Me: I’m sure you look amazing. Have fun! Xoxo

I put my phone away and went back to checking out everyone’s jewelry. Nate returned to me a few minutes later, lips stretched into a broad grin. My heart soared. “Did you find something?” I asked, eyes wide.

He nodded. “We can add the Adamson family to our list.”

A rush of adrenaline went through me. “Awesome. Only one more to go.”

We finished exploring the rooftop restaurant and headed down to check out the nightclubs on the first floor. It was past ten o’clock now, so we could safely assume they were teeming with people.

The atmosphere in both venues was dark and sexy, and the music was loud and frenetic. Despite the writhing, gyrating bodies on the crowded dancefloors and the long lines up and down the bars on the sides, we didn’t see a single person who matched what we were looking for. It was mostly people under the age of thirty.

After Nate and I left the second nightclub, we returned to the casino yet again, seeing as it was one of the busiest spots in the Mayfair. There was no one useful there either.

Once again, we’d hit a wall.

“Shit,” I muttered once another hour had gone by with no new discoveries. “Maybe no one from the twelfth family is here.”

“Looks that way,” Nate said with a grimace. “But this place is so big. We could’ve missed something.”

“Yeah.” I sighed and glanced at my new Fitbit watch. It was almost midnight. “Should we call it a night and leave?”

“Let’s go and check out the top floors first,” Nate said. “Just in case.”

We took an elevator up to the fourth floor, where half of the private suites were located. It was much quieter up here, and the halls were mostly empty. Over the next half-hour, we only saw three people—two room attendants in crisp white shirts and black pants, and a member poking her head out of a private suite to collect a room service order.

With a deep exhale of annoyance, I headed back to the elevator with Nate in tow and pressed the gold button for the fifth floor. It looked the same as the fourth floor. Delicate sconces on the walls, intricately-patterned carpet runners over hardwood flooring, and gold numbers on each door.

“Maybe we should call it a night, like you said earlier,” Nate said when we’d gone through half of the halls without coming across a single other soul.

“Yeah,” I said, shoulders slumping. “I guess it was stupid of me to get all hyped up and think we could find all the families in one night. We’re honestly lucky we managed to find as many as we did.”

“It wasn’t stupid. It was a good idea. That’s why we managed to find so many,” Nate said, glancing over at me as we turned a corner into yet another quiet hall.

I was about to reply when a pinging sound traveled down the corridor, followed by the soft whirring sound of an elevator sliding open. I turned my head to see an elegantly-dressed couple stepping out of the golden doors. They appeared to be in their seventies, and the man had a thick silver ring on his right hand.

I arched a brow at Nate, and we headed down the hall. The couple was coming in the opposite direction. I quickly glanced at the man’s hand as we drew closer. A stab of annoyance went through my guts as I saw that his signet ring was patterned with a fleur-de-lis. Damn.

I glanced over at the white-haired woman and gave her a polite smile as we passed each other. When I caught sight of her necklace, my stomach clenched, and I drew in such a sharp breath that I had to disguise it as a cough to avoid receiving strange looks. At first it appeared to be a letter necklace with a white gold ‘M’ pendant, but the extra curving tail on the right end made it clear to me that it was a Virgo symbol.

I nudged Nate as we passed the couple, and he nodded and leaned down to my right ear. “I saw it too,” he muttered.

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