Page 76 of Elven Lies

It was filled with more stacks of cash—perfectly straight, newly minted bills from the looks of them—bound and piled neatly into a presentation seen in movies about drug dealers and corrupt government officials.

Honestly, she wouldn’t have put that kind of transaction past Aldous, either—drugs, or illegal trafficking, or corruption. Hell, even all three combined.

But she had what she wanted.

Rebecca closed the suitcase, secured the clasps with two quick, sharp snips, then hauled the briefcase off the top of the stack by its equally sturdy handle. “This is all we’re taking back with us now. Back to Shade, to be clear.”

“What?” Rowan’s head popped out from behind the overflowing armoire. When he found her, his excitement visibly faded. “Oh, come on… One dinky little suitcase? There’s gotta be a few others in here. We should take back as many as we can.”

“Wearen’t taking shit. If anything else leaves this vault,you’repaying for it.”

“Well that’s certainly one way to balance the checkbook.”

Rebecca ignored him and headed for the door.

He must have realized she wouldn’t budge, because with a groan, Rowan extricated himself from the piles of treasure and scattered masses of valuables before making his stumbling way after her.

Whatever complaints he gave her after that, Rebecca ignored entirely. These days, she only had enough room in her brain to deeply contemplate one thing at a time. Currently, that was what happened next with Shade and this single surprisingly heavy briefcase of cash in her hand.

She couldn’t keep this Nexus vault a secret like Aldous had. That was out of the question. She couldn’t just announce it to the entire task force all at once, either. Not if she wanted to maintain any order and use Aldous’s stockpile to Shade’s maximum benefit.

What she needed first was to sit down with her newly formed official council again and tell them about it. Then, together, they could decide on the best way to move forward.

Rebecca might have been the new Roth-Da’al of Shade, but she didn’t intend to run the place like a dictator.

She also knew exactly what she wanted to suggest they use the cash in this suitcase for first.

Aldous owed them all that much, at the very least, and so much more.

But that wouldn’t be the end of all her troubles.

Sooner or later, Rebecca would also have to face the backlash of what Aldous Corriger owed everyone else too. She just hoped she could get a few things done first before all the changeling’s old debts came crashing down on her head.

23

“There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask you about,” Rowan said.

Walking down the sidewalk past Millenium Park on their return to Shade headquarters, Rebecca stopped herself from giving him a meaningless smartass response, but she couldn’t do a thing about the curdled knot growing tighter in her stomach by the minute.

She didn’t want to talk about anything else. Not with him. Not now.

Plus, she was still angry after discovering Aldous’s secret cache. She didn’t think she could remain objective with anything else involving Rowan.

Apparently, though, he took her silence as an invitation to continue.

“I noticed it before, but now that I got to see it in action… Whatwasthat thing?”

Rebecca looked sharply at him and frowned. “What thing?”

“That doll you were waving around in there like some kinda totem.”

The hex doll. Of course he would ask about that, but only after she’d been so caught off guard by seeing the results of Aldous’s betrayal in his vault.

He was trying to blindside her with this one.

“It’s nothing,” she said, her voice clipped and flat.

“That’s it?” Rowan chuckled and sidled toward her as they walked side by side, an extra bounce in his step. “That was definitely not nothing. Nothing doesn’t get two orcs to stop dead in their warpath and start blubbering like newborns instead. I don’t care how thick in the head they are.”

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