Page 148 of Caelum

His arms tightened a second before they relaxed. “Speaking of… who deals with money?”

My brows rose. “Why?”

He snorted. “Don’t tell me you’ve all been wasting your allowance since you got here?”

The day we landed in Caelum, be it at thirteen or seventeen like Eve, we each were handed a credit card with funds we were allowed to spend on whatever the hell we wanted.

The funds weren’t limitless, but they were more than ample. And for kids like Stefan, Nestor, and Dre, who’d been raised without a pot to piss in—not literally, but still—the cards were hit hard when they were first received.

For me, I hadn’t been raised that way. My parents had been quite wealthy by comparison, and after their deaths, when my sister and brother-in-law—may he rot in hell—took me in, again, money hadn’t been an issue.

“No,” I told Samuel, though I wasn’t happy with the line of questioning. “We don’t waste it.”

“Good. I thought there was no hope for you yet.”

The truce we’d only just declared settled uneasily inside me. I wanted to trust his words, trust in what he was saying because it made sense, but years’ worth of distrust wasn’t easy to combat. Even if the fact that Eve hadselected her Chosen from among our brothers was more reason than any to declare peace between us, loathing each other was going to be a difficult habit to break.

Samuel winced. “Sorry.”

“For what?”

“As strategic as I am, I usually fuck shit up with foot-in-mouth syndrome.”

I knew this wasn’t BS. Samuel was about as popular as Dre in school. He had the nasty tendency of keeping shit real in a way that was mean as hell.

Not saying anything, I let him carry on. “I was just trying to say that if you have some money to play with, I’ll gladly incorporate it into my portfolio.”

I cocked a brow at him. “And why would I want to do something like that?”

“Because money is security for people like Dre, Nestor, and Stefan. More of it, the better. I know for a fact that Frazer and Reed would be freaking the fuck out were it not for the fact that Frazer got partial access to his trust fund at eighteen, and that I’d been managing his payouts since.”

“You’re like their financial advisor?” I wasn’t even joking. The way he was talking? It was exactly how it was.

He nodded. “Yes. I’ve always been good with the stock exchange. My dad taught me.” Pain flashed across his face. “He worked in the city for a while.”

“London?”

Another nod. “Yes. He worked as an analyst for two years until he’d raised the capital for his true passion.”

“What was that?” I inquired, curious as to whether he’d answer or not. What I knew about Frazer, Reed, and Samuel was limited to pretty much what I’d learned ever since Eve had brought them closer to us.

Sure, years of surveying one another in the common room taught me shit like Samuel had a fetish for BBC News and Frazer loathed anything that wasn’t sports related and had a hard-on for Formula One racing, but still… nothing as personal as what Samuel was sharing now.

Samuel tensed a little but admitted, “Jewelry. His father had a diamond place in Hatton Garden in London.”

“A diamond place?” I queried. “Like where they were traded or cut?”

“Both. My grandfather lost it thanks to a bad loan, and it kind of killed him. The shame, you know?” He gulped. “My dad went to work for that bank, raised the capital to start up again, and that’s what he does now.”

“That’s kind of cool,” I replied gently.

“Yeah. I guess it is.” His smile was tight. “That’s my dad, though.”

“You miss him?”

“Without a doubt. Every damn day.” Samuel released a taut breath. “Don’t you miss your folks?”

“Yes. But mine died, you know that.” There was no heat to my words, but Samuel winced.

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