Page 41 of A Man of Wealth

“I’m a little busy. Is this important?” he questions.

I sigh. “Might as well go to speaker and let Alexis hear this because she’s as much a part of this shitshow as we are.”

Sebastian has told Alexis everything but a few details regarding the vows we took and how intense our commitment is.

“Hi,” Alexis says.

“Hey,” Aiden replies.

“A shipment may be coming in on Wednesday,” I restate.

“Do you think it’ll be there? I don’t know how much they are bringing in,” Alexis asks.

“I don’t know. But it’s a starting point. What else have you learned?”

“Well, I can tell you that I’m almost certain that there are five members of the elite,” she says.

We all pause. Because we know who the council members are, but the elite are a secret. We, peon members aren’t allowed to know. And none of the three of us are elite.

“OK, so do we know who they are?”

“So, I assume all three of your fathers and two others,” she says.

“Why our fathers? Aren’t there older members that would serve as the elite?” I ask.

“That’s a good question,” Alexis says. I grin. I like this woman. She has fire in her eyes, and she doesn’t put up with Sebastian’s power trips. “So, in my digging, I was looking for who we think is on the council and then when we thought maybe they were meeting and where certain members of the brotherhood were during that time period. It was a lot of cross-referencing, but I did learn something by trying to do that same exercise around the time I was abducted, in conjunction with some things Sebastian shared with me about the brotherhood. I’m fairly certain the elite are hand-picked. When one member passes on or steps down, a new member is chosen by the remaining elites. I’m guessing at least one of the elites is an older member. And there are probably several former elites that have retired from their positions.”

“Wait, why do you think all three of our dads are involved?” Aiden asks.

“Based on their whereabouts, and also based on the history of the organization. It tends to stay within families. The council is comprised of twenty-five. The elite are five. For a total of thirty. The brotherhood membership is from approximately seven universities with ties to political and business powerhouse families. I’d guess the total membership based on TOD public numbers probably stands somewhere around two or three-hundred members total. But that is only a guess based on what TOD chapters feed into the brotherhood. TOD total membership is in the thousands. I’m still tracking the history of how this subsect of TOD became the brotherhood. I hope to have more soon on that,” she finishes. Most of what she’s found, we already know, but the tracking of people’s locations when she was abducted is interesting information. I cringe at the thought of any of our pledge brothers being elite.

I’m nearing my apartment. “Vivienne is working on the links to Confervo. We need good intel on the council and elite if we are taking this down. And we need to figure out our exit plan.”

“Our exit plan?” Aiden asks.

“When this goes down, it’s going to be bad,” Sebastian states.

“When this goes down, this city is going to implode,” I correct. “We need to work out how and when we’ll expose it. I’ll be in touch.” I hang up and head up to my penthouse, wondering who the other two members of the elite are, and how much they know about what we are doing.

Chapter18

Vivienne

Before I was interruptedby a temper-tantrum-throwing Conner in the ladies’ room, I was about to place my call to Heather Delphine, another investigative journalist atThe Tribune. We have a long-standing agreement that we bail each other out of bad interview situations. I quickly send a text on my way back to the table.

Jared is on his phone but politely places it back in his pocket. I sit and give him a smile as my phone rings. I pull it out and frown.

“I’m so sorry, but I need to take this,” I say with an apologetic smile. He nods, and I take the call from Heather while turning slightly away from him.

“Hey, is everything OK?” I answer with my typical “exit plan” opening.

“Beotch, you best have details as to this issue. Also, you owe me. I am legit trying to get an interview with this congressman and his staff is at the bar right now.”

“Oh my God! Is she going to be OK?” I ask. I see Jared’s eyes rise to look at me.

“I thought you just had a dinner meeting. What’s with the theatrics?”

“Yes, I am. Yes, I can be there. I’ll come right now. No, it’s alright. I’m sure he’ll understand. It’ll be fine. OK. Bye,” I hang up but still manage to hear Heather’s whispered, “For the love of…” before the phone cuts off.

---