Page 410 of Filthy Elites

If what she’d said about her dad arranging her marriage and being willing to hurt her worse than her husband had if she hadn’t stuck with it was true, then it wasn’t at all difficult to imagine her balking at running off to tattle.

Lucan let out a faint huff. “This is all speculation. We can’t arrive at definite answers this way.”

“But it has given us a better idea of what questions we need to ask.” I paused and caught the ball when he whipped it my way. “And who we need to ask. Holly’s out to pasture. Even if we tracked her down, I don’t think she’d admit to exaggerating. The only other person who knows what went down is Anthea.”

Felix guffawed. “She hasn’t really seemed to be in a confessing mood.”

I swallowed thickly. “We haven’t really given her a chance to open up, have we?” She’d only said as much as she had tonight because I seemed to have pushed her past her limit. “Maybe we need to set animosities aside and have an open conversation. Find out what her story is about what happened back then.”

“So she can lie some more?” Felix muttered.

“So we can at least know what she would say and judge whether it’s a lie or not,” Lucan put in with a nod. “You’re right. That’s our best route to get at the truth. And considering how things are going between us and the Nobles, it’s probably better we sort that out sooner rather than later.”

How things are going… Those words brought back the other thing Anthea had said that’d struck me, the part that’d been buried under my confusion after her outburst. She’s said something about us going to war against the Nobles.

“Have any of you heard about Dad making a move to hit back at the Nobles?” I asked abruptly.

Felix rolled his eyes. “Like I’m part of any of Dad’s business decisions.”

Lucan shook his head. “As far as I know, Dad’s still pressing Ezra for an explanation and compensation, but he doesn’t want to burn bridges too quickly given the long alliance.”

Then we needed to ask Anthea what had made her mention that too. Too many things didn’t add up—or if they did, it was to form a picture I didn’t like at all.

I tucked the football under my arm. “Let’s go hash this out with her now. No time like the present.”

We tramped inside, leaving the ball by the back door so I didn’t look like a dork carrying it to this interrogation. Anthea wasn’t in the kitchen, one of her frequent haunts in the house, but she had said she’d just gotten back from getting dinner.

When we marched up to the guestroom where she’d been staying, we found it empty. A faint whiff of her scent, tart and resiny, lingered in the air, but there was no sign of the woman herself.

“The screen’s still in the window,” Lucan observed. “She didn’t go out on another stealth mission. It’d be early to go sneaking off by that route anyway.”

“Her purse is here.” Felix walked over to the bed where it lay and shamelessly riffled through it, holding up her phone and wallet before tucking them back inside. “It doesn’t seem likely she’d have left the house for regular reasons without that stuff.”

The tension in my gut coiled tighter. “Then she’s around here somewhere. It’s not that big a house. Come on.”

As we hustled out of her room to make a more thorough search of the building, I couldn’t shake the memory of her agonized expression as she’d hurled those last words at me. She’d been awfully upset. Without realizing it, I’d stirred up a whole lot of pain.

She hadn’t done something stupid in that emotional state, had she? I wanted to think nothing could get the better of Anthea Noble all that easily… but I’d never thought anything could rattle her as much as I’d seen her just an hour ago.

FOURTEEN

Anthea

The sky was dark,but colorful lights radiated through the dusk from behind us. Laughter and giddy shrieks carried through the air.

The boys and I stopped at the edge of the beach. I pulled off my sandals, digging my toes into the sand still warm from baking under the only recently-departed July sun. The guys chucked off their own sneakers. My stomach was full of Coney Island funnel cake, a lingering sweetness lacing my lips, and my pulse kept thumping at a fast tempo after our whirlwind journey from ride to ride.

The beach-goers had started to clear out as the sun set. Small groups scattered the sand, leaving the way in front of us perfectly open. The lifeguards were no longer on duty this late, but I was too exhilarated to care. I gazed across the expanse to the lapping waves, drinking in the salt in the warm air, and beamed.

“I’m hot. Let’s cool off with a swim.”

Darius, only a tiny bit boyish still at eighteen, gave me a typically imperious look. He didn’t care about the rules, but— “We didn’t bring bathing suits.”

His tone might as well have been a dare. I raised my eyebrows at him with a shrug. “Oh, well.” Then I darted across the sand, daring the three of them in turn.

I dropped my sandals just beyond the reach of the waves and plunged right into the water in my shorts and halter top. The delicious chill surged around me, tugging at the thin fabric.

Felix was the first to follow me, of course. He plunged into the waves in all his clothes and tossed back his already-soaked hair, grinning at me.

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