Page 417 of Filthy Elites

“Yeah.” My stomach knotted. “Has he mentioned anything to you about it since then?”

“Not directly. I heard him saying some aggressive stuff about how the Nobles should pay to some of the younger guys once, but I couldn’t say I disagree with him.”

“They’re definitely going to regret screwing us over,” I said. If they didn’t already. It didn’t sound as if Mick was going to help me put any more of the pieces together, though. I dipped my head to him. “Thanks for talking with me.”

“Any time. You know I’m with the Hell Kickers to the end.”

I was ruminating over what I’d seen and heard so deeply as I returned home that I almost didn’t notice Anthea coming down the hall from her room as I passed by. Almost. That bright red hair drew my attention like a flame, jerking me out of my reverie.

I stopped at the base of the stairs to the third floor, letting her come to me. Watching her graceful strides, desire unfurled through my belly, enough to make my cock twitch. Partly because I couldn’t look at her without remembering how she’d felt under me on her bed the other night.

I’d already made a fool of myself then. I wasn’t going to again. Besides, I wasn’t completely convinced that Anthea was a victimnow, even if she had been before. Something didn’t feel quite right about her sudden arrival here, no matter what stories she gave us.

Somehow or other, I’d get to the bottom of that problem too.

Offering her a little information could be one way to ferret out more from her. I beckoned her a little closer, bracing myself against the deeper flare of attraction that rose up when she was standing only a few feet away.

“I’ve been making the rounds,” I said quietly. “Chatted up Griffin and our guy who made it out of the shootout with the Nobles alive, Mick.”

Her eyes lit up with interest. “Did they have anything interesting to say?”

I couldn’t read anything specific into that question. Of course she’d want to know.

I grimaced. “We definitely need to put Griffin back in his place. But from what Mick said, the guy is only taking advantage of the new animosity toward the Nobles. He didn’t incite the trouble. It sounds like he probably wouldn’t have realized that deal was even happening to interfere with it.”

Anthea hummed to herself, a faint furrow forming in her brow. She studied me. “Did Mick seem to mind you asking about the deal?” she asked.

Why would she think he might? Or had she just heard about his frustration over the losses? It was a little odd that she’d be concerned about a guy she barely knew, though.

I shook my head, keeping my confusion to myself. “Not at all. I know he’s torn up about what happened, but he’s always kept it professional. He’d do whatever he can to help us recover.”

Her eyebrows rose slightly. “You trust him a lot.”

“Sure. He’s been with the family for ages. Never hesitated in the line of duty.” I gave a light laugh. “And Dad started giving him a cut of every deal he handles, so he’s making a good living out of us too.”

I couldn’t tell what Anthea made of that information, but she didn’t look totally happy about it. “Why are you asking?” I added abruptly.

She waved her hand dismissively, her fingertips grazing my arm for just long enough to set off fresh sparks. “Oh, I just thought I should make sure, since he is so involved. This Griffin guy seems like the bigger problem.”

Yes, he was. But I still wasn’t completely convinced that the woman in front of me wasn’t the biggest problem of all.

SEVENTEEN

Anthea

I didn’t like uncertainty.I worked best with facts and charts, scientific data on chemical interactions, concrete methodologies—knowing the precise increments that made the difference between success and failure, life and death. Freedom and imprisonment. So Lucan’s claim about Mick’s loyalty gnawed at me all through the day.

He should know the man a lot better than I did. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time a supposedly loyal underling had betrayed his boss. People got away with that sort of thing precisely because they were good at hiding their intentions.

Really, it was Lucan’s comment about Mick getting a cut from the business that caused me the most concern. Money troubles were the best motivation I’d been able to come up with for Mick to orchestrate the failed deal. Unless he’d gotten very careless with his cash and racked up some major gambling debts or made some incredibly bad investments that meant he needed a ton of money immediately, sticking with Marcel and picking up a percentage of profits should have been his best bet financially.

On the other hand, could I believe he wassoloyal to Marcel that he’d been willing to kill his own men, whose deaths everyone I’d spoken to about him had agreed he seemed torn up about, simply because his boss asked him to so that they could spark a war? I hadn’t gotten the impression that Mick had any reason to hold a grudge against the Nobles before that incident.

Desperation could make men turn to violence against their principles; loyalty was harder to leverage that way. If he was a good man, he’d have felt a duty to protect the lackeys working under him too.

There was way too much I still didn’t know. I hadn’t even determined whether Marcel or Griffin or both had been in on the sabotaged deal or were simply exploiting an unexpected turn of events.

The Rosano brothers didn’t know everything that was going on between their father and the lower echelons of the Hell Kickers. Maybe Marcel had revoked his deal with Mick. Maybe there’d been some other conflict between them. Hell, for all I knew, Griffin had seen the guy as a threat to his rise and sabotaged him in some way.

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