Page 401 of Filthy Elites

I recognized the dismissal and darted to the bathroom. I had the door shut before the one to Marcel’s office even opened. Marcel strode by with firm strides like a man with a mission.

What was he up to now? Could I use this new job to confirm my suspicions? I had no idea what or where it was, though.

His footsteps faded away—and others rasped past me. There was a knock on the office door, and a brusque voice I recognized as Griffin’s. “It’s me.”

A very casual announcement for an average underling. But this guy hadn’t seemed to have an average level of access earlier either. I hesitated as Marcel called him in, and then snuck out to resume my listening.

“…sure Mick can handle it just fine,” Marcel was saying.

“It is his specialty, right?” Griffin chuckled. “You pick good people. I think I’ve gotten together a great team for our next moves.”

Next moves for what? My ears pricked.

“Excellent,” Marcel said. “I’ve confirmed the location. Those bastards are going to learn what happens when you try to screw over the Hell Kickers. The place on Orvil Street should make for a perfect start.” He paused. “I just wish…”

“You’re doing the right thing,” Griffin cut in before Marcel could finish his thought. “They haven’t given you anything. Cracking down hard, showing your strength—that’s why you’re the man I always want leading me.”

He was laying on the praise thick, but Marcel gave a pleased laugh, clearly eating it up. “And you’re proving yourself invaluable. I appreciate how well you’ve stepped up, Griffin. Maybe you should consult with Darius about—”

Griffin made a scoffing sound. “Oh, I already tried to talk to him about working together. He blew me off, too busy with his gambling rackets, I guess. Seems like that’s the only part of the empirehecares about.”

I frowned. It’d been obvious to me that Darius and his younger brothers wereveryprotective of their family legacy. That was half of the reason, maybe the whole reason, they were harassing me. Had Griffin even talked to the oldest Rosano brother, or was he making that up?

What washisgame here?

But those thoughts were overwhelmed by the spinning in my head as I considered their earlier remarks. Screwing over the Hell Kickers—had someone else done that recently, or had Marcel been talking about the Nobles? What was he planning on doing that he felt would teachmyfamily a lesson?

The men in the room didn’t seem inclined to fill me in. Griffin started talking about his shitty dad and how glad he was to have gotten out of that house and be really making something of himself, and I heard the floor creak near the top of the stairs. I hustled away before I could get caught eavesdropping. It’d sounded like the most specific parts of the scheme had been discussed previously, and Marcel had simply been setting things in motion.

What was on Orvil Street?

As I stewed over that, I noticed Darius heading down the stairs from his third-floor rooms. His gaze latched on to me. I considered heading to my bedroom, but he’d already shown he was perfectly happy to follow me there. Better to detour to somewhere more public, I suspected.

I walked down the stairs at a brisk but not panicked pace. Down the hall, voices carried from the kitchen. Well, I’d just make myself some tea. That was a perfectly normal thing people did that had nothing to do with fleeing from gang heirs.

I slipped into the kitchen and made a beeline for the kettle. Two young men I didn’t recognize were laughing together as they grabbed a couple of chip bags out of the cupboard. Just my luck, as Darius stalked in after me, my only other company ambled out, leaving me alone with him after all.

“Why am I getting the feeling you’re avoiding me?” he asked, propping himself against the kitchen island a few feet from where I stood.

“I don’t know,” I retorted. “Because your ego is so overblown you assume everything anyone does is about you?”

“Hmm. Is it really the size of myegoyou’ve had on your mind?”

“I haven’t really spent much time thinking about you at all,” I said flippantly, which was a total lie. Although mostly I’d been thinking about punching him in his cocky face.

Darius tsked his tongue. “I heard you’ve been naughty. Sneaking off in the middle of the night.”

I tensed despite my best intentions. I didn’t think Lucan had reported my stealthy excursion to his father, since Marcel hadn’t hassled me about it, but maybe it wasn’t a surprise that he’d mentioned it to his brothers.

“I thought your father would prefer it if I wasn’t seen walking in and out the door more than necessary.”

“I doubt he expected you to be quite that stealthy. Where did you have to go so urgently anyway?”

“Where do you think?” I’d had plenty of time to come up with a cover story now. I glanced over my shoulder at him, arching my eyebrows. “You’ve made itveryclear that I’m not welcome here. My brother isn’t going to open his door to me any time soon, and I don’t think I’d want to go back under his roof anyway. So I’m doing what I can to figure out a new situation for myself. And the kinds of dealings that happen in the middle of the night are all I really know, as you should probably understand.”

Darius grunted with obvious skepticism. “Your brother would really disown you that totally?”

“You don’t know Ezra,” I said. “Although from what I’ve been hearing, you probably should be able to figure out how ruthless he can be.”

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