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The statement made my heartbeat flare up a bit, but I didn’t lose my smile as I nodded.
It was late by the time I returned home.
“I brought fried chicken,” I announced just as I entered the apartment, and Ella’s pale blue eyes flew to mine, her knife midair as she stood by the open kitchen counter.
“Does that mean I don’t have to cook?” she asked, already dropping the knife and packing away the veggies back into the fridge.
Four years older than me, Ella was my cousin, but I considered her my own in every regard. We even shared the same last name now after everything that happened.
I nodded, and she let out a relieved sigh.
Heavy metal music poured out of Ari’s room as I knocked on her door. I didn’t want to accidentally walk in on her doing questionable things with the opposite sex. I had enough of an eyeful last time that it made me want to wash my eyes.
“Ari,” I called out. “Come out for dinner.”
Within minutes, my sisters and I were devouring the chicken, having a conversation on the types of pearls found in the ocean, which I had no clue how we arrived at.
Later, when I walked into my room, I paused at the thick white envelope on my nightstand and the blast of chill air leaking through the thin window opening.
Someone had been here.
My tense muscles only relaxed when I read the note, knowing exactly who it was.
Found Him
- AJS
CHAPTER 7
ARKANE
“I’m still not okay with this whole thing,” Grayson muttered his protest, sulking in the corner while the other men in the room remained quiet. They knew not to question my judgment, unlike my brother, who would much rather rage through the city before using his brain. He was open about his dislike of my involving a Valerian assassin in our family matters.
My eyes lifted to him, and for a moment, I didn’t say a word, and the silence remained thick.
Grayson held my stare. I knew my brother intended well, but he knew very well that questioning me was questioning the family. I didn’t like people second-guessing the decisions I made for the family, especially my own blood. “I know what I’m doing. Think well before you question me next time.” I gave him a look that said this was the last time we were discussing this matter, and from the stiff nod he gave me, it looked like we both arrived at the same conclusion.
“I want your focus to be on the club, and keep your ears and eyes wide open. We can’t make any mistakes at times like this,” I told him, and seriousness crowded his cool eyes.
“Of course,” he said in a certain tone. “You don’t have to worry. Leave it to me.”
As much as anger and rage controlled my brother’s senses, Grayson was more street-smart than the rest of us. He was a great fighter, but he also handled business well, which was why father put him in charge of our family’s club, The Little Mermaid, which hosted the infamous fighting tournament. Unlike the Alacteon gentlemen’s club, which we ran as a farce, The Little Mermaid was the city’s hotspot for every deal, shipment, and trade, and it was an important site we couldn’t lose control of.
“Petra thinks he’s running a loose wagon.” Karl didn’t lift his eyes from the court documents he flipped through like he was reading a casual paperback. “He’s not going to last long.”
“We’ve added enough zeros to his bank account,” Lucien voiced in his ever-usual calm tone. “But that wouldn’t stop a man like Hagen from switching sides for more zeros.”
Everyone in the city knew that the slime Petra Hagen was the mayor of the Twins only in name. It was our family who reigned with true control. He was trying to slip through our leash, thinking the family was weakened with my father in a wheelchair, but he didn’t know it was the opposite.
“I trust you both to handle the city matters till everything settles,” I said, eyeing the men I trusted with my life. “I’ve much bigger problems at hand.”
Both their eyes met mine as they nodded.
Karl Ford was a tall, lean man with thick, dirty-blond hair, pale-green eyes, and thin brows. But it was his sharp cupid’s bow that gave away his family trait. My grandfather called it the Ford lip. He used to say, “There wasn’t an argument a Ford couldn’t win.” Even after years, my grandfather’s words rang true. The family produced some of the best lawyers in the country.
Lucien Greigewood, on the other hand, was elusive, with more intellect than the average man. He kept to himself and was as cold-blooded as a human could be, so much so that most didn’t believe he worked as an accountant. He once had an heiress voluntarily remove one of her kidneys for calling his mother an idiot, all without lifting a finger. He was a master manipulator and was nicknamed “freak” in our circle. But it was his unusual black eyes that made people fear him the most.
The Fords and the Greigewoods had been with the Stormholds for generations. The only families we trusted to be a part of our counsel. The Fords handled the legalities for the family while the Greigewoods looked over the family’s finances.
