Page 411 of Filthy Elites

Lucan and Darius seemed to feel the need to show a little more maturity, being a whole two and three years older than their younger brother. They pulled off their shirts to leave by the heap of shoes, but they came. I even caught a smile from serious Lucan as the water closed around his shoulders.

Felix splashed Darius, who got a sly glint in his eyes and walloped a bunch of water right back. Lucan paddled around with leisurely strokes. I eased onto my back, gazing up at the hazy night sky as the waves rocked me into a perfect sense of peace.

When Felix poked my shoulder, I pulled myself straight again. The boys had gathered around me. I could still touch the bottom here between waves, but something about having the three of them watching me in the darkness, all of us slick with seawater, made my heart skip in a very different way from the thrill of the rides.

A swell of emotion propelled the words from my throat. “This is always my favorite part of the summer. Not Coney Island, I mean. Coming to Brooklyn. Hanging out with you.”

Smiles lit all of their faces then, Lucan’s broad enough to be easily visible even in the dimness. “It’s our favorite part too.”

He reached for me—and the water seemed to swallow me up. The past fell away with a dull roar of the surf, and then I was jolting out of the dream into a different darkness.

There was a kink in my neck and an ache in my ass from the hard floor I’d been sitting on, disturbingly uncomfortable after the joy of the memory that’d risen up in my sleep. With nothing but black around me, it took me a second to get my bearings.

WhywasI sitting on cold tiles with my back against a cardboard surface?

My argument with the Darius of the present day came flooding back into my head, washing away the last shreds of the dream’s happiness. That joy had been a lie anyway—part of their cruel seduction.

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head, but I didn’t feel much better. If anything, I only felt more disoriented after what I assumed had been a fairly brief doze given the uncomfortable position. While it was dark, I could hear footsteps rapping across the floor upstairs, so it couldn’t be too late at night yet.

I pushed myself to my feet and groped my way to the doorway. In the hall, a thin beam of light streamed down from the stairs around the corner. Shaking off the last shreds of sleep, I hurried toward it.

I should go to sleep properly in my actual bed, and maybe in the morning I’d have a clearer idea of where to go from here.

The activity on the first floor grew louder as I eased up the stairs. It sounded like a dozen people were circulating through the rooms at a brisk pace. I paused while still cloaked in shadow, watching a lackey hustle by with a harried expression.

I hadn’t seen this much commotion in the Rosanos’ house at this hour before. I wasn’t sure I’d seen it even in the middle of the day. What was going on? Had something gone wrong?

Were they gearing up todosomething wrong, even worse than what I’d already witnessed tonight at my family’s former business?

I slunk closer, sticking close to the wall and keeping my ears pricked. A woman who prepared meals for the family darted into view from a nearby room and froze in her tracks. I saw why when Darius advanced on her from the opposite direction.

“Well?” he demanded, his stance tensed and his voice rough.

The woman grimaced. “I’m sorry. I haven’t seen any sign of her.”

“She’s got to be around here somewhere. You checked the pantry?”

“Of course. I can look again.”

“Right. Do that.”

As she scurried off, Darius sighed and swiped his hand over his face. In that moment, he didn’t look angry or suspicious. He looked… worried. Maybe even slightly pained.

My stomach flipped over. I’d assumed from the conversation that they were looking for me, because what other “she” in the house would he be determined to track down, but would he really be that concerned about my whereabouts? Aboutme?

I propelled myself forward and emerged into the hall. Darius’s head jerked up. His expression snapped into a mask of stern authority, but I didn’t think I’d mistaken the brief flicker of relief that’d passed through his eyes in the first instant his gaze had rested on me.

“Where the fuck have you been?” he growled, but at the same time that gaze was sweeping over me from head to toe as if checking for… injuries? What the hell did hethinkI’d been doing?

“I wanted to be sure I’d get some time alone,” I said. “The basement seemed like my best bet. Then I accidentally drifted off. It’s been a long day. What’s the emergency?”

“Those pricks told me they looked all through the— Fucking idiots.” He huffed and motioned to another lackey who’d popped into view, pointing me out. The guy’s eyes widened, and he scampered away, presumably to let whoever else was on the lookout that I’d been found. “I wanted to talk to you. About something important.”

Important enough that he’d launched a house-wide search. I cocked my head, keeping my own emotions carefully under wraps as if our earlier conversation hadn’t happened at all. “Well, I’m here now.”

As if on cue, Felix rounded the landing on the staircase and leaned over the bannister to peer at me. “Ah, there you are, Firebird.” He spoke as languidly as he usually did, but he was studying me with unusual intensity.

What the hell had gotten into these guys?

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