Page 42 of Chaos Crown

“Jacques is on it,” Arsenio reminded.

“Jacques seems a bit busy getting his dick wet.” Cairo smiled mockingly at me. “You’ve got one tasty pussy, de Souza, but my old man isn’t dying for it. You helped Jacques come up with the list. Tell me their names.”

Was it wrong that I was secretly pleased he complimented me? I hadn’t gotten a nice word out of Cairo for weeks. “I don’t know their names. Jacques blocked them out before he let me read the reports.”

His eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re lying. Why the fuck would he do that?”

“To protect the privacy of the innocent people who didn’t consent to us sneaking into their therapy sessions. Cairo, if Jacques said he can find the Crew, and therefore your father, I believe him,” I said, talking over what would’ve been a scathing retort. “Of course you can’t kill an entire family just because Dante tells you to, but the Black Letter Crew knows us. They’re watching us.

“For now, you guys should go through the motions like you’re following orders. Don’t give him a reason to think you’re going to disobey him because Dante is not bluffing.” My voice grew thick. “They’ll kill him and then move on to someone you care about. It’ll never end, and we’ll still be right where we started—under their thumb.”

“I’m not under anyone’s thumb,” he snapped, but had nothing else to say to me. None of them did.

I got to my feet. “I say you crash that party. Get close to Steven Ellis, lure him somewhere private, and tell him he and his sons are in danger. Show him that note,” I said, gesturing to the crumpled letter. “Dante wants it to be everyone against us, so flip the tables on him. One thing we do know is that if Ellis was a crazed, homicidal nutjob, he wouldn’t have broken with Cavendish. He doesn’t want you guys dead, but I bet he’d join forces against the people who want him dead.”

“Ridiculous,” Arsenio dismissed. “The guy has no reason to trust us, or us him. He could betray us just as easily as we know Dante will. We’re talking about a fortune that’ll keep the Ellises rich for generations to come. People tend to find the homicidal nutjob within themselves when that kind of money is on the line.”

Shrugging, I padded to the kitchen to return to making my sandwich and smoothie. “Okay, it’s your families on the line, so I won’t tell you what to do. It just occurs to me that a man who has spent years secretly surveying and snatching up every bit of land for sale in this town, would know all the best and secluded places to keep a hostage.

I jabbed on the blender, drowning out any response to that. But the looks on their faces quirked my lips up all the same.

Chapter Four

Legend

We took another lap around the country club, eyeing the grand iron fence, manned entrance, and cameras sweeping the lawn.

“Ellis chose this place like he expected trouble.”

“He does and so do the bastards that accepted his invitation.” Cairo marked a check on his list. He spotted yet another security camera. “There’s a reason we didn’t hear of this sooner. Jeremy and his boys messed up the offense. Now they’re going back on defense, making their moves in the shadows.”

“So is Dante.”

“But he’s using us to do it,” Roan said, speaking up from the backseat. “We’re being put in the middle of two shits we have to take down. I hate to say it but—”

“Then don’t,” Cairo cut off.

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