Page 43 of Chaos Crown

“—we should think about telling Ellis what’s going on. The man has money, resources, security, spies, and more on Cavendish than likely even Ivy had. He could help us take down the Black Letter Crew. He’ll be motivated to do it anyway when he finds out they want him and his sons dead.”

Cairo made a harsh noise in his throat as I turned the corner on Rivera Street, coming up behind the club. Hunter’s Crest Country Club was the kind of place you expected to house the uber rich. A two-story mansion converted into restaurants, meeting rooms, ballrooms, and a golf course and tennis court in its backyard. It wasn’t like there were armed guards ready and waiting to tackle us, but sneaking in unnoticed became more and more unlikely with every check on Cairo’s paper. The cameras would pick us up coming and going.

“You have to admit she has a point,” Roan pushed.

“I’ll admit she’s slippery. Her manipulations slid and stick in your mind like she has in your, Arsenio, and now Jacques’s bed. Tell me, how long did it take for you to fall for her moon eyes and promises that she loves you?”

Roan smirked in the rearview mirror. “Fell for it instantly. Never actually unwound my dick from around her finger, if I’m honest. But what’s that got to do with us, Ellis, and the fact we now have four days to either find your father, or gamble that Dante will stay his execution if we kill the Ellises?”

“It’s got everything to do with it. The way she thinks. The stuff she says. Ivy is colder and more manipulative than—I’ll fucking say it—either of us could be. Ellis isn’t giving us shit for free. He’ll strike back to help himself, but he damn sure won’t do it for my dad. And if he did, it’d be at another cost we can’t pay.

“This is all a game to her. She doesn’t care about the pawns getting sacrificed because she’s already got what she wanted. The farm and us.”

“She wants the Black Letter Crew dead,” I heard myself say. “We know whatever moves she’s making, that’s the endgame.”

“She’s not in charge or calling the shots,” Roan said. “It’s one fucking suggestion.”

“Yeah, she always has those at the right time, doesn’t she? After swearing up and down she didn’t know anything about the Black Letter Crew, she floats the idea that they broke off from Ellis because he wants the money and they want the town.

“Then again she perches over Jacques’s shoulder, whispering in his ear that Cavendish filled his crew with bitter, vulnerable little bastards that were ripe for grooming. And then again with Dante’s deadline hanging over our heads, she shares the thought that Ellis would know a few places to hide a hostage.”

“Cairo, it’s not some big conspiracy. Ivy isn’t playing us.”

“Yes, she is,” he said, low enough he could’ve been talking to himself. “She has from the very beginning.”

“What’s that mean?” I asked. “Are we warning Ellis or not?”

“How the fuck is that conversation going to go?Some unseen guy is blackmailing us to kill you and those bitch boys you spawned? Oh, who’s that you’re calling? The cops? Makes sense.”

Cairo had become three times as sarcastic and twice an asshole since he stopped screwing Ivy.

“No,” he said flatly. “There’s no reason approaching Ellis would end the way we want. We’re in the same place with him that we are with Dante—no leverage.”

“Then, what do you suggest?” Roan asked. “If we can’t get to your father in time, we’re not actually going to kill them just because Dante says so. We’re all smelling a set-up.”

“I’ve said it for the last time. We don’t take orders from anyone. If we don’t find my dad before the party, we buy him more time by making the world think they’re dead. Jeremy, Micah, and Papa Ellis are going to meet a violent, grislyend. The party will never happen.”

“How do we pull that off?” I asked.

“Stop the car.”

I hit the brakes, easing out of traffic and pulling up to the curb. Cairo pointed in the distance. “See what I see?”

Following his line of sight, my brows drew together, shot up my forehead, and finally smoothed out—stretching with my grin. “Now, that could work.”

“It’ll definitely work,” Roan said. “Even better, this will be fun.”

***

JACQUES

Bark scraped an uncomfortable greeting against my back. I barely felt it as I watched her—one of the names on the list only I knew.

She tossed her head back, laughing with her friends over salad bowls and smoothies. The normal college student living the normal college life.

I told them I had ways of finding out if the people Ivy picked are the ones following Dante, or even Dante himself. A fact I overstated.

I’d been going to school with them for years. Some since high school. Most since elementary school. If I didn’t see what they were in all that time, observation wouldn’t reveal something to me now.

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