The thought of Griffin gave me pause. I glanced at Lucan. “You said it was a pretty minor underling who came to you about seeing Anthea with the figurine. Who was it exactly?” He hadn’t mentioned names earlier, and I hadn’t asked because it hadn’t seemed important. It wasn’t like I’d expected to put the name to a face anyway. But Lucan would remember. Keeping track of the details was his thing.
As expected, he answered without missing a beat. “A guy named Brant. He’s been with the Hell Kickers for about four years now. Pretty average foot soldier, has a couple of side connections that’ve been useful once or twice.”
Brant. A jolt of horror hit me. There’d been that guy—coming out of Dad’s lounge—I’d known his name was something with a B.
“Is he kind of on the short side, with curly hair?” I asked tentatively.
Lucan gave me an odd look. “That’s the one. I’m surprised you paid enough attention.”
Fuck. Now the emptiness inside me had been filled in with a wave of nausea.
“And where was that figurine before?” I asked, dreading the answer, with a nod toward the desk. “Where was Dad keeping it that Anthea would have supposedly stolen it from?”
Darius broke in before Lucan could answer. “It was in the bookcase in the lounge room near his office where he’s got a bunch of Mom’s old stuff. Why do you care?”
I swallowed hard. “Because just a few days ago, I saw that Brant guy coming out of the lounge room looking shifty, like he knew he’d done something wrong. He said Dad had wanted him to grab a book for him, but that seemed strange to me.”
Lucan’s brow knit. “And you didn’t press him about it?”
I threw up my hands. “I didn’t think there was any reason to make a commotion about it! I did ask a couple of questions, and he acted like it was no big deal, so I thought I’d read him wrong. And I had no idea I had to be worried about him framing our guests for theft.”
Because that’s what had happened here, clearly. Brant had nabbed the figurine and stashed it under Anthea’s mattress sometime when she’d been out of the room. And then he’d tattled on her.
I pushed myself off the sofa with a surge of frustrated adrenaline. “Why would he have wanted to set her up? What wouldhehave against her?”
Finally, my brothers didn’t have an immediate retort. Darius and Lucan glanced at each other and then at me. Darius’s grim expression had taken on a more puzzled cast.
“He could have some beef with the Nobles that we don’t know about,” he said slowly.
“Or he thought he would win points with Dad by supposedly catching her in a betrayal,” Lucan added. “There are plenty of reasons. None of it discounts—”
My phone pinged with an incoming text. My forehead furrowed. I didn’t give out my main number to many people, and two of the few who had it were already in the room with me.
I dug it out of my pocket, and my pulse hiccupped. “It’s Anthea.”
I half expected Darius to make a cutting remark about the fact that I’d shared my number withher, but both of my brothers stayed silent as I read her text. She’d sent a location from near the river, with the words,The three of you should get down here ASAP.You’ll find out everything you need to know about who you should really be pissed off at.
What kind of message was that? I’d been sitting here trying to defend her, and she sent me some vague-ass call-to-arms?
My thumbs were already tapping on the screen as I gave my report. “She says we can find out who’s causing the real problem if we meet her someplace by the river. No details.”
What are you talking about?I wrote.What crazy scheme are you trying to drag us into now?Darius and Lucan would never let me hear the end of it if I convinced them to believe in her and then things only turned out worse.
“She’d better give some details,” Darius growled, stepping closer as if he could intimidate her through the screen.
Her reply didn’t get us very far.I’m trying to make sure you see the truth. Unless you’re not interested in that after all. Anyway, since when did you mind crazy?
I scowled at the screen, wondering how to reply to that. Why couldn’t she just say what the hell was going on?Crazy is fine as long as I know what’s in the mix. What are you doing over there? What is it you want us to see, exactly?
There, even Lucan couldn’t complain about my meticulousness now. I sent the text and sat back down on the arm of the sofa as I waited.
There was nothing, not even the dots to indicate she was typing. Then all of a sudden, a nonsensical jumble of characters leapt onto the screen from her end.Gkhjilu
Either your autocorrect has been possessed by a demon or you’re dodging the question, I replied.
Nothing. One minute stretched into another, and there was no sign she was on the other end.
A chill crept down my back. I turned my phone to show it to my brothers. Lucan got up from his desk to take a closer look.