“You filled her in on the Georgia situation?” Finn asks, looking at Linc with a raised eyebrow.
Linc’s jaw clenches and he nods stiffly. “I did.”
“Good, just making sure everything’s been covered.” Gah, that man. I love that he refuses to keep me in the dark anymore. He’s fought Lincoln every time when it comes to telling me things I need to know. At least since he decided I should know about the Knights when Lincoln didn’t agree.
It makes my heart swell to know he has my back, even against Linc.
“As I was saying,” Lincoln sighs. “Nate was arrested for embezzlement and fraud.”
I suck in a breath, eyes wide as that settles in. “Holy shit, so it’s true then?”
“Yeah. He’s been in a hole for a while, since before Stone died, but you know as well as anyone just how much they didn’t get along. Stone wouldn’t help him, so the Knights wouldn’t either. I discovered last night that Nate was a Knight once upon a time, before Stone married your mother. Stone was always the heir, but as every family is meant to have two votes, Nate stepped into the role when your grandfather passed the mantle. Except Nate fucked up and made a lot of enemies. So he was pushed out of the role when your parents married and your father became likely to produce a legacy.”
“I don’t understand what this has to do with me?”
“Well, before you came back, we tried to bargain for Nate and Blair to take the Royal seats at the table. Obviously that was declined, though no one told us why. Partly to keep you clear, but partly because Blair came to me for help when she discovered the trouble Nate was in.”
Things start to click into place in my mind—things that Blair has said, done—it all starts to make sense.
“You said the deal with her was done. Is this the deal you meant? Helping her out of this mess?”
He nods, taking a sip of his coffee. “There was only so much I could help with once the Knights declined her, but I figured if we could get you out they wouldn’t have any choice but to accept her and Nate. But once it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, and she stopped keeping her end of the deal, I called it a day.”
“What was her end of the deal?” I ask, trying to sate my curiosity.
“At first, help us get you gone. As you can imagine, she was on board with that. But I also needed her to get me some information on her father’s fuck-ups. She never did, and then she stopped doing what I asked,” Lincoln says, shrugging.
“So how did the FBI get involved?”
Maverick laughs. “That might’ve been me.”
“What did you do?”
He shrugs as he sits back down. “I was sick of her being a bitch, of everything the QB was doing, and them teaming up. So I might’ve sent some information to a friend of mine.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a sigh. “How bad is this going to get?”
My gaze bounces between all of them and Lincoln shrugs. “We don’t know yet, but Harrison is fuming that they raided the party last night.”
“Harrison has multiple sticks up his ass currently, one more isn’t going to make much of a difference,” East snorts. “He’ll get over it.”
He’s interrupted by the buzzer for the gate going off and I check the feed on my phone to see Aunt Vi standing there, pushing the button.
“What in the…” I trail off, showing the four of them the screen.
“Do you want us to stay while you talk to her, or do you want to ignore her?” Finn asks.
This can’t be good. “You might as well stay, it’ll save me telling you all about it later. Just stay in here, and let me deal with her though.”
“I won’t make promises I can’t keep, princess.”
Maverick grins and I roll my eyes as I push the button to open the gate. “This should be fun.”
I head to the door and open it, finding my aunt standing there looking like she’s bitten into a lemon. “Well are you going to invite me in or leave me standing out here like a commoner, Octavia?”
I bark out a laugh and fold my arms across my chest. “Why on earth should I invite you into my home willingly when you never did the same for me? When there was always a price to pay for your tolerance of my mere existence?”
“You always were dramatic. Just like your father.” She rolls her eyes at me, standing there, waiting. I clench my jaw, trying not to snap at her, because she is still family even if I’d happily yeet her off the mezzanine.