I shrugged. "Well, because sometimes I say crazy things."
"I think you might be right. But we're not going to get access to the house. So we're going to think of something else. We probably need Lucas."
I grinned. "The prince?" I adored Lucas. He hadn’t always been a prince. He’d grown up a thief and a con man. He was very fun.
He scowled down at me. "No, you know what? On second thought, we don't want Lucas. I want someone ugly."
I laughed. "You're teasing, but there is a final dinner. It's a party in two nights. Can we get the rest of the team down here?"
He sighed even as he sent his eyes heavenward. “I'll call Lucas. We need access to that house or we're never going to get very far."
"Is there something else you want to tell me?"
As we walked along the bank of shops and restaurants, he sighed. "Look, I wasn't trying to keep this from you. I've been looking for the right time to tell you, but then I thought maybe it would just make you more upset."
"Tell me… What's up?"
"Your father came to see me before we left for Barcelona."
My heart squeezed. "What did he want?"
"Well, he was more than well updated on what you've been doing. Who you work for, what we're trying to do. He knew things I had no idea about. There hasn't been time to bring the lads up to speed, and I wanted to talk to you first. This has been… I don't know… it's difficult."
"What did he say?"
"He said you're not safe with Middleton, which we already knew. He says that there's an Elite within the Elite and that while we may have a Director Prime, and the Five, that there are these whole other Elite inner workings that we know nothing about.”
I frowned at that. "Why does he care?"
Bridge licked his lips. “He's genuinely worried about you."
"That doesn't make any sense. I've been here all along, and he has never, not once, talked to me."
"Sweetheart, I know. It's bollocks, but he is genuinely concerned. I wish I had answers. I wish I had a reason. All I know is that he came to see me and he seemed distraught about you being in danger. I know love when I see it, and that look on his face was haunted and tortured. He was worried about you."
"I don't know what that means. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this."
"I know. That's exactly why I didn't want to tell you while we're here. Look, let's call the team and figure out how the hell we're getting in that house. We will deal with your father afterward."
I didn't have any choice, but it was like my brain couldn't let it go. Why was my father trying to reach me, trying to protect me? Something told me that answer might not be one that I wanted.
Thirty-Eight
Bridge
Emma had been in a funk ever since I told her about her father. I'd read that wrong. I shouldn’t have told her. I was an idiot.
She'd gone and changed for bed and the mood was decidedly somber. Not the same energy we'd had on our walk today. Now she was curled up on the couch with her laptop answering emails, responding to clients. When my phone rang, I answered on the first ring. "Mate, do you have everyone?"
Ben's face filled the frame. "Yeah. We even got Lucas and Bryna here. Liv, Nyla, Amelia, Telly, and the lads. What's up?"
From the couch, Emma waved. "Hi, guys."
Ben grinned at the sound of her voice. "Baby Tobes, you all right?"
She just laughed. Sometimes she liked being called Baby Tobes. It was like the memory that her brother had friends who loved him made her happy. Other times it infuriated her because it meant we didn't see her as Emma the individual.
"What's going on?"
"Listen, before I left, we didn't have a chance to talk. I wanted to talk to Emma first before I talked to you lot. I got a visit from Lord Winthrop."
In the background, I could hear Drew cursing. "Oi, what the fuck does he want?"
"Primarily for me to keep Emma safe and keep her the fuck away from Middleton. He said some things like the usual bullshit. Keep her away. Keep her safe. Then he said that I couldn't keep her safe. What was really concerning was that he said there is a secret Elite."
Ben frowned. "What?"
"I don't know. An Elite within the Elite. We've done a good job at dismantling the old guard, but he says there's a stronghold among us that, while they respect your public face as Director Prime, they don't trust you. So they're doing things the way they used to. Supposedly, they've operated outside the Five themselves."
East cursed under his breath. "Fucking hell. An organization that didn't even follow its own goddamn rules. The Five and the Director Prime, they are the people that make the rules for us. So much for being brothers and all that."
I shrugged. "That's what he told me. And listen, he also said that there are things that exist in records we don't even know about. He gave me some names for you to search the archives. I already sent the information via email. Have you checked it?"
Ben nodded. "Yeah, but what does this have to do with Middleton though?"
“I don't know. He indicated that he knows something about Middleton, but he couldn’t say it. Cloak and dagger stuff. Mostly he's just concerned about Emma."
Drew asked the question that we all knew he would. "Oi, but didn't he abandon her?"
I cursed under my breath. When Ben cursed as well, I heard Livy say, "Jesus fucking Christ, Drew."
From the couch, Emma sighed, shifted her laptop off her lap, then stood to join me. "It's all right. I mean, it's the truth. He did abandon me. You guys don't have to tiptoe on eggshells around me. We're trying to get my brother's final murderer arrested, so let's not stand on ceremony or anything like that."
I nodded. "Okay look, another development has come up. Nyla, thank you for greasing the wheels with Interpol."
She nodded. "Was it helpful? I doubted they'd let you talk to the girl."
Emma shook her head. "No, they wouldn’t. But the agent talked to us. And listen, Bridge and I have been talking. The coincidence between Middleton having property here, and what we found out about his father sending funds to a bank account here, and Price, the girl's father, being his client, we're starting to wonder if he didn't have something to do with it."
Nyla chewed her bottom lip. I recognized that as her thinking face, but Amelia spoke up first. "I get the impression that you lot are about to ask us to do something illegal."
Emma grinned. "Amelia, it's like you can read our minds."
"Look, I'm still waiting for one of you to hand me my very own personal billionaire," she muttered.
"I want one, too," Telly called out.
I tried to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand. “There's a party, a final farewell for this retreat. It's going to be attended by celebrities and VIPs.”
I could hear Lucas from slightly further away. "Ah, I knew there was a reason I was involved in this meeting. You need me to break into somewhere."