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Felix and I dashed to join Lucan, shoving past the door and ducking into the nearby lounge room before the incoming underlings had made it to the top of the stairs. Lucan planted himself in front of the door and exhaled in a rush.
“It’s done,” Felix said in an awed whisper. “The creep is dead. No more challengers for the throne. Not that I was ever much of a contender anyway.”
Lucan caught his gaze. “Darius was right. We’re in this together from here out.” His attention slid to me. “Will this be enough to satisfy your brother? You don’t think he did have bigger plans?”
I inclined my head, a belated sense of relief washing over me. Itwasdone, my whole mission here, in a way that was still sinking in.
I’d gone into the lion’s den and emerged not only intact but with three new allies on my side—allies and friends and lovers, who stood withme, not with Ezra.
“I’ll tell him I found out a major lieutenant of Marcel’s was in on the scheme,” I said. “You’ll need to make him right with his end of the deal and offer some kind of amends for the takeover downtown, but I think you can rebuild the good will there now that the source of the problem is dealt with. Maybe Ezra knew more than he let on… but I don’t think it matters. I would have done the same thing no matter how it benefitted him.”
Felix slipped his hand around my arm. “You finished the mission you came here on. Does that mean you’ll be going back under his roof?”
“No,” I said without hesitation. The certainty had been gathering inside me for a while now, potent enough that I felt comfortable voicing it out loud. “I think it’s time I stood on my own two feet.” I shot him a coy sideways look. “Although I won’t mind if certain men lift me off those feet from time to time.”
He grinned back at me. “I’m sure we’ll all be more than happy to oblige.”
Lucan had started tapping on his phone again. “We’d better get the goods moved out of the building where Holly and Brant had them stashed—as much as we can while still leaving a bit to sell the story you presented. I’ll see if I can track down any of the money they stole too. We’ll square things away with the Nobles.”
His gaze flicked upward with a sly glint. “And we wouldn’t want there to be any chance of the cops finding the wrong DNA evidence at the scene after what those boxes have been through.”
I snorted, and Felix let out a muffled guffaw. I stepped forward, tugging him with me. “All right. Let’s go pick up the pieces of this mess and fit them into a better picture.”