Page 29 of Wicked Games (Silvercrest U #1)

Jax leans back against the couch and flips his phone in his hands a few times. “I don’t know what Felix did to piss whoever off, but this is a lot of effort to kill a college student.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “And it’s the most inefficient way to do it too.”

Jace nods and snaps his gum. “This whole thing feels like amateur hour. There are dozens of ways to take someone out without leaving a trace, and even more that would make it look like an accident. But they chose drowning and running him over with a car. Those methods are messy, and they leave evidence behind. We’re not dealing with a pro. This screams hit for hire.”

I nod. “Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking too. Did you find anything in the student or faculty files?”

Jax shakes his head. “Nothing useful.”

“I didn’t find any evidence that the files were tampered with,” Jace says. “But that doesn’t mean they weren’t manually changed or that our hacker didn’t wipe their tracks like they did with the hallway videos.”

“Did you figure out why someone is after him?” Jax asks.

“Because I did a deep dive on him, and holy goddamn shit, he’s the most boring person on the planet.

Not even a jaywalking ticket to his name and zero connections to any of the shady shit his grandpa’s company’s been up to.

And it’s not like they’d use him to get to your dad when you’re literally sharing a room with him.

So unless I missed something huge, he’s the last person I’d ever look at and think, ‘You know who needs to die, that kid right there.’”

I sigh and scrub my hand through my hair. “I know. It doesn’t make any sense. Did you find anything in his financials or his online footprint?” I ask Jace.

“Nothing that’s even remotely smoking gun-shaped.” He pulls his butterfly knife out of his pocket and rolls the closed blade over his knuckles. “The only thing that might be relevant is that he’s super rich now that his dad left him a bunch of shares in the company.”

“Really? I thought he only inherited five percent?” I ask.

“Technically, yes, but no. Before the accident, his grandfather owned fifty percent, and his dad and uncle each had twenty-five. His dad left Felix five percent, and ten to each of his half siblings, along with most of his assets. Since Felix is the sole heir, he got it all. It’s in a trust right now, but he’s going to join the nine-figure club as soon as he turns twenty-five.

And I can only imagine how much he’ll be worth once his grandpa kicks it. We’re talking ten figures, easy.”

“Does that mean his stepmother’s family got nothing?” Jax asks.

“Pretty much.” Jace spits his gum out and presses it onto a scrap of paper on his desk.

“They got whatever was in her name, but bro either didn’t feel like sharing the love with her fam, or he didn’t trust her, because almost everything was in his name.

And he made sure to set things up so none of her relatives could lay claim on anything other than what she brought into the marriage. ”

“Can you look into his stepmother’s family?” I ask Jax. “See if any of them could be involved?” It wouldn’t be the first time someone killed for money.

He nods.

“So, what’s going on with you and the stepbro?” Jace asks, not bothering to even pretend like that was a natural segue from what we were talking about.

“What do you think is going on?” I look between them.

“You’re either fucking him, or fucking with him,” Jax says.

I shrug. “Two things can be true.”

Jax scrutinizes me.

“What?” I look between them.

“Those bite marks on your shoulder last week were from him?” Jace asks.

I nod.

He swipes Felix’s phone off his desk and tosses it to me. “It’s always the quiet ones who are the most fun.”

I catch it and slip it into my back pocket. “True story.”

Jace grins and swings back and forth in his chair. “And now we know why you haven’t been as much of an asshole lately. Shoulda guessed you were getting some D.”

I shoot him a look.

He grins wider and flicks his gaze to his brother. “Am I wrong?”

I glance at Jax, who’s also grinning at me.

“He’s not wrong,” Jax informs me.

“Fuck off,” I grumble.

Jace puts up his hands in mock surrender. “No need to get all defensive. We’re merely pointing out facts.”

“Yeah, well, your facts can go fuck themselves.”

Jax shoots me a cheesy grin. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

I flip him off.

“I’m also guessing that’s what you got up to after we left?” Jace is grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “The tension in the room was enough to give me a contact boner.”

“He needs to learn not to hide shit from me.” I lean back against the cushions. “I broke up with Natalie.”

“Bro.” Jax backhands me in the chest. “You didn’t think to lead with that?”

“Thank fuck,” Jace says. “When did this gloriousness happen?”

“Just before I came up here.”

“How’d you go from banging your stepbro to dumping Gold Digger Barbie in the forty-five minutes it took you to get your ass up here?” Jace asks.

“It was kind of a two birds, one stone situation.”

“Huh?” Jax asks.

“She walked in on us just as I was about to nut in Felix’s mouth.”

Jace throws back his head and cackles. “Fuckin’ A.”

Jax laughs, albeit a little less theatrically. “What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for that scene.”

“Her head is probably exploding knowing you picked Felix over her.” Jace shakes his head, still chuckling.

“She doesn’t know it’s him. My back was to her, so she couldn’t see anything other than his legs. All she knows is that I was with a guy.”

“She must have lost her shit.” Jax is grinning as wide as his brother. “Thank fuck we don’t have to deal with her anymore.”

“Did you tell her you know about her whoring it up in the library?” Jace asks, his eyes shining with glee.

I nod. “She didn’t have much to say after that.”

“Do you think she’s going to be a problem?” Jace asks.

“No clue, but I doubt it. She’s in the wrong. It doesn’t matter who she goes crying to. No one is going to fault me for what I did. Not even my dad.”

“What about William?” Jax asks. “What are we going to do about him?”

Jace spins in his chair and starts tapping on his keyboard.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Wiping his ID,” he says, his fingers flying over the keys. “He’s going to be in for a world of surprise when Axel has to issue him a whole new card instead of just recoding it.”

I didn’t get to witness his punishment after Jace wiped his card after we caught him and Natalie in the library, but Xavier did, and he made sure to record it for me so I could watch it later.

Seeing William wearing a dog collar and crawling around on the floor was some of the funniest shit I’ve ever seen, but the icing on the cake was how he wasn’t allowed to stop until he went up to every present senior member and got them to give him belly rubs by acting like a dog and doing tricks for them.

It was Jax’s idea to make him wear that fetish maid costume and do chores for us, including waiting on Felix, as part of his punishment for stepping over Felix in the hall that night he was attacked in the pool.

Of course, we didn’t tell him that’s what it was for and let him think it was a continuation of his punishment for ‘letting’ his card get wiped.

It wasn’t anywhere close to what he deserves for what he did, but it kept me entertained enough that I can let things go for now. William will get his, but we’re going to be strategic about this.

“Done.” Jace spins back around. “Send Xave a heads-up so he can be sure to stick around the house for the rest of the day. We need to see the receipts.”

Jax is already typing something into his phone. “Done.”

“Earlier, in my room,” I say, bringing the conversation back to Felix’s attacker.

As much fun as it would be to daydream about all the ways Axel might come up with to punish William, we still haven’t figured out who our would-be killer or his hacker accomplice are.

“Felix said he thought he saw fourteen zeros instead of a number. Did that mean something to you?” I ask Jace.

“Sort of.” He pulls his knife out and spins it around his hand absently.

“Is this something you can explain without making me feel like a moron?” I ask.

He grins. “Not really. But the simple version is that number keeps popping up the more I dig into things.”

“Both jobs?” Jax asks.

Jace nods.

“Do you have any idea what it means or why that specific number?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Not yet, but I’ll figure it out. They’re good, like insanely good, but no one is perfect.”

Jax hums thoughtfully and stares off into the distance. I know that look. He’s connecting dots and putting plot points together.

I turn back to Jace and let Jax do his thing. Before I can say anything, my phone rings.

There are only a handful of people who call me instead of texting, and none of them are people I want to talk to right now.

“Who is it?” Jace asks as I pull out my phone.

I sigh when I see the name.

“Your dad?” he guesses.

I nod and answer the call. “Hello?”

“Killian,” my dad says, his tone clipped. “Do you have anything you want to tell me?”

“I’m guessing I don’t have to tell you and you already know since you’re calling.”

“Tell me anyway,” he says.

“I broke up with Natalie.”

“You mean you cheated on Natalie,” he says. “Killian, you know how that looks?—”

“I didn’t cheat on her. You can’t cheat on someone who’s fucking around on you.”

“What?”

“She’s been fucking around on me for at least a month.”

“Do you have proof?”

“Yes.”

“Lloyd neglected to tell me that part,” he says, some of the hardness coming back to his voice.

“So I’m assuming he also didn’t tell you that his little princess is fucking around with someone who lives across the hall from me?”

“Who?” he asks, his voice ice cold.

“A kid named William Pendleton.”

“Pendleton? Who’s his father?”

“Sheldon Pendleton.”

“That name I know,” he says. “Are the twins with you?”

“They are.”

“Put me on speaker.”

I tap the button and hold my phone out.

“Hi, Uncle Aiden,” the twins say together.

“Hello, boys,” Dad greets. “I hear we have a member who needs to be dealt with.”

“We definitely do,” Jax agrees.

“Can you keep an eye on Junior while we figure out a plan?” he asks. “I want to know what he’s up to, who he’s talking to. Everything.”

“Already got a dossier on him,” Jace says.

“Started it as soon as we found out,” Jax adds.

“Good.” Dad hums, sounding pleased. “Killian?”

“Yes?”

“How are things going with Felix?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

Thank fuck we’re talking on the phone and not in person. My dad can read people like no one else. It’s one of the things that makes him so good at business and why no one fucks with us.

It also means I can’t hide anything from him because he sees through me like I’m made of cellophane. There’s no way in hell I’d be able to hide the fact that I’ve been hooking up with Felix from him if we were face to face.

“Are you getting along?”

“Yeah, mostly.”

Jace lets out a snort of laughter. I grab a pen off the coffee table and throw it at him.

He catches it, still laughing, and twirls it around his fingers.

“How is he?” Dad continues.

“He seems to be okay,” I say carefully. It’s not a lie, but it isn’t the whole truth, either.

“That’s good.” He sounds distracted now. “I have to go. We’ll talk about how to deal with this situation more when you’re home. Send me the dossier as soon as you can, as well as any new details as they come up.”

“Doing it right now,” Jace calls, and he spins around in his chair to face his computer. “You’ll have it in a few seconds.”

“Excellent. Goodbye, boys.”

“Bye,” the three of us echo.

He ends the call, and I go to toss my phone onto the coffee table when all three of our phones ping with a text.

I open the notification and read the short message.

“What’s going on?” Jax asks.

“They want to see us at the main house.” I tuck my phone away. “No details other than it’s about the Rapture.”

“When do we need to be there?” Jace asks as he spins back around to presumably shut down his computer.

“Now.” I stand and stretch my arms over my head. “Hopefully this doesn’t take all fucking night.”

Jace stands and uses his hip to push his chair in. “Ready?”

Jax and I nod, and the three of us head out of their room.