East End (Hear No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,102
work to do."
"Look I know this is going to feel like I'm abandoning you, but honestly, I just— I'm really tired. Things are changing with East, and I sort of just want to enjoy that for a minute."
She blinked at me. "East. No, no, no, no, Nyla. Don't tell me. No."
"Yes." I shrugged and gave her a wink. "Yes. Maybe. A little. Don't judge me."
Vehemently, she shook her head. "No, Nyla, no."
"What is wrong with you? Look, I like him, okay? You were right, I have feelings for him."
The words tripped out and felt foreign for me to say.
Amelia cursed under her breath. "Fuck. Nyla, no."
"Yes. I thought you'd be happy for me. You, of all people, wanted me to get in touch with my yang."
"No, Nyla, it's not that. Look, that's another reason I was trying to call you last night. Remember when I told you a few days ago that I was going to follow the money trail? That whatever the London Lords were up to, these things usually followed money?"
"Yeah. You said you couldn't find anything."
She shook her head. "No, we couldn’t because we were looking at their business. Yes, we had a cursory look at their personal finances, but found nothing untoward. Rich bastards. Money, properties, that kind of thing."
"Yeah, I know."
"But what we didn't do was really pay attention to the finances of people they know. Did you know that they had some kind of monthly dues scenario? I didn't flag it immediately because it was made up of one lump payment, going back five years. All three of the London Lords made the same payment to Elite Pops Ltd. Care to hear how much their membership dues are?"
I winced. "I'm pretty sure I don't want to know."
"Each of them paid a lump sum of one million pounds."
My eyes went wide. "Jesus Christ. What was it for?"
"Well, at first, I didn't know. But since they all made the same payment in the exact same amount, I figured maybe some blackmail scheme. Some underhanded deal. After all, they paid it through a shell company. I hit dead end after dead end. And then it occurred to me, when you want to know something, just ask."
I frowned. "You went to one of the London Lords?"
"No. I went to someone who I know hates them. Bram Van Linsted. Obviously, I knew it would be flagged if I went to visit old man Van Linsted because of all his sex trafficking crimes, but the younger Van Linsted is in prison only for fraud. Much easier and less visible to go chat. He hates the London Lords, the lot of them. He insists that they set him up."
My heart started to race. "What do you mean he insists?"
"He insists that he and his family had the original Canary Jewel. That Ben Covington and his friends stole it from his family."
My brow furrowed. "What do you mean stole it?"
"I'm just telling you what he told me. He said that they stole it from his family, and that if we can locate it, we'll know that they're the ones who belong in jail. I asked him about the finances and if he had any idea what the hell Elite Pops Ltd. was, and you know what? He started talking a mile a minute. He said he'd been abandoned by the people he called his brothers so he owed them no loyalty."
"Jesus Christ." I couldn't breathe. This was it. This was what I'd been looking for.
"He said they are all part of a secret group, like the Illuminati or whatever. This is huge."
"Easy does it. We're not going to jump into conspiracy theories here, but what do you mean a secret group?"
"Okay, you know how Eton has the Pops, right?"
I nodded. "That’s no secret. Everyone knows most prime ministers come from Eton and were part of their elite group called the Pops.”
“Well, there's an even higher echelon, the cream of the crop, and they are absolutely secret. Until now. They call themselves the Elite. So you first have to be tapped to be Pops, and then you have to be recruited from there to the Elite. He says he and our merry band of billionaires are part of this group. Van Linsted says if we are looking for dirt on them, he’s willing to name names. He gave me those three specifically. He said if we can get him out, he's willing to give us more names."