House Rules - Chloe Neill Page 0,74

Will Ethan rat us out?

“He won’t tell anyone,” I said. “There’s no one for him to tell anyway; it’s not like he’s going to call Darius up. I’ve told him I’m not quitting. I think he’ll calm down—you know how strategic he is—but I have to wait him out.”

My stomach clenched as I considered the worst-case scenario—that Ethan wouldn’t get over my commitment, and that would be the end of us.

But I rejected that idea. Ethan loved me, and he wasn’t going to leave because he disagreed with something I’d done, especially when that something was principled and intended to help the House.

Unfortunately, Ethan wasn’t the only person involved in this drama. Lacey had inserted herself into it, too. God willing, he wasn’t angry enough to fall into something with her that he’d regret later.

“What about Lacey?”

“She thinks we’re having an affair. She and Ethan had a little chat this morning. I expect he explained away whatever she thinks she saw.”

“I’ll have to talk to Noah,” Jonah said. “Theoretically, your cover’s been blown. Since Ethan’s no longer in the GP, it may not matter much to him. But we’ll have to assess the risk.”

My stomach fell. It hadn’t occurred to me that they’d consider kicking me out of the RG because of what Lacey had seen, or what I’d confessed to Ethan.

This night was just getting better and better.

“Merit, hold on a minute, okay?”

Before I could answer, the phone clicked and he was gone. He must have been taking another call. Fifteen or twenty seconds passed before he came back again.

“I might have a solution to your House’s problem.”

Hope blossomed. “What’s that?”

“The RG connection who told us about the contract bit? She says there’s quite a bit of unhappiness with the way Darius is handling things. The situation is delicate—very delicate—but she’s working it.”

“She’s working it? How?”

“We have someone inside the GP.”

My eyes must have been as wide as saucers. “You . . . what?”

“A sympathetic member,” he said, “but that’s all I can give you right now. Let me talk it out and I’ll see what else I can get you. I’ll get back in touch as soon as I can.”

“Okay,” I said. “And I’m sorry. For everything.”

“Things happen,” he said. “They happen, and we pick ourselves up, and we get back out there.”

He was definitely right about that.

The call done, I walked back into the House. Part of me wanted to run into Ethan’s office and beg for forgiveness. But he hadn’t invited me to his office, and I didn’t expect I’d be welcome. I imagine he had enough on his mind without his girlfriend’s presumptive betrayal staring him in the face.

I decided to visit the Ops Room, but stopped at the stairs when someone called my name.

“Merit.”

I glanced over. Michael Donovan stood in the hallway near Ethan’s office. He frowned when he saw me. “Are you all right? You look pale. Well, paler than usual.”

“It’s been a long night. I suppose you’re brainstorming?”

He held up a bottle of Blood4You. “Yeah. We’re looking at the contracts, trying to figure out a way to turn them around on Darius.”

I nodded. “I need to get downstairs. Good luck with that.”

“Good luck with your business,” he said, offering a wave before he disappeared into Ethan’s office again.

When I made it to the basement, I didn’t find the mood in the Ops Room to be much better than mine was.

Juliet and Luc sat at the conference table together, both reviewing the House’s evacuation procedures. Unfortunately, that they were reviewing evac procedures didn’t say much for our chances when Darius showed up again with his hired thugs.

Lindsey sat at one of the computer monitors, and she looked around in concern when I walked through the door. It wasn’t hard to imagine that my mood was throwing off unpleasant magic.

“How bad was it?” Luc asked.

“As bad as you can imagine the deaths of two vampires being.” I walked over to the whiteboard and added Katya’s and Zoey’s names, whispering a silent apology that I hadn’t been able to do more to stop the killer before his spree encompassed them.

“We’ve got double the number of murders, and neither Navarre nor Grey is in much of a position to help.”

“Not that they would,” Luc muttered, and I smiled a little.

“You will, however, be pleased to learn that Ethan gave Scott the business for letting us do the dirty work.”

Luc sat back in his chair, a smug expression on his face. “Good. He had it coming. Tell