28. Blake #2
“I think we’ve been playing their game from the beginning, and we didn’t even realise it.
” My phone buzzes, interrupting my train of thought.
I glance at it and grimace. Dad. “Wondered when he would decide to check up on his only son,” I mutter, knowing full well I didn’t bother to call him to tell him I was fine either.
That is the nature of our relationship. Neither of us really gives a shit anymore. If he even did.
I answer the call, putting it on speaker so Viper can hear. “Dad.”
“Blake.” Dad’s voice carries that familiar tone of controlled disappointment that’s been the soundtrack to most of our conversations. “I’ve been hearing interesting reports about activities at St. Sebastian’s.”
“I have no doubt. What do you want?”
Viper sits back, arms crossed, as he listens to this.
“To make sure you are still alive, for one,” he huffs, making it sound like a chore.
“Well, I am. Bye, now.”
“Wait, Blake,” he says, and something in his tone stops me. “Follow the money.”
“I always do.”
“This time you have been diverted,” he whispers, making me lean forward and exchange a glance with Viper.
“Meaning?” I whisper.
“The Cravenmoor Institute doesn’t want you to find what they’re hiding.”
I frown. “Who are they?” I assume it has something to do with Cravenmoor Academy, but I’ve never heard of them.
“Take me off speaker.”
Viper nods, and I pick up the phone, switching over. “Who?”
“Jonathon Cravenmoor is William Cravenmoor’s descendant. He effectively owns the land and buildings you have currently commandeered and restricted access to. He is… panicking.”
“Why?”
“Because you have found what he and his family have been trying to keep buried for centuries. The treasure beneath the academy isn’t just gold and jewels, Blake.
It’s evidence that proves the Cravenmoor family’s involvement in some very unsavoury historical activities.
Activities that would destroy their current legitimate business empire if they came to light. ”
I feel the pieces clicking into place, a cold understanding settling in my stomach. “The Graduate operation...”
“Is being funded and directed by Cravenmoor interests.”
My hand tightens on the phone. “And Venetia?”
“Is the biggest threat of all. The Hale bloodline is complicated. Her ancestor was an illegitimate son of William Cravenmoor. This gives her a legitimate, if slightly controversial, claim to everything hidden in that vault, not to mention everything else Cravenmoor ever owned and has passed down through his legitimate heirs.”
“So, they don’t want her to rule, they want to kill her.”
“But they can’t do that outright. It will start a war with Anton that nobody in their right mind would start.”
“So what? They are planning all of this to draw her into opening fire? A casualty of this war?”
His silence is deafening.
“Why now? Why her?”
“Easy pickings,” Viper murmurs, having gleaned what we are discussing through my side. I lean closer so he can try to hear what my dad is saying as well.
“What about the families who want back in?”
“Their intentions are self-serving. You don’t need to concern yourself with any betrayal from them.”
From them. “Then who?”
“Those who were not so accidentally poisoned.”
Viper and I lock gazes. “Those families have something to hide?”
“Everything to hide.”
“How sure are you about this?”
“I wouldn’t be saying it if I didn’t know, Blake,” he says, the slight reprimand in my name, as usual.
“Fair enough. So, what’s the end game? To protect the money?”
“Always.”
He hangs up, and I curse.
“Well, that changes things,” Viper says.
“Not really,” I say slowly, replacing my phone in my pocket. “It makes things easier to understand.”
“How so?”
“The tomb below the library is a hole full of blackmail hidden in what one would think, as we did, an old Roman tunnel. But those pieces are not ancient Roman, they are more modern than that and handed to Cravenmoors over the centuries to keep their secrets, to keep funding this lucrative yet morally repugnant sideline.”
“Even Anton.”
“A crown with the Corbyn-Hale crest on it and the twin necklace to Venetia’s mother was found down there. If not Anton, then his father, or further back.”
“Why would Anton send Venetia here if he was involved in this?”
“He wouldn’t unless he wanted her taken out. But he could just do that a whole hell of a lot quicker and easier if she were at home. So, it doesn’t track. He sent her here to take down the Graduates…” It’s like the world snaps suddenly into place, and my heart skips a beat.
“So?” Viper prods when I sit back, my mind reeling with the absolutely fantastical knowledge that struck me moments ago.
“He sent her here to take down the Graduates and half of the crime families in Britain. It’s a hostile takeover using the most insidious method I have ever encountered.”
“You mean using his daughter as bait,” Viper growls.
“It’s fucking ingenious.” I stare at Viper, watching the fury build in his eyes as it sinks in. “Think about it. He sends Venetia here, knowing the Graduates would make their move. Knowing the families would mobilise in response. Knowing she’d be forced to take control of the situation.”
“And now she’s positioned to eliminate both the trafficking network and consolidate power over the crime families.” Viper’s voice is deadly quiet. “All while believing she’s making her own choices.”
I nod grimly. “The perfect hostile takeover. She destroys his competition while expanding his territory, and he maintains plausible deniability because she’s acting independently.”
“And the kids?” he asks quietly. “The ones who died?”
I smile, shaking my head. “Come with me.”
We rise, and I lead him outside. We cross over the grounds to the chapel, where it looks like the zombie apocalypse has started.
“What the fuck?” he growls.
I stare at the makeshift graves, some of them empty now, the wet soil flung about as the so-called dead bodies crawled out of the holes we spent fucking hours digging to give them proper burials.
“Tetrodotoxin, most likely,” I mutter. “The bastards were assumed dead and hours later came back to life.”
“And are now crawling around St. Seb’s looking to murder us all?”
We lock gazes again before we both launch ourselves back towards the residence building.