House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(66)

Chase’s smile was a little crooked as he reached out and brushed his thumb against my cheek. “My family has hundreds of planes,” he told me. “We own one of the largest commercial airlines in the world. You might have heard of Air Starleight, the one which runs almost completely without emissions. We put a lot of money back into the environment so technology doesn’t completely destroy Earth.”

“Hundreds…” I trailed off. “How much money do you four have?”

That might have been a rude question. I had no idea if they were secretive about money here like a lot of humans were.

Chase didn’t hesitate to reply: “On Earth, our net worth is in the billions. Both individually and collectively. Our families own a lot of the major industries, companies, banking, and oil. We use the money to make sure that things run smoothly for Daelighters on Earth.”

Before I could freak the hell out, Lexen added, “In Overworld, we don’t use money, not in the same way humans do. The overlord families are supposed to provide for our people, and in return the people keep our communities running smoothly. There are some barter systems. The overlord families obviously have help to run their homes and such, but we are expected to keep our people safe, fed, and somewhat happy. That’s how our world works.”

If Earth focused more on keeping people happy rather than making money, I think things would be very different there. Meanwhile … I’d just learned I was bonded to a billionaire who owned more private planes than I owned socks. When did this become my life?

“I’m still the same guy,” Chase reminded me. My expression was not doing a good job of hiding my shock. A grin split his face. “I think you took it better when you found out about aliens.”

A snort of laughter left me. Emma and Callie joined in. It almost felt cathartic after all of the tension. Fraizer even smiled, while still looking uncomfortable, standing off to the side of the main group. “I’ve never lacked for money,” I said, still chuckling. “But it never occurred to me even once that you all would have so much … Earth currency. I guess I should have realized. After all, you’ve entrenched your lives in our world deeply. The bigger picture is starting to come together.”

Chase wrapped an arm around me and my body went willingly to him. As did my heart.

“You’ll never want for anything that cold hard cash can buy,” Chase said, low in my ear. “What’s mine is yours. If you have any charities you want to donate to, just tell me. Properties you want to purchase for us to live in, I can do that.”

I loved that he’d mentioned charities first. I went up on tiptoes and he lowered himself down so I could reach his lips. “Thank you,” I said as I pulled back. “I have a ton of charities I love supporting, and … I’d really love if we could set up a little center near where I used to live. There are so many kids and single moms there trying to escape domestic abuse. They’re homeless, living in their cars. I talked to my parents about trying to do something, but there was never time.”

Gracie, my nanny, had come from a domestic abuse situation. Luckily, she reached out to my father, an old friend of hers from school. He gave her a job and place to live. She said if it wasn’t for us, she would have ended up on the streets. Her husband took everything from her. I had a special place in my heart for women and children who were in that situation.

“As soon as Laous becomes nothing more than a bad memory, we will set up your shelter,” Chase promised.

Thank you, I mouthed to him, too overcome to speak out loud.

I pulled myself together then as Lexen started moving toward the transporter. Looked like it was time to go. Everyone followed, except for Fraizer, who didn’t seem to know what to do. “Come on,” Daniel told him, not sounding happy about it.

“Wait,” Callie called from the back of the group. “What about the tracker? We need to get it out of me immediately. On the off chance that Laous doesn’t know where the fourth is yet, we can’t lead him to her.”

I’d temporarily forgotten about that uncomfortable little fact. Callie clearly hadn’t, and I could not blame her. The thought of someone putting something inside her body while she was unconscious … the vulnerability of someone taking advantage of that … made me really angry on her behalf.

Daniel reached out to her, his hand wrapping around her face as he probed behind her ear. It took him about a minute to find the device.

“Get it out,” she said without hesitation. “Just cut the damn thing out, Dan.”

His nostrils flared slightly, and I saw his hands flinch. “I don’t think I can cut you. But I also don’t trust anyone else to do it.”

She reached forward and grabbed onto his face, pulling his head down to hers. “Daniel Imperial, you will cut this thing out of me immediately. I know you can do this, and I trust you with my life.” She whispered, but I still heard her say, “You’ve saved my life already, more than once. You will not hurt me.”

Daniel pressed his lips to hers once, hard, and then pulled back with a harsh breath. He released Callie’s face and took a step back, reaching down to lift up the leg of his pants. He pulled a small blade from a sheath. It was dagger-shaped, looking razor sharp as it glinted in the light.

He glanced toward Lexen and Chase, who were closest. “Can you hold her still? If she flinches, I might cut deeper than I intend to.”