“Well, then, why are you so mad? Can’t you even a little bit understand where I was coming from? I was scared!”
I shake my head. Of course she was scared. I can’t blame her for any of this—well, beyond the pool party—but getting angry about it won’t change anything. I need information. We’ll deal with everything else later.
“How did they contact you?” I ask. “The Society.”
“I got texts,” she answers, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“Show them to me.”
She reluctantly digs her phone out of her bag and hands it over. I scroll through the texts.
Do as I say.
Wouldn’t want anyone to see your pics, now, would you?
If you don’t do it, I’ll make sure you’re destroyed.
I grit my teeth. It’s one thing to threaten me, to put my life in danger, but my sister? A thirteen-year-old girl?
“You never met with this person?” I ask.
“No. I told you, I don’t know anything other than what they told me to do.” Jenny’s arms are crossed over her chest, and there are tear tracks on her cheeks. She looks so small, so young. I always thought Jenny was the lucky one. She got to do whatever she wanted, and no one was paying attention. Now I realize how wrong I was. We all have skeletons. Some people just hide them better than others.
I feel suddenly guilty for barging in on her school, confronting her like this. I’m no better than the Society right now.
“Excuse me, miss. Are you a student here?” A teacher stands in the doorway.
“We’ll talk more later,” I tell Jenny, then push past her out the door.
“You can’t be here!” the teacher calls.
“It’s fine. I’m leaving.”
Ethan is waiting outside the car when I trip down the front steps.
“Well?” he asks.
“Get in the car.”
Once the school is blurring in the rearview mirror, I tell him everything.
“So what do we do now?” he asks.
“I dunno.” I take out my cell and stare at it a moment, but before I do anything, it rings. Lyla.
“I’ve got bad news,” she says.
My throat cinches. I don’t want to hear it, but I ask, “What now?”
“I think my teammate Tallulah Dumont is in on it. Everywhere I turn, she’s right there. And she won’t take no for an answer when I say I’m too busy to hang out.”
I nod, even though she can’t see me. “This is exactly why we should have been talking to each other from the start. We could have been comparing notes. They got my sister too and who knows how many others.”
“Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty.”
I rub my eyes. “I don’t know what to do. How can we take on a network this organized?”
Lyla is suddenly quiet.
“Lyla?” I ask.
“I remembered something,” she says. “After I dropped you off. I did tell someone what our plan was. About Tucker.”
I sit up straighter. “What? Who?”
“Nikki.”
“Lyla!”
“I know, I’m sorry. But I didn’t think it was a big deal. It’s just Nikki.”
I blow out a harsh breath and push back my hair. “Who do you think she told?”
There’s a long pause before she says, “Maybe no one.”
It hits me what she’s insinuating. “You think Nikki could be part of the Society?”
“Why not? She’s smart enough,” Lyla says. “Besides, she’s not as wholesome as everyone thinks.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask at her pointed words.
Again there’s a pause, but then she sighs. “Okay, I don’t like talking about this, but last year, when my sister was really behind in school, Nikki persuaded her to plagiarize a paper. She said no one would ever figure it out because she’s a good girl and no one ever suspects the good girls. So my sister did it, but she got caught, and there was a big thing with Tulane. They were talking about taking her scholarship away. Nikki didn’t even seem sorry about it either. Actually, she seemed like she wanted nothing to do with my sister. Like she didn’t want her to ruin her reputation, even though it was Nikki’s idea.”
It’s so devious and cold, just like the Society, and she certainly has access to money. “But she broke her arm when she fell off that coaster.” I was there. No way could she have faked that.
“Maybe she wanted to make sure we’d never suspect her,” Lyla says. “She’s smart, remember?”
I can’t argue with that. I didn’t suspect her. In fact, I envied that she so neatly got out of the game.
“And she didn’t get punished,” I say, putting the pieces together. “My car exploded when I cheated, and she just skipped out of the game and nothing happened.”
“Yep, and she knows everyone at school. It would be easy for her to gather secrets to use against us.”
I consider how true that is. She remembered me even though we’ve never been friends and didn’t share any classes until this year. She travels in Farrah’s social circles but makes an effort to reach others whenever she’s campaigning for some elected position. If we’re looking for a mastermind, she’s it.