“I guess. What are they called? Does anyone know?”
“Well, we have Quill & Dagger, but they’ve agreed to let the paper publish their names now. I guess the whole secretive thing wasn’t working out for them anymore.”
I remembered hearing my brother George talk about Quill & Dagger. Of course, even if he had been in a society, he wouldn’t have told me. George was thirteen years my senior and the only things we ever spoke about when we saw each other were my grades and babysitting duties when I watched my nieces. My second oldest brother, Edward, didn’t really talk about much at all, and now that he was living in Spain, we rarely communicated outside of Instagram. Lincoln was the only one who would talk to me about these things, and being that he didn’t want to talk about anything pertaining to the school, I knew that was a longshot.
“I’m not sure which one meets in The Tower, but there are two or three on campus and I think I know a few members of the ones with no names.” She slapped her hands on her knees, leaning in to look into my now empty mug. “So, you ready to go?”
“Yup.” I stood up and thanked her as she took my mug and set it over by the counter. We walked outside and headed in the general direction of my apartment. It was difficult to navigate with no phone or GPS to go on.
“Speak of the devil,” Hailey said under her breath.
I glanced forward in time to catch four guys walking in our direction. They were all wearing different variations of dark clothing, black, grey, dark green. All tall with handsome features and don’t fuck with me attitudes. One, in particular, caught my eye—the guy I’d bumped into the other day, the one I was ninety-nine-percent sure had been standing outside my apartment building smoking and probably talking to these three guys. My heart beat faster as we walked past them. I focused on not looking at them, at him specifically, despite being hyper-aware of his presence. A shoulder bumped me, hard, and my gaze snapped up to his.
“Oops. My bad,” he said in a tone that was nothing if not patronizing.
“You should reconsider your shoulders,” I snapped.
“You should reconsider what sidewalks you walk on.”
My eyes narrowed, but I kept walking. I wanted to punch him. Each step I took away from him, with my blood pumping in my ears and my hands shaking in rage, I focused on my breath—in and out, in and out, and tried not to react to him again.
“That guy is such an asshole,” I said loudly to Hailey, hoping he’d hear me.
“Trust me, I know.” She looked over her shoulder. I didn’t bother giving him the satisfaction. “That’s Fitz and he’s an asshole with a capital A. He’s also captain of the hockey team, which two of them play in. The other two play some other sport . . . lacrosse I think? And I think they’re also part of one of the secret societies. They’re very particular about who they socialize with, but I guess that could mean anything. I mean, you know jocks.”
Yeah, I knew jocks, but the ones I knew, like my brother and ex-boyfriend, weren’t self-centered pricks who got off on being mean to the new girl. Finally, despite myself, I looked back and caught him looking right at me. He seemed upset, his jaw clenched tightly as he watched me. It took all of my control not to roll my eyes as I tore my gaze away from his. I guessed in a way he did look like someone who could be hiding some deep, dark secret, but who wasn’t?
On the way to my apartment, Hailey made it a point to tell me all about the buildings we walked in front of.
“This is the beginning of Millionaire’s Row,” she stated as we crossed the street.
“Oh. This is where I live.” I turned around in a full circle. “Let’s just walk the whole thing. Once I see my building, I’ll know. I think I made a left at this light when I left earlier.”
“How’d you come to live here?” She eyed me sideways.
“My dad owns one of these buildings.” I paused, feeling like a privileged asshole again and added, “He bought the land forever ago and built it during the recession.”
“Interesting. So he lets you live here for free? No rent owed or anything?”
“No rent owed. I mean, unless you consider getting a degree in a major I don’t want rent owed.”
“I guess. Still, you’re a lucky girl.” She shrugged a shoulder. “A lot of the hockey players live here too.”
“Do you make it a habit of going to their apartments?” I shot her a wry look.
“No.” She blushed deeply. “I just . . . I’ve seen them around here.” She bit her lip and paused briefly. “I hooked up with one of them. It was a long time ago and honestly, I wanted to hook up with his roommate, not him, but whatever. In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t hook up with the roommate.” She glanced away quickly. “Anyway, the cloaked people meet around here sometimes too.”
“Cloaked people?”
“Yeah, some of the societies walk around wearing cloaks. Some red cloaks, some black cloaks, depending on which you belong to.”
“Isn’t that . . . attention calling?” I frowned. “Another thing that doesn’t seem secretive at all.”
“You don’t get it,” she said. “The fact is, they’re part of this world that nobody is allowed to unless they’re invited. No one is going to look and try to see who’s behind it.”
“I guess.” I slowed down when we got to my apartment building. “You seem to know a lot of information about these secret groups.”
“Like I said, I’m nosey.”
“You want to come up?” I nodded toward my building.
“Um.” She glanced up and down the sidewalk. “Not today.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, raincheck. I should probably make sure all my things are ready for class tomorrow.”
“Okay. Thanks for walking me.”
“Sure.” She smiled. “And be careful out there. Especially around here. You never know who’s watching you.”
My heart seemed to stop beating as she walked away. Why would she say that? Who would be watching me? The cloaked figures? I thought of Lana and where her investigating may or may not have landed her. A shiver rolled through me. I’d tread carefully in search of truth.
Chapter 4
I was at the library, trying to see what else I could find about Lana, when I decided to search the newspaper archives for my brother’s accident. It took a lot of scrolling, but when I finally found it, it wasn’t front and center, the way I’d expected. It was an article on page two. Page two. The story front and center was of the new hospital that was affiliated with the university and was on the other side of town. On the right of that, there was a small picture you could barely make out, with the words “Mexican Business Man’s Son Involved in Car Wreck”—page 2. They’d reduced both my father’s accomplishments and my brother’s life-altering accident into a short, boring headline and a page two article.
“This is bullshit.”
“Shh.”
My attention whipped to the person beside me. I was full-on ready to tell her to go to hell when I remembered where I was. I cringed and mouthed an I’m sorry instead before going back to the archives. Reading the article with the lack of facts and details made me even more frustrated than I was when I started, so I decided to quit while I was ahead. I’d come back to this tomorrow. For now, I’d promised Hailey I would swing by The Bar tonight, so I packed my things up and headed there instead.