“Hey, Logan,” I said quietly, heart pounding loudly in my ears. “You should just come back right now.”
“Yeah?” He chuckled. “Did I say the right thing?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be there . . . ” He stopped talking. Someone in the background started shouting at him. “Coach wants me to get off the phone. I’ll call you tonight.”
“I’ll be waiting. In my red lingerie.”
“Jesus, Amelia,” he groaned. Another shout came from the background. “Fuck. I gotta go.”
I laughed at the sound in his voice when he hung up and continued on to the library. Hailey had said she wanted to meet with me because she’d found some things in her mother’s home office pertaining to Lana. To say it had piqued my interest was an understatement. I hadn’t seen her since the incident at the toga party, not for her lack of trying. A part of me had been really turned off by the way she’d screamed at Logan and me, even though I knew where she was coming from. She was jealous because I’d caught his attention when she hadn’t. Every girl on campus had been watching me like I was some kind of wizard, the girl who managed to tame Fitz. What they didn’t understand was that I had done nothing. I hadn’t tamed Logan. He’d decided he wanted to settle down when he met me, hopefully because of me, but I hadn’t pushed him to get there.
I spotted Hailey outside of the library. She was on the phone, smoking a cigarette. That gave me pause. I didn’t even know she smoked. Her head snapped in my direction. She flicked the cigarette away and waved a hand at me, as if I’d miss her, even though she was blocking the entrance.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” I said as I closed the distance between us.
“Only when I’m nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?”
She raised an eyebrow, lifting a yellow manila envelope in her hand. My heart quickened. Instead of wasting more time with questions out here, I pulled the door open and held it for her to walk through. The vacant tables basked in the sunlight coming from outside. Unlike every other day this week, which had been cold and gloomy, the sun was out today, slightly warming the crisp temperature. We sat down side by side and pivoted to face each other.
“I printed this out. It was on her desktop.” Hailey’s hand shook slightly as she handed the envelope over. “I don’t know what to make of it.”
I opened the envelope and took out the few sheets of paper inside, my eyes scanning the words on the first one before moving on to the next. They were email exchanges between Lana and Ella Valentine. I could instantly see why Hailey had been so ominous about it over the phone. In one email, her mother basically told Lana she no longer needed her at the paper, while Lana responded that it was illegal for her to fire her just because of jealousy. Jealousy. That stood out amongst the sea of words. I glanced up at Hailey, who was now chewing on the tip of her thumb. The move startled me. It was something I often did. A habit I’d tried to break countless times to no avail. I moved on to the next page. Another email exchange, this one between Max and Lana.
“I guess my mom has access to all of the emails sent within the system,” Hailey explained before I could ask.
I nodded and continued reading. Lana had apparently been sending Max all of her locations. He didn’t always respond, and when he did it was a mere thumbs up or “got it”. What could this mean? I thought back to when I sent Travis my location and what my mindset had been then. I’d been scared. Terrified. And he’d been the only one I trusted. According to these emails, he would have had to be the last person she emailed and it would have been a location. The last email was sent to him May 23rd. She’d been reported missing May 24th. Max had said they emailed back and forth, he just never said what about.
“Do you think Max told the police about these?” I looked up at Hailey, who was still chewing on her finger.
“I don’t know. Should I tell them? I should, right?” she asked, knee bouncing, replacing one nervous twitch with another. Had she always done this or was she mimicking the things I did when I was nervous? Seeing her made my own knee start bouncing.
“I think we should take it to them.”
“Do you think it’ll incriminate my mom?” she whispered. “I mean, you see the emails. What if she had something to do with it?”
I thought of Ella. Of all of those pictures and paintings of her and my father that adorned the locked study of The Lab. This seemed like the exact thing that would drive a jealous woman to the brink of insanity. But then again, dad was married. He’d been married. I didn’t know how long their affair had lasted, but he’d been married for the majority of it. He left her for my mother when they were in college, and at some point, they’d started hooking up again, but then they’d stopped. Was it because of Lana? Because of the other girls that were part of the rumored sugar daddy ring? The next page held names of girls. Lana Ly was the only one that stood out to me amongst the eight names on it. I knew without a doubt that this was that list. Maybe it was the mentorship list, but either way, it didn’t change the reality of what went on there. It wasn’t a coincidence that there were exactly eight names on here. It wasn’t a coincidence that Lana’s was one of them. Suddenly, I didn’t know what to do. Reporting this to the police meant possibly exposing The Eight and I couldn’t do that. Not when I loved everyone involved. They were my family. I’d pledged loyalty. My palm itched. I thought of Lincoln. He said he’d made her jump. At least that was the memory he’d held. I thought of what he said about the cloaked person injecting him with the drugs. Could it have been my father? No. He wouldn’t. My father was a lot of things, but a murderer wasn’t one. Poor Lana. I couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through.
“You should take this to the police,” I said finally. “Turn it in anonymously. Your mom won’t know it was you.”
“But I will.” Her brown eyes widened. “Are you willing to throw your dad under the bus? This will incriminate him for sure. My mom could probably get away with saying she was accumulating proof, which could very well be what’s happening, but your dad? His name would be tarnished. He may even go to jail. You’d be okay with that?”
I thought of mom and what she must have suffered in silence because of his indiscretions. I thought of Lincoln, who had a long road to recovery and in my opinion, had only gotten into this mess because he was trying his best to stop my father. He’d pledged his loyalty to The Eight, and hadn’t been afraid to act out when it came to doing the right thing. I wasn’t sure who had tried to kill my brother, but I couldn’t deny the connection to my father. Facts couldn’t be ignored, and getting rid of my brother would eliminate the possibility of people finding out about Lana and the other girls. Disgust twisted in my belly. My mind went back to the black cloak. Would he have tried to kill his own son to silence him? Hailey was still staring at me. I reminded myself that she’d asked me a question. Was I willing to throw my father under the bus?
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “But all of this could lead to Lana. She could still be out there.”
I thought of the texts I’d been getting since moving here. This was bigger than I could imagine. I felt that in my bones. Whoever was behind those texts knew truths I couldn’t fathom. I wasn’t sure I was willing to find out what that entailed, but I owed it to Lincoln and to Lana to turn these into the authorities. That much I knew. I’d do it anonymously. In their wildest dreams, the police couldn’t possibly find The Eight. If they did a thorough investigation, these girls would be linked to The Labyrinth Initiative through the mentorship program, but even that wasn’t connected to The Eight. Not on paper anyway. So, what was the worst that could happen? The Lab Initiative would shut down. They’d start a separate corporation under a separate entity and continue to fund members of The Eight and the charities they were responsible for. Dad would lawyer up. The other members that played a part in the sugar daddy scheme would get lawyers. The rich never suffered as much as the regular folk. I stood. Hailey followed suit.