Page 60 of Merciless Prince
“And we all know how much they’re dying to take down a bunch of people like us,” Derrick added, gesturing to our red-robed crew.
“So that’s the answer to your question,” I said, waving the phone in front of Shay’s face again. “That’s why we had to take these measures. Self-preservation.”
She lifted her chin and looked right into my eyes.
Whenever we’d run into each other in the past, her cheeks had always flushed slightly; just a hint of pink that signaled she liked what she saw. Now, there was nothing in her expression but loathing. It seared my mind like a hot iron branding the inside of my skull.
“What are you going to do with that stuff?” she asked, dipping her chin toward the phone.
“It’s simple,” I replied. “These videos and photos will ruin your life if they ever get out, and you’ll ruinourlives if you ever tell anyone what you saw that night in the grotto. So here’s how it’s going to be from now on. You keep your mouth shut about everything you saw that night, and we’ll keep these videos to ourselves. Got it?”
“Yes,” she said softly. Her face had turned bright red, and tears were rolling down her cheeks. I knew she felt stupid beyond belief for allowing this to happen to her.
“Derrick will take you back up to the road and call an Uber for you now,” I said, gesturing toward the path that led out of the forest clearing. “Remember—don’t ever speak about that night again. Don’t even think about it. If you do, we’ll find out. We’re always watching and listening.”
She gave me a sullen nod, but she didn’t say another word. As Derrick dragged her to her feet and pulled her away, I saw a flare of emotion in her teary eyes, which were still locked on mine.
I watched her go, lips curving into a smirk as a heady wave of triumph crashed over me. The smug sense of superiority faded a moment later, and it was quickly replaced by a nagging feeling that things weren’t truly over yet. Like I’d missed something.
But what?
I rubbed my jaw, thinking about the look I saw in Shay’s eyes when Derrick dragged her away. I initially thought it was anger or fear, but the more I pictured it in my mind’s eye, the more I realized it didn’t look like either one of those emotions. It was something else. Something like…
The truth hit me like a ton of bricks.
That nagging feeling in my brain was right. Ihadmissed something. Something very fucking stupid. It had been sitting right in front of me all this time, but my hubris hadn’t allowed me to see it.
I saw it now, though, clear as fucking day.
The expression in Shay’s eyes wasn’t anger or fear. It was grim satisfaction. The look of a woman who knew she’d lost the battle but not the war. She had something up her sleeve, and she knew I had no idea about it.
Until now.
My lips flattened into a grimace as my heart hammered in my chest. How the fuck did it take me so long to figure out this dirty little secret? Now that it had finally occurred to me, it seemed incredibly obvious. I should’ve known all along.
Shay lied to Francesca during their dinner date last weekend. She told her she was alone in her little hiding spot above the grotto that night two months ago… but she wasn’t alone at all.
Someone else was there with her.
Someone else saw us.
19
Shay
They were watching me again.
A selection of Killian’s Hellfire minions were posted up at a table in the library, right near the spot where I was studying with Leah. None of them were being particularly obvious about what they were up to, and to anyone else, they simply looked like regular Bellingham students, but I could tell they were keeping an eye on me and hoping their presence would intimidate me into staying silent about what happened the other night. The silver skull-and-bones signet rings on their left hands made that abundantly clear, along with the meaningful glances they were casting in my direction every so often.
I’d put up with this constant monitoring for three days now, and it was driving me mad. It was like skating on ice, thin enough to crack. One wrong move and I was screwed.
The Hellfire associates weren’t just following me around campus, either. I knew for a fact they were neck-deep in all my private stuff. That sleazy friend of Killian’s—Derrick something-rather—had filled me in on all the sick details when he escorted me up to the road the other night.
He said they’d found a way to hack my phone a while ago, so all my texts, calls, and emails could be accessed in real time without me knowing. He also said they’d sent some sort of virus to my phone that turned it into a 24-7 listening device, which meant everything I’d said and done for the last several weeks had been recorded and listened to by Killian himself. I was just incredibly lucky that I hadn’t mentioned the grotto incident to Cori or any of my other friends while my phone was in close proximity. If I had, the Hellfire assholes would’ve heard and realized that I wasn’t alone that night.
As far as I knew, that secret was still safe with me.
Derrick also told me that Killian had installed a set of surveillance cameras in my dorm, but I’d looked all over the place and couldn’t find any. I knew how amazing some tech stuff was these days, though, so I didn’t write it off. There was a very good chance that Derrick was being truthful and my dorm reallywasbeing filmed at all times by devices that were so small or so well-hidden that I’d simply never find them. It also explained how that prick Killian seemed to magically know that I’d thrown the Hellfire invitation in the trash last week.
