Page 44 of Merciless Prince
“Yes. I thought there might be some sort of connection between that and the grotto thing because of the red cloaks. Also, Bellingham isn’t far from Beaumont Castle. It’s only a ten minute drive away. But…” I paused and shrugged. “I guess I reallywasgoing nuts this whole time. Like you said, the grotto thing was a movie project.”
“You’re not going nuts. You’ve just had a few shitty weeks,” Francesca said, sympathetically patting my arm again. “And don’t worry about the Hellfire Club, by the way. It doesn’t even exist. I heard all about it when I was at Bellingham, but I never saw anything. I’m pretty sure someone made it up to scare freshmen, and all the stories evolved from there.”
“Oh. Right.”
“It’s just because Bellingham is so far from the city,” she said, rolling her eyes upward. “People need something to amuse themselves with while they’re out there.”
My brows dipped in a frown. “Do you think that could be it, then? Someone is targeting me with all these horrible pranks because they’re bored?”
Francesca shrugged. “Maybe, yeah. But I doubt it’s Killian,” she said. “I mean, I don’t know him all that well, but from what I’ve seen, he doesn’t seem like that kind of guy.”
“Are you sure?”
“As sure as I can be. But who knows? Like I said, I don’t really know him that well.”
I returned my attention to my food, mind spinning as I went over everything that had happened in the last few weeks.
It didn’t seem likely that someone would target me for a series of pranks that matched all of the things I’d experienced unless they were a complete psychopath who didn’t understand that pranks weren’t supposed to hurt, terrify, or traumatize people. But maybe I was justthatunlucky. Maybe I’d attracted the attention of some sick asshole who genuinely thought it was funny to make me suffer for their own amusement.
Or maybe Dean Blackwell and Cori were right—I was just uber-stressed and driving myself mad as a result.
I kept going over it all, again and again. Every time I thought I was certain about something, I realized there was a chance I was wrong, just like I was wrong about the things I witnessed in the Beaumont grotto.
Unless Francesca was lying…
She didn’t look or sound like she was trying to deceive me, but she was a good actress. She could lie right to my face and I might never know.
By the end of the evening, I was no closer to knowing what the truth might be. All I knew was that I couldn’t be sure ofanythinganymore.I couldn’t trust the things I saw or heard, and I couldn’t trust anyone I knew.
I couldn’t even trust myself.
13
Killian
“We need to talk.”I pushed past Derrick and strode into his dorm. It was strewn with empty beer cans and bottles.
“Sure,” he said. He closed the door and spun around to face me. “You want a drink?”
I glanced at the bar fridge on the opposite side of the room and opened my mouth to say yes. Then I changed my mind. I needed to keep a clear head.
“Nah, I’m good,” I said, waving a casual hand.
Derrick shrugged and grabbed a beer for himself. “So what’s up?”
“I just got back from the city,” I told him. “Guess who else was down there, blabbing her little mouth off to Francesca Rivera?”
A line appeared between Derrick’s brows. “Shay Sinclair?” he ventured.
“Yup.”
He sighed, sat down on the end of his bed, and took a long swig from the bottle. “How fucked are we?” he asked a moment later, wiping foam from his upper lip.
“It’s not looking good. She suspects something, and she’s digging. She told Francesca she recognized her in the grotto that night, and she wanted to know exactly what it was that she saw. She’s also connected the incident to the Hellfire Club.”
“Goddammit. Smartass little bitch.” Derrick shook his head and took another swig of beer. “You followed her down there and listened in, right?”
“Sort of. I noticed that she’d messaged Francesca asking to meet up, so I went down there to see what she had to say. Couldn’t go into the restaurant without them noticing me, though, so I stayed next door and listened to the recording from the bug on Shay’s phone,” I said. I scraped a hand through my hair and sighed. “I couldn’t hear every word they said to each other because the restaurant they were in was loud as fuck, but I heard enough.”
