Page 152 of The Hunt

“Normally, not that long.” Nikki paused for a beat to look at her phone screen. “But dinner will be served in twenty minutes, and the food poisoning chaos will kick off about half an hour after that. On top of that, there might also be some chaos from Tessa working her magic back in Havenport. If she’s actually succeeded, that is.”

“So around an hour until shitreallykicks off.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.” She pursed her lips and glanced up at the darkening sky. “We should really get back to the room and call Tessa. See how things are going on her end.”

“I wish we could call Rhett,” I muttered.

“Technically, we could, but he told us not to,” Nikki said. “It’ll distract him. And the last thing that man needs right now is a distraction.”

“I know. I’m just worried.”

“Me too,” she replied, voice softening slightly. She grabbed my arm. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Once we’d returned to our room in the west wing, she handed me her phone. “Mind if you check in with Tessa by yourself?” she asked. “I’m exhausted, so I could really use a nap.”

“Sure.” I gestured to the bed. “Go ahead.”

“The code is 2032. Wake me up if Peter calls or messages.”

As Nikki curled up on the bed, I went over to the window and sat on the small reading nook beneath it. Then I called Tessa for the second time today, breath hitching in my chest.

She answered almost immediately, voice sharp and laced with concern. “Everly?”

“Yep, it’s me.”

“Oh, thank god,” she said. “I wanted to call you an hour ago, but I wasn’t sure if it was safe to contact you on that number.”

“It’s safe,” I said, peering out the window. “At least it is for now.”

“In that case, I’m going to send you a whole load of screenshots and links,” she said. A gloating edge had entered her tone now. “Behold the work of a genius.”

I glanced down at the phone screen as a pile of messages flooded in.

The first contained several screenshots of a TikTok post featuring a slideshow of photos. Each of the photos showed different angles of Jake’s bloodied corpse, along with a header at the top in bold letters:Billionaire’s son found MURDERED on remote island favored by mysterious secret society!

Below the slideshow was a caption explaining that Jacob Jennings, son of billionaire Peter Jennings, had been found dead in mysterious circumstances on Wildercliff Island, long-rumored to be the stomping grounds of America’s most elite secret society.

The tabloid-style headline was absolutely perfect for attracting attention. People loved reading about the lives ofuber-rich people, and they also loved reading about grisly true crime cases. Combine the two, and we had a viral post.

“So, I made a bunch of TikToks and reels about it, and I also sent the links to Holler like you suggested,” Tessa said. “It worked exactly how you hoped it would. Everyone wentnutsover it.”

“In a good way, right?”

“Yup. It spread on campus like wildfire, thanks to Holler, and after that, it really took off. It’s been shared three hundred thousand times already, and that number will keep growing,” Tessa said. “I’m really just a small fry in terms of followers, but I know for a fact that somemuchbigger content creators are interested in the story, because they’ve already posted their own videos about it, asking what the hell is happening on that island.”

“So now you’ll send them the info Rhett got from his dad’s phone? And tell them it’s linked to the post about Jake’s death?”

“Already sent. Once they post that stuff to their millions of followers… well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if twenty media helicopters show up on that island, along with half the FBI, by midnight tonight.”

I exhaled deeply. “This is amazing, Tessa. I can’t ever thank you enough.”

“You can thank me by staying safe out there,” she said. “I still can’t believe this shit is happening to you. But Iknewsomething was wrong as soon as I got that weird call from you the other night. It just cut off midsentence, and then you wouldn’t answer any calls or messages.”

“I don’t even remember any of that happening,” I said, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “They drugged me, so it’s all a blur.”

“Yeah, you told me about the drugs earlier,” Tessa said. She let out an angry huff. “I’m so glad those fucking assholes are going down. And I’m so glad I get to help make it happen.”

“Do Bree and Sloane know what’s going on?” I asked.

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