Page 136 of The Hunt

“Different recruiters do different things. My part is approaching people who are in debt and convincing them to sign up for the game.”

“How do you find them?”

“I don’t. The Patriarchs own multiple banks and finance centers across the country. The employees are told to keep an eye out for people who fit a certain profile, and they get flagged in the system. Then I travel to whichever office flagged someone, and I set up an interview with that person so I can tell them about the game and offer them the opportunity to play.”

“Wait.” I lifted my free hand. “How is it that no one in this year’s Hunt recognized you as the recruiter who brought them here? Except for me.”

“Easy. When I go to recruitment meetings with a flagged individual who has the potential to become a player, I wear an auburn wig, glasses, and a bit of contour and red lipstick. You’d be amazed at how different you can look with such simple changes.”

“Right.” I nodded slowly, brows dipping in a frown. “So you recruited me from the Havenport finance center, but you don’t actually work there on a regular basis?”

“I didn’t recruit you. Not exactly, anyway. You were a special case,” Nikki said. “Not so special foryou, obviously. Rather for those who wanted you here.”

I waved the knife. “Explain.”

“So, like I said, my job entails multiple things. Not just recruitment. Basically, each previous winner is assigned to one of the Patriarchs, who becomes their direct boss,” she said. “Iwas assigned to Peter Jennings, so I’m basically his gopher. I have to do whatever he wants. Andthatmeans I also get stuck doing whatever his piece of shit son wants.”

“Jake.”

“Yeah, Jake. Although I know him as JJ.” A murderous look had appeared in her eyes. “I hate that bastard. When I first met you, I had to pretend I didn’t know him, and holy fuck… that was hard. You told me he was a terrible person and to stay away from him, and I just wanted to shake you and say ‘Yes girl, you’re right, get the hell away from him! Move to a different country before he gets you!’. But of course, I couldn’t.”

“Why not?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Nikki drew in a deep, shaky breath. “You don’t understand what it’s like to work for these assholes,” she said. “Sure, I’m free, in the sense that I can live out in the real world, but I’m notreallyfree. They have private investigators checking up on me all the time. Monitoring everything I say and do. Sometimes I’ll think I’m alone in my apartment, but then I’ll get messages saying stuff like: ‘nice pinksweater’ or ‘ponytails really suit you, you should wear your hair like that more often’. They do that to really hammer it into my mind that I can’t step a single toe out of line, because if I do, they’ll find out.”

“Makes sense, I guess,” I said. I waved the knife again. “So what happened with my case?”

“JJ wanted you gone, and he wanted you to suffer too, because he’s a fucking asshole. He figured the Hunt was a good way to make that happen, but he knew you’d never sign up for the game on your own, even with all the prize money on offer. So he and his asshole father hatched a scheme together.”

“But his dad is the Head Patriarch,” I said. “Why did he need to scheme anything? Why not just kidnap me and put me in the Hunt?”

Nikki shook her head. “It doesn’t really work like that. The Patriarchs want people to be tricked into applying as willing participants. For their own sick amusement, I guess. But anyway, they all have to agree and sign off on the applicants together,” she said. “Peter was pretty sure the others would neveragree to let him put his son’s ex-girlfriend in the Hunt without her knowledge, even with his position as the big boss. Ergo, he and JJ needed to fake your application. That’s where I came in.”

I cast my mind back to the day I met Nikki. “Was that charity thing even real?” I asked. “The one you approached me about.”

“No. Totally fake. I went to Hollingsworth that day with the sole purpose of finding you,” she replied. “JJ knew you were struggling financially, so he knew you’d say no to my request for a regular donation. It gave me the perfect segue into offering you the business card for the finance center.”

“But how did you know I’d actually go there?”

“Well, I was supposed to break into your dorm and smash all your stuff, including your laptop. But just before I was about to do it, someone else came along and did it for me,” she said, brows rising. “Crazy shit. But one less job for me, I guess. Anyway, after that, we figured you’d probably come into the center for a small loan to replace your broken stuff.”

“You guys really plotted everything perfectly,” I muttered.

Nikki nodded. “You handed over everything we needed without question. When you put your digital signature on that tablet—the fingerprint ID thing—we were able to keep it on the system to use on the Hunt application and NDA forms. Plus, we had your physical signature on one of the papers you signed, which was secretly a Hunt NDA. I covered most of the page with the loan paperwork so you wouldn’t notice. And that signature you gave me perfectly matched the signature on your driver’slicense, which I scanned into the system after you handed it over.”

“So my application looked real to anyone who reviewed it.”

“Yup. Even if one of the other Patriarchs happened to get suspicious, they could’ve checked somehow and confirmed that your right index fingerprint matched the one on the application. But none of them were suspicious. They all thought you were a real applicant.”

“So then JJ and his father arranged to have me drugged, kidnapped, and put on the yacht?”

Nikki nodded again. “I was supposed to go below deck and wake you up if you weren’t at the party by nine-thirty. But you woke up on your own, thankfully. And… the rest is history.”

“Why were you there?” I asked, forehead wrinkling.

“In the Hunt, you mean? With you and the others?”

“Yes. Were you a mole, or what?”

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