Page 59 of The Wrong Play

Me: I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND.

Jagger: No, you don’t. I asked Matty last time you made that claim. And it was a lie.

Me: It’s not a lie.

Jagger: Focus. Is that a yes?

Me: …

Me: Fine.

Me: But I’m telling them it was just a joke. And, if another corpse shows up, I’m telling Mom.

Jagger: Deal.

Jagger: You’re the best, Jace-face.

Me: …

It was a little concerning that I could never tell if Jagger was kidding when we had these conversations. I was alwaysprettysure he was kidding…but there was still a part of me that wasn’tquitesure.

I was still pondering the mystery that was Jagger as I walked into my bedroom and saw a crisp red envelope sealed with a very familiar-looking red wax seal sitting on my bed. I stared at it for a second before picking it up and tearing it open. Inside, nestled between the folds of paper, was a small black card emblazoned with a Sphinx symbol. Beneath it sat several neatly stacked bundles of cash, crisp and untouched, like they had just come straight from a vault. No name. No return address. Just a single, bold10:30 p.m.and an address on the inside.

Very spooky like and completely meeting my expectations for how this secret society thing was supposed to work. I grinned.

Looked like my Sphinx trials were finally going to begin. A welcome distraction for the fact that Riley had once again decided that I was the worst person on earth.

I needed to prepare.

I walked out to the main room where Matty was watching the Colorado/Baylor game on the big screen we had in our living room.

“Hand me your phone,” I ordered.

He took his time flicking his attention from the TV to my face. “Pardon?”

“I need your phone to install an app.”

Matty eyed me suspiciously. “The last time you installed an app it was to track a sea turtle’s migration that I had absolutely no interest in.”

I scoffed indignantly. “Oh, I’m sorry that I care about endangered species, Matty. That must be so terrible having such a good Samaritan in your life.”

“It was a monthly five-hundred-dollar charge that you ‘forgot’ to tell me about. And you know what it said on the bill for what it was for?”

“Sea turtles,” I answered, thinking that was a dumb question.

“Wrong. It was forEarth,” Matty said snarkily as he shoved some beef jerky in his mouth. “What does that even mean?”

“A worthy endeavor is what it means,” I told him, reaching out to grab his phone. He yanked it away.

“When I tried to cancel it, the price went up to a thousand dollars!”

“Well, this isn’t forEarth,” I said as patiently as I could—which actually wasn’t patient at all. “This is for me. So, you can track me properly.”

Matty’s eyebrows got so high they disappeared under his hair. “I don’t want to track you properly,” he said slowly.

I scoffed and waved him off as I finally secured his phone, quickly downloadingFind My Friendsand connecting it to my phone. “Of course, you want to track me properly,” I mused, putting in his password.

“Hey! How do you know my password?” he snarled, making a grabby motion at the phone.

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