Page 30 of Half Truths (Secret Society 1)
After sleuthing for another hour or so, I closed the laptop. I needed to find whatever articles she’d written about the secret societies. I needed to find out what the police had and why this wasn’t in their possession, but that would mean that I’d have to come forward and potentially throw my brother under the bus. As far as I knew, he’d never been questioned by the police because he’d gone home so quickly and they didn’t find reason to ask him anything, but something was off about all of this. Why would he have so many of her things? Had someone sent this stuff to implicate him? Who was sending me those texts and how had they gotten my number? And if Lana was still out there like they were suggesting, why was nobody searching?
* * *
I sat across from Hailey, knee bouncing, as we sipped on our lattes. I hadn’t told her everything, but I did tell her about the red cloaked people I saw on the street the other night and the ones wearing black cloaks near my apartment. I left out the part about the card, figuring it probably wasn’t a good idea to say anything about it since I was pretty sure I’d show up the next time I got one, especially after seeing my brother’s.
“So there are two different societies,” she mused. “I’ve only seen the black cloaks.”
“They weren’t doing anything interesting, just walking, but even that was weird.”
“What? The way they were walking?” She inched closer, setting her elbows on her legs.
“No. The fact that no one said anything about it at all.” I sipped. “Well, one guy did, but everyone told him he was ridiculous.” I set my mug down. “I also heard something else that was interesting.”
“What?”
“Someone told me that there’s a rumor that these girls disappear because one of the societies sacrifices them.”
“Hm. I’m not sure I believe that. Why do so many of them come back? It seems like most of them do, actually. And they all live normal lives.” She sipped her latte as she looked at me. Hailey did that a lot, she just looked at people. Or maybe it was me she was busy staring at. I tried not to focus on it, but I found myself constantly looking away to avoid awkwardness. She set the mug down. “Do you think you’d live a normal life if you were kidnapped?”
“If I was kidnapped?” I said rather loudly.
“It’s a hypothetical question, Mae. You don’t have to freak out about it.” She let out a laugh.
“It’s not hypothetical when people are actually being kidnapped,” I whisper-shouted. “And I’m not sure. Would you live a normal life if you were kidnapped and let go a year later after they did who knows what to you?”
“I think so.” She shrugged.
I felt myself make a face, but didn’t comment. What was I supposed to say to that?
“How’s your brother?” she asked after a beat. “My mom told me she went to a mass for him. I hope he’s okay.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s just . . . well, he’s in a medically induced coma now. He was having a lot of seizures.”
“Oof. Because of drugs?”
“No.” I frowned. “My brother doesn’t do drugs.”
“What were the seizures caused by?”
Drugs. Shit. An insane amount of drugs had been found in his system when he died. My chest squeezed when I thought about that. Lincoln had actually died and been brought back. And it had been drugs. But he’d said he hadn’t meant to overdose. He hadn’t meant to kill himself. Well, he shook his head no. Still. Drugs.
“I’m not sure.” I set my mug down and looked at my phone. “I have to go. I’m going to dinner with someone and I don’t want to be late.”
“Oh, a date?” She stood up as I did.
“Not a date, no. I’m going to dinner with a friend.”
“A friend?” She wagged her eyebrows. “A hockey player friend?”
“What? No.” I frowned. Did she know about Logan? Not that there was anything to know about Logan, but still. “Why would it be a hockey player?”
“I’m just asking.” She shrugged. “Anyway, let’s do this again soon.”
“Sure.”
“And stay away from the cloaks!”
Chapter Twelve
I was standing outside, waiting for Max, and freezing my ass off. I had the idea of leaving my jacket open, but there was no use. I should’ve grabbed a scarf before walking out of my room. I looked up to see Max walking over to me, wearing a suit.
“You look amazing.” He whistled.
“Thanks.” I made a show of checking him out. “You don’t look half bad yourself.” He chuckled, cheeks reddening. I could tell Max wasn’t used to attention, and as much as I didn’t mind paying him a compliment, I didn’t want him to take it the wrong way, so I was quick to add, “Just so we’re clear, this isn’t a date.”
