Page 158 of Secrets and Lies
“Because I didn’t know how.” I shrug helplessly. “How was I supposed to tell you I let one of our frat brothers rub off on me when I had no idea who he was? I didn’t even understand it, and I figured it was just a one-time thing, like a hall pass or whatever, so it didn’t really count.”
“Did you know it was him?”
“Not until the first night he snuck into my room.”
“Wait a second.” He gives me a sharp look. “You said you had no idea Mr. X was Anthony until that night in your room when you recognized his eyes under the mask. Does that mean you knew Mr. X was the same guy from the Hunt, but you still had no idea who he was until after you started fucking?”
“Pretty much.”
“Wow.” He shakes his head. “Anything else you didn’t tell me?”
“Pretty sure that’s it.”
He blows out a breath. “And here I thought my situation was complicated.”
“Yeah, but things will go back to normal when he gets sick of me,” I say dismissively. “So they won’t be complicated forever.”
He looks like he wants to argue with me, but doesn’t say anything.
Anything else you didn’t tell me?
Damon’s words echo in my mind, and it’s like a switch is flipped and a lightbulb goes off over my head.
The flash drive I found at The Crypt. The one with Xave and his cousins’ names all over them. I totally forgot it even existed with everything going on.
“What?” he asks, looking confused.
“You asked if there was anything else I didn’t tell you, and I just remembered something I forgot to tell you.”
“What is it?” he asks as I slide off the bed and stand.
“I found something a while ago that your boyfriend and his cousins will probably want to know about.” I dig the flash drive I copied the files onto out of my desk drawer. I could just give him the original, but something tells me I should hang on to it just in case.
I briefly explain what went down at The Crypt as I give it to him, then tell him what I found when I listened to the files.
His expression is grim when I’m finally done. “Thanks.” He tucks the flash drive into his pocket. “I’ll get this to Jace, and hopefully he can figure out what’s going on.”
“Jace?” I ask.
“He’s a hacker,” Damon says like it’s no big deal.
“Jace is a hacker?” I repeat.
I don’t know the Hawthorne twins beyond their reputations and Damon’s stories, but Jace being a hacker is surprising—and also not. Both twins are incredibly smart, but they’re also completely unhinged, and Jace is always getting into some sort of trouble along with the rest of his cousins.
A lot of shady shit goes down at Silvercrest, and a lot of stuff you don’t find at other colleges, like abnormally high crime rates and a policy of looking the other way depending on who’s involved in the crime.
The Hawthorne cousins are always in the middle of some scandal or another, and if even a fraction of what people say about them is true, they’re incredibly dangerous and have bodycounts that have nothing to do with how many people they’ve slept with.
“A damn good one too,” Damon says.
“Well fuck me sideways.” I settle back on my bed. “Any other secret talents in the Hawthorne crew?”
“Tons, but none you want to hear about.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Does anyone else know about the drive?” he asks.
