Chapter 22

I spendthe rest of the afternoon in the library. I could go back to the house and study, but I need some time away from Roman and his circle of cult followers. I'm not studying, though. I should be, but I have a sudden urge to scour the internet for anything and everything I can find on Roman and his family.

There are tons of articles about his family's philanthropic work. But no real photos, or any negative press at all, which is really weird. I know his brother is in jail, but even that has been scoured from the internet. How is that even possible?

His family must have hired someone to keep all that shit off the internet. I didn't even know that was a thing, but it must be. I'm learning, Roman and his family are wealthy enough to do just about anything they want.

When I don't find anything on Roman, I shift my focus to Bree. I hunt down everything I can find on missing people, basically cyber stalking all of our mutual friends, looking for any evidence that Bree is out there somewhere. I post on a few sites, asking for information.

But there's no digital trace of her.

It's possible she's somewhere off-grid, though. But that's not like her at all. She's obsessed with social media, and she was posting nearly every day before she mysteriously vanished. I scroll through her feed, again, looking for any evidence of what might have happened. Did she have a mental break? She looked upset the morning she disappeared. Would that be enough to make her go off-grid?

Frustrated, I slam my laptop closed, and lean forward, rubbing my temples. This is all too much. I'm so worried about Bree, I can barely think about anything else. Except Roman. Things are toxic as fuck between us, but at least he's a reprieve from thoughts of my bestie out there, alone, and possibly hurt.

I've been at the library for hours. I'm actually surprised Roman hasn't come to find me, but I don't know, maybe he's afraid to face me after that hellish conversation we had this morning on the beach. Or maybe I did actually scare him off entirely.

Either way, it's late afternoon, and I can't avoid him any longer. I'm hungry, and exhausted, and I should really head back to the house. But before I do, I pack up my things, and head over to my old residence hall to see if there's been any sign of Bree. I doubt there has been, but it makes me feel better to check.

I use my keycard to get into the building—they haven't asked me to give it back—and head upstairs to Bree"s room. I hear a sound coming from inside, and my heart jumps into my throat. It's probably just her roommate, but I can't help the seed of hope that grows in my chest. I knock on the door, and hear someone walk over to answer the door.

When it opens, all that hope vanishes. It's Bree"s roomie. "Oh, Lux! Hey. I've been trying to find you. Come in." She moves aside to allow me in.

I step into the room, and my gaze automatically falls on Bree"s unmade bed. It's untouched, exactly as it was a couple weeks ago when she up and left.

I turn to her roommate with a bland smile. "I was just stopping by to see if you'd heard from Bree?"

Her eyes are wide, like a sense of urgency has come over her. "No, nothing. But I did find something yesterday. And, I'm sorry, I've been trying to contact you about it, but I don't have your number."

I pinch my brows together. "My phone number is on the flyers that are plastered all over campus."

"Shit," she says, running a hand through her brown curls. "I didn't think about that. Sorry. Anyway…" Her words trail off as she walks to her desk, and pulls something out of the top drawer. It's a piece of paper, and it looks like it was balled up at some point, then flattened. She hands it to me.

I swallow, glancing down at the paper. My breath immediately catches in my throat. The first thing I notice is that this is Bree"s handwriting. She'd mastered the large, elegant letters when we were freshmen in highschool, and I'd recognize it anywhere…

Lux,

I have something to tell you, and I don't want you to freak out. I'd text you, or just tell you in person, but I think we're being watched, so it isn't safe. We need to get the fuck out of this town. I've discovered something about the Sacred Sons, and it's bad. Roman

I read, and re-read the unfinished note, until finally, Bree's roommate shakes my shoulder. "You okay?"

I glance up and blink, coming out of my daze. My heart rate is at about a thousand right now, and I start to feel dizzy. I hold up the note. "Where did you find this?"

She rushes over to the side of Bree"s bed, and points to a narrow space between the bedframe and the nightstand. "I was trying to get to the electrical outlet to plug in my fan, so I pulled Bree"s nightstand back a little, and it just kinda…fell out. It was all scrunched, like she'd shoved it there quickly."

I stare at the crack, then back down at the note. She discovered something about the Sacred Sons, and about Roman, then just abruptly stopped writing, like she was interrupted. "Did anyone come to your room the day she disappeared?"

"I don't know," she says, shaking her head. She looks really freaked out. "I was in class most of the day, then I went straight to the library. I was there until about ten."

I hold the note to my chest. "Have you shown this to anyone else?"

"No, I wouldn't dare. No way do I want to get mixed up in all this," she says, pointing at the note. "What are you going to do?"

I swallow, fighting back the tears that sting the backs of my eyes. Bree was trying to tell me something. Something about the Sacred Sons. "I don't know, take this to the police? If they see this, then they'll have to take her case seriously, right? They'll look for her."

"In the note she admits to wanting to leave. Are they just going to see that as more proof that she left on her own? Also, she sounds a bit manic with the whole ‘they're watching us' line."

"Yeah," I breathe. "Fair points."

"Besides, do you really want to tip off the police? The Sacred Sons own everything in this town, including the police. I think it was Jackson's dad who donated all the fancy new police cars they drive around in." She shakes her head. "If you want their attention, you're going to have to present them with irrefutable proof that she's in danger."

"So what you're saying is that I'm going to need to find her myself…" My voice wobbles under the weight of all this, and tears start falling down my cheeks. I don't even try to stop them.

"Yeah." She shrugs one shoulder helplessly. "If she really is missing, then you're her only real hope, I guess."

I leave Bree's roommate—I should really know her name by now—with my phone number, and she promises to contact me if she finds anything else. But as I walk back to Rush House, Bree"s words burn in my mind. I pick apart every fucking word, then stitch them back together again, and re-examine them, over, and over.

I think we're being watched.

By who? The implication is that we're being watched by the Sacred Sons, even though she doesn't explicitly say that. But why? What did she find out? Her note cracked open a pandora's box of questions. Questions I can't even begin to answer.

I trust her, though. I trust that what she found out about the Sacred Sons was bad. Is it possible she left to protect me from whatever she'd discovered? But why leave without giving me the note? It's obvious she wasn't done writing it. Did she run out of time, maybe?

God.My mind is whirling, trying to make sense of what Bree was trying to tell me. I'd just heed her warning and leave, if I could. But I can't do that until I know she's okay.

Regardless, one thing is abundantly clear. I can't stay at Rush House. No fucking way. It's clearly too dangerous.

Although…I pause, when a thought occurs to me. If the Sacred Sons are involved in something sketchy, then wouldn't it be easier to find out what that is if I'm in the same house? The lions have invited me into their den, and it'd be stupid for me to walk away from an advantage like that.

What's that quote; "Keep your friends close; keep your enemies closer?" Sun Tzu again.

I'll have to be careful, though, because if the Sacred Sons are the ones who made Bree disappear, then the same thing could happen to me…