“Who could get that close to him?” Marcella asks.
“I hate to bring this up,” Brynn says timidly, “but do we want to talk about… Raven?”
Annalise shifts uncomfortably. She’d already told the girls that she invited Raven to the cabin, and it was too late to take it back, so we’ve all accepted it. We’re still not sure when she’s arrivingbecause the only response Annalise got to her invite was “I’m on my way” without a single word since.
“Not to point out the obvious, but Raven’s a hacker,” Brynn says. “She could have gotten those investor names from Mena’s phone easily. She could have tracked them down.”
“And then what?” Annalise asks. “She used up her frequent flyer miles to coordinate hits on rich and powerful men in four different states all at the same time? No.”
“She could be working with someone,” Marcella points out. They all look at me, the last conversation I had with Winston Weeks seeming glaringly important. “Anton,” Marcella supplies when no one offers up the suggestion.
“I don’t believe it,” Annalise says. “I’ll talk to Raven myself and get the answer. I don’t trust people like Winston to tell us the truth.”
“I have a theory,” Sydney suggests, drawing our attention. “Leandra. I don’t think Leandra ever planned on giving us a chance to talk to the investors. I think she wanted them dead before we got to them.”
“You think she killed them?” I ask. “How would she get to them all?”
Sydney swallows hard, and actually winces before she says the next part. “I think she sent the other girls to do it,” she says. “The ones she rescued from the academy. I think shefixedthem, the way Rosemarie fixed Lennon Rose.”
Brynn murmurs, “No…”
“I’m sorry, Brynn,” Sydney says. “But something went wrong with Leandra’s plan. I don’t think we were supposed to be in thosehouses. It’s like with Mena and the other investor, we were meant to find the men already dead—no way for us to cause trouble that way. Instead, we’d realize the corporation’s dangerous reach, etc. But somehow, those investors knew where we were going to be. They picked us up and were planning to deactivate us for the corporation. Whoever killed them saved our lives.”
I’m shocked by the plausibility of Sydney’s entire theory. I should have known not to trust Leandra, but I did. I always end up trusting her. But now that Sydney has laid out steps, I can’t believe there’s any other answer.
Brynn puts her head in her hands, devastated. Since we left the academy, she’s been begging me, us, to go back for the other girls. But I thought we needed to take out the corporation first in order to protect them. Instead, I’ve delivered them into something just as dark, something evil. Brynn senses my thoughts and looks up at me, her cheeks flaring red.
“I told you,” she says in a low voice. “I told you we had to go back.”
“I know. I’m—”
But she doesn’t let me finish before she gets up and leaves the room, heading into the hallway before slamming the bathroom door behind her. I feel awful.
“She’s right,” Marcella says, glancing over at me. Although she’s defending her girlfriend, she’s not trying to drag me into an argument. “We failed, Mena,” she adds. “All of us. Even if Leandra didn’t send them out to kill investors, we have no idea where they are. We have no idea if they’re okay.”
“What do we want to do about it?” Sydney asks. “Fly back to Connecticut and confront Leandra? Which side will Lennon Rose be on?”
We fall silent at the last question. I’m not sure which side Lennon Rose is on anymore.
Lights illuminate the trees outside, and I know that a car is pulling up. The girls and I all head into the kitchen. I squat in front of a well-hidden window and peek out from behind the curtain.
The interior lights of the dashboard inside the car shine on Raven in the driver’s seat. I wait, watching as she exits and walks around to grab her backpack from the trunk, looking around as she does. As she heads toward the house, I note that she seems different. Her posture is rigid, her chin tilted up.
“It’s Raven,” I tell the other girls, letting the curtain swish closed.
We cautiously make our way to the front door. Brynn comes out of the bathroom, wiping her eyes. She doesn’t look at me.
“Is that Raven?” she asks. Marcella tells her that it is. They talk quietly, and I feel left out of the conversation. Then again, part of me feels that I deserve it. I should never have left the other girls behind.
When I see Raven climb the porch steps, I pull open the front door, feeling the breeze of cool night air. Raven looks at me, and then a brilliant smile spreads across her face. It’s so disarming that I’m momentarily speechless.
Sydney comes over to stand next to me, and Raven nods hello, her eyes eager.
Raven’s wearing a yellow cardigan and flats, a red ribbon tied in a bow in her hair. Sydney crosses her arms over her chest, but she also seems a bit taken aback by Raven’s odd demeanor.
“We should talk inside,” Raven says. “It’s not safe out here.”
Now that she’s mentioned it, both Sydney and I scan the woods to the side of the cabin. The lake in front of us is still as glass, and although under normal circumstances it could be a great night for stargazing, right now it feels eerie.
