My chest tightened with emotion. “You guys really don’t have to put yourselves at risk for me.”
“It’s not just for you,” Jeremiah said, giving me a small, crooked smile. “It’s for Cal, too.” He leaned back in his chair. “So… when do we want to do this? Tonight?”
“Jer!” Dylan shot him a horrified look. “You can’t be serious!”
He laughed. “Of course I’m not serious. Just trying to lighten the mood a bit,” he replied. “Obviously, we need a couple of days to come up with a proper plan. So… not tonight or tomorrow.”
“I’m free on Wednesday night,” Ginny said, glancing around the table. “Does that work for everyone? Assuming we actually have a decent plan by then.”
“Yeah, Wednesday works for—oh, wait, no. I forgot,” I said, sitting up straighter. “I’m having dinner with a guy who knew Cal that night.”
“Who?” Cherry asked.
“Kane Sutherland.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I’m not sure I know him. How’d you meet him?”
“He was at your Midsummer party for a bit, and then I ran into him today. He said he’s in some frat, and Cal used to go to their parties. That’s how they met.”
“Ah,that’swhy I don’t know him. Cal used to love all those parties when we first started here, but I absolutely detested them,” she said. “So she usually went to them with a different group.”
“Oh, right. I’m hoping he might know something about her relationship with Roman. Or just anything else that could be helpful.”
“Yeah, he might’ve seen or heard something we didn’t,” Jeremiah replied. “It’s definitely worth a try.”
“Okay, back to the tunnel thing,” Dylan cut in. “How’s Thursday for everyone?”
“That’s the day Vee and I are going to visit Jennifer,” Cherry replied, shaking her head. “I have no idea how long that’ll take, so we probably shouldn’t make other big plans on top of it.”
“Fair. Friday?” Jeremiah asked, raising a brow.
“Works for me,” I said, nodding.
“And me,” Cherry added.
Dylan groaned. “No, I just remembered… I've got a paid gig that night. I'm filming someone's engagement party downtown,” he said. “Their planner is paying me two grand to document the whole thing for social media, which is amazing.”
“I’m busy that night too,” Ginny added. “My aunt and cousins are coming to town on Friday afternoon, so I have to be at myparents’ place to help out with dinner plans and other stuff. I’ll basically be caught up with that stuff all weekend.”
“Hold on…” Jeremiah leaned forward, forehead crinkling. “Maybe it’s actually better if it’s just three of us that go into the tunnel. That way Violet isn’t going alone, but it’ll draw less attention than five people, right?”
“True.” Dylan nodded slowly before glancing at Cherry. “What do you think?”
Cherry worried her lower lip between her teeth, staring down at her half-eaten mousse. When she finally looked up, her expression was resigned but determined. “I think Jer is right. A smaller group makes more sense. Less noise, easier to move quickly if we need to.” She turned to me. “So I guess it'll be you, me, and Jeremiah on Friday night.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, searching her face. “I know you're worried about this.”
“I'm beyond worried,” she admitted, voice dropping. “But I meant what I said. We're doing this together.” She squeezed my hand. “Besides, someone needs to make sure you two don't do anything completely reckless.”
Jeremiah snorted. “Says the girl who got visitor access to a psychiatric facility by committing identity fraud.”
“That's different,” Cherry shot back, but there was the ghost of a smile on her lips now. “That was controlled risk. Strategic deception. Sneaking through a three-hundred-year-old tunnel in the hope of gaining access to a secret society's headquarters isn't exactly controlled or strategic.”
"Not even remotely," Dylan muttered, shaking his head. “But that’s why we need togetstrategic. Come up with a decent plan for you guys. Be as careful as possible.”
"Yeah, definitely," I said, though the words felt hollow as I spoke them. How careful could we really be, walking straight into the lion's den?
“It’s getting kinda late now, so I think we should meet up tomorrow to plan the specifics,” Jeremiah said, pulling out his phone. “Figure out what supplies we need, what time we're going, exit strategies, and so on. I’m free all afternoon.”
