To avoid the crushing feeling of grief ripping my vulnerable heart to shreds, I headed for the stairs to find the room from Lorelei’s PicWave post.
An attendant approached me, a woman in a black shirt and slacks. Her words were slow, nervous. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
“Hi, yes, can you please direct me to whatever room has a big window overlooking the back of the estate with a vanity painted a nude pink with floral details?”
“That’s our room,” Jayne said carefully from behind me.
“Oh, great. Take me there,” I said, swallowing down a sob. My voice was developing a kind of manic edge that sounded foreign, even to my own ears.
Wes and Roman stood on either side of Archer, the three men looking equally reluctant to be following me around together.
I ignored them all. Jayne slowly led me up the grand staircase in the foyer.
“Yes, fuck yes,” a man groaned from behind a door.
Unfortunately, this was the door Jayne pushed inside.
“Maisy?” Jayne asked, lifting a brow.
Maisy was getting railed by an attractive Black man with dark skin in his late twenties, her ass in the air in Jayne and Archer’s bed.
Her head swiveled. “I’m sorry, Jayne,” she said, her voice shaking with each syllable as the man refused to stop fucking her. “I just wanted to be close to you.”
I was way too mentally fucked to unpackthatright now.
“I wanted your energy to be a part of this, a part of me. I understand if you and Archer need to punish me…” She trailed off, eyes hooded.
“No, no, carry on, dear,” Jayne said, as if she also did not have the energy for Maisy right now. “We’ll just change the sheets,” she said under her breath.
Maisy frowned, clearly not having received the reaction she was looking for. Archer stared at the man fucking Maisy with irritation before glaring at me.
“I’m not holding you hostage,” I snapped at him. “Feel free to return to your hedonistic fuck fest at any time.”
At this, Roman smirked, clearly enjoying my anger when it wasn’t directed athim.
I homed in on the window at the front of the room, the corner of the vanity that had been in Lorelei’s picture. I pointed.
“There. My friend Lorelei took a picture right there,” I said, spinning around to face my wary onlookers.
The man fucking Maisy had slowed, throwing me a look over his shoulder, as if I was killinghisvibe too.
“And she posted it to PicWave last week. There was a man’s hand around her throat, and in her caption, she said she was ready to merge with The Circle. Then earlier tonight, she was running through the forest in a red dress.”
Everyone blinked at me, silent.
“Tall, blonde hair she wears in loose curls. She looks very thin, like she’s lost a lot of weight. She looks unwell.” I rushed through the description of my ex-best-friend, scanning each face for recognition that never came.
“You saw her earlier?” Wes asked.
I nodded. “Yes. Twice. She ran from me and laughed, like she was in on whatever sick fucking game you all are playing with my head.”
“I’m not—” Wes started, but I didn’t want to hear it.
“Where is she?” My voice tipped over the edge of my growing, crazed hysteria. Sobs were still lodged in my throat, but I swallowed the urge down. I didn’t want to cry in front of Wes. I would save it for the ride home. He didn’t deserve to see how much he’d broken me.
Jayne looked at Archer again, as if for help.
“I’m concerned about you, Nova,” Archer said. “There was no woman in a red dress at the hunt.”
