Delilah and Hudson exchanged a glance. I hung my purse by the door and stepped out of my shoes.
“We saw the invitation,” Delilah blurted.
I froze. “The one inmy room?”
“I was only in there because Inara was making retching sounds and I wanted to throw a towel down to spare your carpet,” Hudson said. “Soyou’re welcome.But it was a false alarm, and the invitation was sitting on your desk. Not exactly hidden.”
“Nova, that address isoutside the city.Like, you’d have to takethe Metro-North.”
The way Delilah emphasized the location made it seem like I was entering an active war zone. “Well, they can’t exactly host hundreds of people in a townhouse, now can they? There aren’t many super-mansions in the city.”
We all migrated to the living area, where I prepared Inara’s last wet food meal of the day. She meowed like she was on the brink of starvation.
“Super-mansions,” Hudson repeated slowly, horror-struck. “I know we’ve done our fair share of joking about all of this, but I was under the impression we were talking about upper middle-class to lower upper-class tomfoolery, maybe some wealthier finance people thrown in the mix, or C-list celebrities. I didn’t realize we were talking about theultra-wealthy.”
“What does it matter? I’ve been explaining the level of sketchiness to you both the entire time,” I said.
Well, okay, I may have left out certain parts—such as the terrifying truth that the heir to Wave Platforms Incorporated was not only a member of The Circle, but also somehow fixated onme.
“There’s a huge difference between the wealthy and the ultra-wealthy, Nova,” Hudson said. “One is flashy. They can dazzle you with fancy dinners and nice cars and a four-million-dollar townhouse in Chelsea. The other can fuckingown you.Like they already own the government, the media, the…”
“World!” Delilah finished with a nod. She brushed her blonde waves out of her face as she pinned me with concern. “Have you been watching the news lately? Now is not the time to blindly trust you’re in the hands of thebenevolentoverlords at theirremote estate.”
“I’m not blindly trusting shit,” I protested, irritated they didn’t trust my judgment or my ability to take care of myself. “And if you finally believe this group is as dangerous as I’ve been saying, then you understand why I can’t just abandon Lorelei with them. All that horrible stuff she said to us before she left—it was probably that mystery man’s brainwashing, isolating her from us.”
“She was horrible long before she joined this cult,” Hudson said coldly. “And I don’t want to beat that dead horse anymore. I’m concerned aboutyounow.”
Yep, definitely not the right time to bring up Roman Graves or the… auction. I’d tell them after I extracted Lorelei.
I sighed. This was honestly ridiculous. Who knew the Metro-North was all it would take to change their tune about an obviously sinister cult?
Was it obvious? It was all so confusing. There were layers to this. On the one hand, The Circle waxed poetic about consent, community, sisterhood, and freedom from fear and shame. On the other, mysterious men in masks found Wes and me on the subway and blew cigar smoke in our faces.
Some parts of The Circle made me feel alive, while others made me fear for my life.
“Wes agrees with you, okay? He’s looking out for me.”
“Ohhh,what a relief!” Hudson rolled his eyes hard, laughing in astonishment. “Some random man we don’t know, who you metinside the cult,is going to protect you from the psychopathic billionaires!”
“Iknow him,” I said, even though it was only half-true. I only knew the parts Wes shared with me. “And he’s not like them. He’s…”
God, I still didn’t know what Wes was. But he certainly didn’t want me near this party either.
“Have you fucked?” Delilah asked, seeming to forget about the severity of the conversation. Her eyes lit up as she waited in giddy anticipation.
Hudson glared at her, then at me.
“No,” I said. “We’re just friends.” Bitterness coated my tongue, and I was suddenly too exhausted to continue this conversation. “I have to finish up some work. I hear you guys. Thanks for caring about me, but stop worrying. It’ll all be over after I find Lorelei Saturday.”
With that, I retreated to my room. Everything had become heavy. My shoulders drooped with a sudden weight.
When I glanced at my phone, I saw several messages in the girls group chat. Memes, laughing reactions, affirmations, vulnerability, and warmth.
No heaviness. Everything in Jayne’s world was easy andfree.
Saturday morning, I received two different texts.
Jayne
