Page 39 of Ruthless Prince
“Yes,” Amy said. “It was black with a red skull-shaped wax seal on theback.”
I nodded. “I got the exact samething.”
The others chimed in around us in low voices. They’d all received the black lettertoo.
At least I knew that one was real, even if my so-called stalker letters weren’t. It was strange that no one had been able to find it when I told Jamie about it, though. That meant someone had taken it from my purse. But who?Why?
“Did your letters say ‘the order awaits’ in big capital letters?” Simoneasked.
The rest of us answered in unison. “Yes.”
“This is too weird,” Amy said in a strangledtone.
“I think it could be a secret society,” I said. “Maybe that letter was a sort of warning, letting us know we were going to be tapped. At first I thought it meant something about giving me an order, so I assumed it was a dumb prank. But maybe the society is actually called theOrder.”
“The Order awaits,” David said slowly. “Yeah. You’re right. It could’ve been a recruitment notification of sorts, and all this cloak-and-dagger kidnapping stuff could be a sort of hazingritual.”
“Oh my fucking god. I knew this all sounded familiar.” Another voice piped up from somewhere behindme.
“Huh? Who are you and what are you talking about?” Simone said, turning her head. “God, this is so fuckingconfusing.”
“I’mrich.”
“Yeah, I know, I get it,” Amy grumbled. “You’re all rich exceptme.”
“No, mynameis Rich,” the other guy said. “Short for Richard. Anyway, my uncle got really drunk once and told me a crazy story. He said he got tapped by some sort of uber-elite secret society about fifteen years ago. They kidnapped him off the street and took him to some weird underground place. There were fourteen other people around the same age taken at the sametime.”
“Did he know any of them?” Iasked.
“Yeah. They were all rich, well-connected, incredibly gifted in some way, or all of the above.” Rich paused and jostled Amy. “You’re not an heiress, but are you super smart or extremely talented atsomething?”
She shrugged halfheartedly. “I guess. I finished school really early. I’m working on a doctoratenow.”
“Well, there yougo.”
“What else did your uncle tell you?” I asked, browsfurrowing.
“He said they did some weird ritualistic stuff. No one got hurt. It was justcreepy.”
“Did he become amember?”
“Nope. He failed the final initiation test. He didn’t care, though. He said the whole thing was too weird for him anyway. Didn’t feel right. He wasn’t the only one, either. Some people actually rejected the tap on the first night.” He coughed and turned to me. “You’re Willow Rhoades,right?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“You know your mom’s Chief of Staff? I can’t remember hisname.”
“JamieTorrance.”
“Yeah, that’s it. Apparently he was one of the ones who straight-up rejected membership that year. Said no way and walkedout.”
My brows rose. “I wonderwhy.”
Rich shrugged. “Probably the same reason my uncle didn’t want to be involved. Creepyshit.”
“What else did he tellyou?”
“He said they forbid you from telling anyone else about any ofit.”
