Page 49 of Merciless Prince
My shoulders slumped with relief.Thank fucking Christ.Shay didn’t know I was watching her at all. She was just staring at her own face, completely oblivious to the presence of the camera behind the fake mirror.
She went into her bathroom for a moment, presumably to wash her face and hands. When she returned to the bedroom, she stepped back over to the desk and picked up the invitation so she could reread it.
For a moment afterwards, she stared into space again, but this time she didn’t look confused or concerned. Her cheeks were quickly filling with color, her nostrils were slightly flared, and the rise and fall of her chest was slow and controlled. Too controlled.
She was pissed.
Her jaw set in a hard line. She screwed the invitation up in her hands, whirled around, and threw it in a perfect arc into the trash can on the other side of her desk. Then she strode over to her closet and started pulling out clothes for the day.
Shit.She was smarter than I thought.
It was time to up the ante.
16
Shay
7:04p.m.
Sender: Francesca Rivera
Subject: Delete this after viewing it
I stareddown at my laptop screen, brows knitting at the oddly-titled email that had just landed in my inbox. Even though Francesca was an actress, she’d never come across as a drama queen. She was always effortlessly cool and casual instead.
I clicked into the email and found a video attachment at the bottom. It took a moment to load, so I leaned back and set the computer on a pillow in front of me.
The video finally finished buffering. I pressed play.
Francesca had filmed herself with a laptop webcam, and she appeared to be sitting on a king-sized bed in her studio apartment. Her sheets and pillowcases were all bright white, except for the pillow on her lap, which was streaked with a few little pools of black. Francesca’s face was streaked with mascara as well, and her eyes were red and puffy.
“Is this even working?” she mumbled to herself, leaning forward and frowning at the screen. She clicked something and nodded. Then she sniffed, took a deep breath, and sat up straight.
“Shay, I just wanted to tell you,” she began in a shaky voice. “I’m so sorry. I’ve been such an asshole. I… I lied to you last night. I swear, I didn’t want to. I was just scared. I’mstillscared. But I’ve been thinking about it all day and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. I feel like you have the right to know the truth.”
She paused and shifted the laptop slightly. Her head whipped around a second later, and she stared at her front door for a moment before turning back to face the screen.
“You were right. About everything,” she said, voice quavering. “That thing you saw in the grotto… it was real. That guy died. They… they…” She trailed off again and closed her eyes as a shudder went through her body. “He’s gone,” she finally said. “And you were right about the Hellfire Club, too. They’re real, and they’re the ones who killed him. I’m so sorry for lying to you about it all. I wish I just—”
She broke off again and wiped her face. Then she mumbled an apology and sucked in another deep breath. When she started speaking again, the words spilled out as if they’d been building up inside her for months, waiting for a chance to escape.
“I know all of this stuff because I work for them,” she said. “Believe me, I don’twantto. But they blackmailed me into doing it. For some reason they like to make all these weird videos when they hurt people—like themed snuff films, I guess—and they want people like me to fill out the numbers. Actors and models. Basically just anyone who can make their videos look good. They force us to participate.” She paused and took another deep, shaky breath. “I… I couldn’t say no when they approached me because they had stuff on me. Bad stuff that could ruin my career and my life. So I had to go along with whatever they said or else they were going to release the information they had on me to the media. At first, I told myself I could do it because I never had to hurt anyone. I just had to be there at all these movie shoots of theirs. Play my role. But…”
Francesca stopped and whipped her head around to look at the door again. Her shoulders were high and rigid, and her chest was rising and falling with short, sharp breaths, like she was about to have a panic attack.
“Sorry. I keep hearing stuff outside,” she said, turning back to the webcam. “Anyway, I was telling you about the Hellfire Club. I guess I’ve worked for them for—” She paused and counted on her fingers. “About six months now. They don’t tell me much, but I’ve managed to figure out a few things. The first thing I know is that they pick up new members at Bellingham every year in the fall semester. They choose freshmen and sophomores and put them through some sort of testing process. And that’s just the New York chapter.”
She paused to wipe her face again.
“There are chapters all over the country,” she went on. “All over the world, actually. Canada, the UK, Australia, France, Italy, Germany… you name it. They’re there. So no matter where I go, I can never feel safe.Never.” Her voice cracked on that last word, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “There’s always someone watching people like me—the ones who work for them on the lower levels. We’ll never be trusted, for obvious reasons.” She sniffed again. “Anyway, another thing I’ve managed to figure out is that they haze the initiates before they invite them to join. They do it to see if they can hack it. See what they’re made of, you know? So when you told me all these horrible things have been happening to you up at Bellingham, and you were wondering what was going on… I thought maybe that was it. That the club wants you as a member, and they’re just hazing you to see if you can take it.”
I listened to her with bated breath, eyes wide and hands trembling. She was confirming everything I’d suspected for weeks now. I wasn’t crazy or paranoid at all. I wasright.
“I could be wrong. I guess you could just have a random stalker,” she went on. “But look, if I’m right about this, and the Hellfire Clubdoeswant you to join, there’s a few things you should know. The members all end up with an insane level of wealth and power, as long as they play their cards right. So you can have everything you’ve ever wanted if you’re one of them. But at the same time… I know they can be dangerous. Very dangerous. So I just wanted to warn you about them. If they end up inviting you to join them…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “I can’t tell you what to do, obviously. It’s your choice in the end. But whatever you do, be careful.Please. Promise me you’ll do that.”
There was a knock at her door, and she flinched. She looked around for a second, and then she returned her attention to the webcam, leaning even closer.
“I really am sorry that I didn’t have the guts to tell you this stuff last night,” she said softly. “I was worried they might be watching me. They’ve made me so fucking paranoid. It’s just…” She scraped a hand through her hair and shook her head. “God… it’s so hard to pretend that everything’s normal when really, everything is so fucked up.”
