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My phone immediately started to ring.

“Hey.”

“Hey,” Ari’s voice came through low and cautious. “Was everything okay with you last night?”

I hesitated, eyes drifting to the window where the sunlight spilled through my curtains, making the world outside look deceptively calm. “I got some more texts, but aside from being dragged into a tunnel by Dennis, my night was fine.”

I wasn’t sharing the details about how the latter half of my evening was spent.

“How are you even functioning?”

I shrugged even though she couldn’t see me. “I’m not sure I truly processed it yet. Were you okay last night?”

“I started getting texts,” she confessed.

“So did Roxxi.”

“Yeah, she told me, but not what they said.”

“Same here. You going to keep yours to yourself, too?”

“I forwarded it,” she replied softly.

I pulled the phone away, tapped the screen, and switched to speakerphone so I could open our thread again.

The past doesn’t disappear just because you pretend it’s not there. The question is, what will you do when it finally catches up to you?

“What the hell does that mean?” I murmured, reading it twice. It was too pointed. Worse, just like with Cloe’s, it felt like a reply.

“Ari,” I said slowly. “There were more messages before these. Weren’t there?”

She grew so quiet I was worried she’d hang up on me, but after another minute, give or take a few seconds, she replied. “I won’t lie to you, Sanj.”

That was an indirect confirmation.

I closed my eyes and sighed. “Why delete them, just to send one?”

“It’s not something I’m ready to talk about yet. I didn’t want to hide that I was getting them, though. I’m sorry. I just… I can’t.”

This was becoming a recurring theme.

I sat down on the edge of my bed, the phone resting on my thigh. “What the living fuck is going on?”

Someone knew things they shouldn’t about all of them. How did that happen? Secrets. Guilt. Regrets none of us had ever said out loud. Whoever this was, or these people were, they’d had front-row seats to all our worst moments. I couldn’t even imagine what my girls were keeping from me and each other.

Essentially, we were all cooked.

God knew the guys were carrying enough demons to sink a city. Ryder, Cade, Xander, Nick... even Rook. Maybe especially Rook.Sure, I hadn’t come out and told them about Ryder, but that had only just happened, and not a single one of them would be shocked. If anything, they'd be more surprised it took this long.

I exhaled quietly.

“Do you have any idea who might know about… whatever this is referring to?” I asked, quieter now, less accusation and more concern.

“No. Only one other person knows, and they’d never say anything. They swore they’d take it to their grave.”

So it wasn’t that she hadn’t shared whatever this was; she just hadn’t shared it with us.

“Let’s hope that promise still means something to them then.” I rubbed at my temples, a dull ache blooming right behind my eyes. Tomorrow was going to unleash a whole new shitshow.“Have you checked the Marked chat anymore?” I asked, already bracing for the answer.

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