Page 179 of Tag

“Okay, you psychopaths,” I interjected, sitting up straighter. “In case anyone missed part of the memo, Dennis wasn’t acting alone.”

The laughter died instantly.

It got so quiet, so fast, that my stomach knotted. I didn’t know what I’d expected, but this wasn’t it. I had a sick feeling I wasn’t going to like whatever came next.

“Whoever this other person was,” Nick started, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, “they weren’t doing it for Dennis. I started poking around after Cade and Ryder filled me in last night. If they were one of the people sending us these individualized texts, they’re an actual Huntsman. Dennis wasn’t.”

Rook shifted closer to the screen, expression unreadable. “Word around Crowsfell is the little birdie was baited. Made a move they weren’t supposed to.”

My brow furrowed. “That’s… worse.”

“That’s not a common occurrence,” Xander reassured.

“In my opinion?” Ari chimed in, her voice calm, “All the Huntsmen this year are just one big melting pot. Everyone uses each other to win big.”

“Fantastic,” I muttered. “And no one’s heard from Brittany still? What about Ethan?”

Nick shook his head. “He’s still on campus. He said she’s reading his texts. Won’t reply.”

“Maybe she has the shits so bad she’s out of commission,” Cade offered.

“Cade, that’s gross.”

“She deserves worse. I hope she expels all her insides.”

All of us girls expressed our disgust.

Ryder cracked a grin beside him. I caught it out of the corner of my eye. Not that I was looking too hard. In fact, I was doing everything in my power not to look at him, for about a dozen reasons.

All of which had me overthinking, exactly like he told me not to. Stress had a way of worsening things.

“Okay, so…” I waved a hand vaguely at the screen. “Just to summarize where we’re at:

The Hunt starts in literal hours.

Everyone in this call has some dark secret that the Huntsmen apparently know.

We’ve all got multiple people, if not the same person, targeting us. One of them backhanded Brittany hard enough to drop her, so clearly, we’re dealing with actual psychopaths cosplaying as college kids.”

I paused, letting that settle before ticking off the rest.

“Brittany’s gone M-I-A.

Layla is slinking around with Ryder’s ex from hell.

And Ashton is trying to be mysterious and manipulative, but he’s so bad at it, I’m stuck somewhere between irritated and secondhand embarrassed.”

Nick nodded slowly. “That about sums it up. You still don’t have anything to worry about, Sanj.”

I rubbed my brow. “Stop saying that. It’s not helping.”

“Starting Monday, we’ll all be together,” Roxxi reminded me, a rare softness in her voice.

Cloe followed her up. “The new window and cameras go up at two today. My dad’s having a full system installed, so at least home will be safe.”

I nodded faintly, half listening, eyes drifting across the squares.

“I should’ve drowned that bitch in the toilet,” Roxxi muttered.

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