Chapter 9
9
D espite the fact that none of the guys directly approached me for the first few hours of the party, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched the whole damn time. Carly didn’t seem to notice, though, so I didn’t mention it while we drank and danced together.
Surprisingly, Jade was nowhere to be seen.
“You want another drink?” I asked Carly sometime after midnight when we took a break from dancing, both hot and sweaty even though the air still held a distinct chill.
She shook her head, grinning. “Noooo…but I do want to play beer pong.” She pointed in the direction of the full-size outdoor Ping-Pong table someone had set up on the grass near the edge of the woods. The current game looked like it was almost done, with one of the teams vomiting on the grass beside the table.
I winced and shook my head. “Count me out, I value my liver too highly for that. I do need to pee, though…” I cast my gaze around the party, biting the edge of my lip nervously. The feeling of being watched had faded, but maybe that was the alcohol calming me down.
“Ah yeah, there’s not really any bathrooms,” Carly informed me, assuming I was looking for a toilet. “You need to just pee in the bushes or behind a tree. Want me to stand guard?”
Someone called her name, waving her over to the beer-pong table, and I laughed. “No, I’m fine. You go play. I can pee on my own like a big girl. Especially since my douchebag stepbrother and his friends seem to have disappeared.”
Carly wrinkled her nose and nodded. “Yeah, they all left about an hour ago. You sure you don’t need me to come with?”
My brows rose with skepticism. “Is there anything in the woods I should be scared of?”
She glanced at her watch, then shook her head. “Nope, you’re good. Hurry up, then come back and watch me wipe the floor with these losers.” She gestured to the two guys who’d claimed the opposition team spot, and I laughed.
“All right, I’ll be back.”
Still, I glanced around with caution bordering on paranoia as I left the party and headed into the dark and quiet trees to find a pee spot. I was hardly alone, though, passing several couples engaged in romantic activities which pushed me farther into the woods to avoid ruining their mood.
Once I decided on my spot—far enough away to avoid being a voyeur—I took care of business and squatted for a minute to drip dry. The several vodka raspberry lemonades I’d had while dancing had made my head spin, and when I stood up to fix my pants, the world tilted somewhat.
“Whoa,” I murmured, my vision blurring a moment. “That…probably means it’s time for bed.”
Bracing a hand on a tree, I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. I’d drunk way too much and already regretted it. My hangovers were never fun, so tomorrow looked grim.
“Okay, Ash, pull it together.” I sighed and opened my eyes once more, blinking into the darkness. In the distance, I could hear voices so used them as my guide to find my way back…since apparently I’d gone farther into the trees than I’d initially intended.
As I drew closer to the conversation I hesitated. This close to the party, I should’ve been able to see the lights and hear music but there was none of that. Just a few voices in the darkness ahead and nothing more.
“…just got the most irritating voice,” one of the guys said as I took a few cautious steps closer. “If it weren’t for her being in the DB Society, I’d have put her in her place by now.”
I froze, huddling behind a tree. DB Society? The same one mentioned in the diary?
Wait…that was Carter who was speaking, his accent unmistakable. Who was he talking about? Jade maybe?
“That and because of how she could suck a golf ball through a garden hose,” someone else said, chuckling. Classy guys.
“That too,” Carter agreed. “Speaking of which, how’s Ashley’s head game, Heath? Worth the money?”
Oh fuck, I hadn’t returned to the party at all. I’d instead stumbled across some kind of private guy chat further into the forest. Knowing my luck, it would be all four of them ahead, and I’d have yet another uncomfortable encounter with Nate and his bad attitude.
Still…this was Heath’s opportunity to set the record straight. Right?
“What do you think?” he replied to his friend, giving a smug laugh, and my heart sank. So much for redeeming himself.
“I think you’re a fucking idiot,” someone snarled, and it only took me a moment to place Nate’s voice. “It was one thing to prove she’s a whore like her gold-digging mom but you’re taking it too far showing up at the party with her. Do you have any idea what people are saying?”
“Yep,” Heath replied, unapologetic, “that she’s my girlfriend. Fun, huh?”
What the fuck? Because he was holding my hand when we arrived? Great, just great.
“But she’s not,” Carter corrected, “so what are you hoping to gain out of this game, Heathcliff?”
My thoughts exactly, Carter.
“Aren’t we supposed to be discussing this year’s initiate prospects, not staging an intervention for Heath’s poor financial investments?” That was Royce, surprisingly reasonable and spiking my curiosity again.
Listening to them talk shit about my fictional sex work was interesting and all, but I wanted to hear more about this secret society that the diary in my room mentioned. The Devil’s Backbone Society. They were all clearly involved somehow.
“Are we inducting Ashley?” Carter asked and I needed to clap a hand over my mouth to keep from gasping. “She’s an Essex now, after all, and legacy dictates?—”
“She is not an Essex,” Nate spat with palpable venom. “Neither is Carina, no matter what the marriage certificate says. She doesn’t get a free pass into the DBs just because my dad is cuntstruck.”
My jaw dropped. What a vile shit, Nate was. Mom and Max always spoke so highly of him and this was the crap he said behind their backs?
“Okay but she’s also the only scholarship student in postgrad so…” Carter was pushing the issue for some reason, and it made me anxious.
“I said no , Bass,” Nate snarled. “End of conversation.”
A tense silence followed Nate’s proclamation, then someone sighed. “Okay so where does that leave us?”
“Ava Morales, Lukas Hart, Zara Liu, Emma Ramirez, Isla Camden, and SimonBrooks.” Heath rattled off six names of people I didn’t know.
“It’ll do,” Nate said in a stubborn-fuck tone. “We can always induct more later if they prove worthy.”
Another silence gave me the feeling not all of his friends were in agreement, but they also weren’t pushing back.
“What do you want to do with them?” Royce asked. “Glass coffin? Ice plunge?”
“Cat’s Peak,” Nate replied. “It hasn’t been done in a few years, and it always weeds out the sniveling time-wasters.”
I bit my lip, thinking of the mysterious diary in my room. The author mentioned Cat’s Peak in conjunction with someone’s death, hadn’t she?
“I’ll set it up,” Royce agreed.
“Heathcliff, you’re on acquisitions,” Nate ordered, clearly the one in charge out of this crew. “Bass, you?—”
“Need to deal with the dog?” the smoking-hot Brit replied in a sarcastic drawl. “Four-legged one, I mean. Jade has already been put in her place.”
Nate scoffed. “Overkill if you ask me. It was a harmless prank on the new girl.”
“ After I’d told her to back off,” Carter added, “which means her harmless prank was in direct violation of orders.”
“Yeah, well, that part couldn’t go unpunished I guess,” Nate muttered, sounding sour. What a dick. I almost suspected he was the one who’d put the idea in Jade’s head to begin with. Maybe I needed to talk to Max about him…
Someone said something too quietly for me to make out, and the other guys laughed. The whole mood had shifted and they started joking around, sounding a shitload more relaxed. It made me painfully aware how long I’d been hiding there, eavesdropping on them. I needed to get my ass back to the party before I got caught.
Holding my breath, I took a slow, careful step away from the tree I’d been lurking behind. Hopefully in the direction of the party. Instantly, a branch snapped under my foot and I froze.
“What was that?” Heath asked sharply.
Fuck. I was so totally fucked. I really didn’t want to investigate what they might do if they caught me spying, especially seeing as they were so clearly involved in a secret society or some shit. As silently as possible I shrank back against the tree once more and prayed to gods I didn’t believe in that I was hidden.
“Probably just an animal,” Carter drawled, sounding bored and tired, “or a branch falling off a tree. Nature, bro.”
“Go check,” Nate ordered in a snap. “Last thing we need is someone spoiling initiation night by reporting us.”
Someone sighed heavily and the crunch of leaves indicated they were closer. I squeezed my eyes shut tight, holding my breath and wishing myself invisible then right when I thought they spotted me, the steps stopped.
“There’s no one here!” Royce yelled back to the other guys. “Just a squirrel, you paranoid fuckers.”
He sounded so close, I couldn’t help but open my eyes to check. Sure enough, he was about three feet in front of me, looking out into the darkness and his back toward me. Holy shit, maybe I was well concealed after all.
“All right let’s get out of here,” Nate called back.
“I’ll swing back past the party,” Royce announced over his shoulder, his head tilted in a way I was sure he might see me. “I’ll catch up later.”
The other guys exchanged a few words as they exited their meeting place in the woods, their voices quickly fading away…yet Royce didn’t move. It wasn’t until a car engine started up that he sighed and turned around.
“Hello, little squirrel,” he murmured, meeting my eyes with pinpoint accuracy despite the darkness. “How much of that did you hear?”
Words failed me as my racing pulse threatened to choke me out. So I just shook my head and tried to breathe normally.
“Hmm, I see…” He stepped closer, closing the gap between us and forcing me to tilt my head back in order to keep my eyes on him. The full moon cast just enough light that his features weren’t entirely in shadow but it was still eerie as fuck. “Cat got your tongue tonight, beautiful?”
He reached out and trailed a finger down the side of my face, sending a deep shiver through my body. Fear or something else, I wasn’t altogether sure.
“Just cautious not to incriminate myself,” I replied, my voice husky and quivering. Nervous. “I got lost, that’s all.”
He didn’t immediately reply, just tilted his head to the side like he was weighing my honesty. Frustratingly, his expression gave nothing away about what he was thinking, and I fought the urge to fidget nervously.
“Well, we can’t have that,” he finally said in a quiet voice. “I’ll help you find your way, little squirrel.”
Not offering me a choice in the matter, he snagged my hand in his and tugged me away from the tree in a move that made me gasp in surprise. I stumbled as I hurried to keep up when he strode confidently into the darkness of the forest like he had an inbuilt GPS system.
“Royce, what the hell? Where are you taking me?” I was already out of breath, which said more about my fitness level than his effect on me. I think.
He didn’t slow down but cast an amused glance over his shoulder at me anyway. “I’m not leaving you out in these woods alone, lost, and inebriated, Ashley. Think what you want of my friends, but I’m not an asshole.”
Then he paused, stopping so abruptly I collided with his back. “Ow, what?—?”
“Okay, that wasn’t a true statement,” he admitted. “I’m definitely an asshole. But I’m not the kind of asshole who knowingly leaves a damsel in distress, feel me?”
He quirked a brow in question, and I was confused—and drunk—enough to simply nod in response.
That seemed to satisfy him, though, and he continued his brisk march in silence until we popped out of the tree line and I looked around with a puzzled frown.
“This isn’t the lake party, Royce.”
“Oh good, you’re not blind. Can you make it back to your dorm from here or do I need to come up and tuck you in? I should warn you, I’m not as generous as moneybags Briggs so couldn’t pay quite that much…” He tilted his head to the side, running his gaze over me in a leering way. “Then again, maybe you’d be worth going into debt for…”
I rolled my eyes. “Fuck you, Royce. I think you know Heath is full of shit.”
Royce just shrugged. “I take that as a no, then?” He pointed across the dark lawn. “There’s your building. Off you go, little squirrel.”
Too many vodka-raspberrys meant no snappy comebacks sprang to mind, so rather than stand there looking up at him, I shook my head and started toward my dorm.
“Oh, by the way,” he called after me. “Whatever you think you heard tonight…forget it. It’s in your best interest, Ashley.”
I paused, spinning around to confront him about this secret society nonsense, but to my shock, he was gone. Just…disappeared into thin air. What the fuck ? Maybe he was right. I’d had more than enough to drink for one night.