Page 51

I must be really out of it because that can’t be it. His father must be saying something on the other end of the line to cause that reaction. As I’ve already been told, whatever Stone’s infatuation with me is can’t happen. Not that I truly believe there’s any sort of infatuation.
“We’ll take care of it,” Stone says, calmer now before hanging up the phone. He spins on his heel and throws the phone across the room. It crashes against the cupboards, glass splintering and denting the wood. He lets out an inhuman growl that makes me stiffen.
“Stone...” Wyatt starts.
“Give me a minute,” he says in a voice like sandpaper being dragged over jagged stone. He takes several deep breaths, his fingers lost in his hair as he stares at the ground. Like he promised, within a couple of minutes, he gazes up again. His calm facade back into place. It’s scary how quickly he can change his demeanor. It makes me wonder if I’m ever seeing the real Stone Jacobs, or if everything he wears is just a pretense.
He turns to the couch that he slumped against earlier and falls back on the cushions like he owns the place. Wyatt pats him on the back as he eyes Lucas and I. Lucas guides me over to the opposite couch, and we sit.
“How are you?” Stone asks, the gravelly texture in his voice gone. In its place is the even tone I’m used to hearing from him.
“I’m better,” I say.
“You probably have a lot of questions.”
“You could say that.”
Stone leans forward, draping his hands over his thighs so his fingers dangle over his knees. “We were given a dose of Rohypnol that was ground up and put on our food. It was a high dosage which caused us all to pass out. The drug is most commonly referred to as the date-rape drug.”
“Wait.” I cock my head. “How the fuck do you know all this?”
“I called a scientist I’m friendly with as soon as I woke up. I had one of his lab assistants pick up a piece of the pizza and rush it to his lab. He tested it and told me, confirming my suspicions.” He takes a breath. “We don’t believe you were raped, but I will send you for a rape kit if you so desire.”
“Wait. What?”
“Jesus Christ, Stone,” Lucas snaps. He pulls on my arm to make me look at him. He sears me with his brown gaze. “You weren’t disturbed at all. When Wyatt woke up, we were all in the same positions. You were fully clothed. Nothing out of place. There is absolutely no evidence that anything happened to you, even from the video feed.” He motions toward the cameras in the room. “Stone just likes to be thorough, that’s all. Youweren’traped,” Lucas promises.
My heart beats like crazy in my chest.
“Pretty sure I just said that,” Stone argues. He takes another deep breath and lets it out. “Continuing,” he says, agitation lacing his voice. “While we were out, whoever did this to us took pictures and sent them to my father. That seems to be their whole aim, just letting us know how easily they can get to us.” He pauses for a moment, then with a straight face and little emotion says, “I’m very sorry.”
I close my eyes. Is he a robot? Like, what is wrong with him? I was given roofies and photographed while I was incoherent. “Just tell me what’s going on,” I grind out. “All of it.” As much as I want to be mad at them, some of this is my fault. I have a sneaking suspicion this is a lot more dangerous than I originally thought. They tried to warn me, and I dismissed it.
“I’ve been waiting for you to be ready to hear this,” Stone says.
Lucas grips my fingers tighter. I lean forward, eyeing his friend and my family’s natural enemy. “I’m ready.”
“Thereissomeone else after the treasure,” Stone says, lifting a brow to stare at me. “And it’s not a normal outfit. They’re not tracking off our leads. They’re not looking for what we know, so they can make inferences and go search for themselves.” His Adam’s apple bobs up and down. “They’re exploiting my family. If we don’t get them the treasure, they’re going to kill us.”
23
Ieye Stone on the way to school from the backseat. All of us are functioning on very little sleep, yet he looks the most put together. There’s just the tightening around his eyes that’s proof of us staying up late into the night after being drugged so he could tell me the story of his family being threatened.
I wrestle with the idea of feeling sorry for him. Not his dad. He can go fuck himself. But Stone, who tries to be perfect at everything, yet has had this thing hanging over his head. He manipulated me. He blackmailed me. But what they’ve done to me is nothing like what’s being done to them.
His mother is missing.
The last time he saw her was when they met up briefly after my father hiked up into the mountains never to be seen again. She left my house that day and hasn’t been heard from since. He doesn’t even know if she left on her own volition, or if she was abducted. It doesn’t surprise me that I hadn’t heard from her, but it does surprise me that Stone hasn’t. Honestly, I don’t know what to think. The only thing that’s clear is thatsomethinghappened to her after she left Clary.
So, yeah, this morning, I didn’t fight any of them when they said we should all ride to school together. I may not have had the best childhood but at least I never had to worry about violence. About losing a family member.
They don’t think my father’s disappearance has anything to do with this asshole who’s threatening the Jacobs. I came clean about the note that was left for me at school. The guys all looked at each other and agreed it was a good thing they made the registrar put at least one of them in every single one of my classes. Dampening my outrage at that deceit was hard, considering I’d just woken up from being drugged, but I did manage to get a few barbs in which were totally justified.
If we don’t find the treasure—the treasure that’s been missing for over a hundred years—these people, this insane asshole, is going to start killing the Jacobs and their known associates. That includes Lucas, Wyatt, and now, me. Since Marilyn is missing, it only makes sense that they started with her, which is why I keep finding myself staring at Stone. I would never know his mother is missing just by looking at him. He wears his shields like armor, and I can give him props for that. I never mastered that level of indifference.
Wyatt is giving me a list of things to do as we turn into the school parking lot. “Don’t act weird. Just act natural. We have no reason to believe anyone at the school is in on it. We’re keeping appearances normal,” he says, just like they told me last night. Apparently, Wyatt is their enforcer type guy. He secured the perimeter while the rest of us were still passed out, and then he finally pulled the security footage of the intruders entering the house dressed in all black with homemade ski masks who snapped pictures of us and left. Now, if only Stone had led with that instead of saying he didn’tthinkI was raped. That would’ve been helpful.
“I got it,” I say to Wyatt with more force than necessary. He’s got me paranoid now. I keep looking at everyone heading toward campus wondering if they’re out to get us.