Page 21 of Sour Lollipops and Sweet Nightmares (The Society #1)

“Really?” I lifted my chin long enough to nod at Ravi’s obvious erection, gave him a grin when he shot me a dirty look, then returned to inspecting the items I found in Georgia’s purse.

The Bible in particular made me wonder about the girl. Was it something she took seriously, or just something she had? People liked to pretend that they were righteous and full of faith, but the only thing they were full of was shit.

Thou shalt not lie, or thou shalt not bear false witness to thy neighbor, was the ninth commandment, yet everybody lied, especially to themselves.

Take parenthood, for example.

Every parent out there insisted that their baby was a cute, pudgy-cheeked, little angel.

In most cases, they were right. But there were some ugly babies out there.

They were the ones people would pretend to smile over and say some cop out bullshit like, ‘Isn’t he special,’ or ‘ Look at all that hair .’ Both of which were code for what the fuck happened to that kid?

In that scenario, both parties were lying. The parent, to themselves, and the friend to the parent. Some would argue that the friend didn’t want to hurt the parents’ feelings, but it was still a fucking lie.

Which kind of liar was Georgia? The type that lied to themselves, or others?

And if it was the latter, did she only lie to spare their feelings, or was it for something else?

These were important things to factor in when trying to figure someone out.

And I had no idea what kind of person Georgia Pyne was.

Everything I’d observed her do was a contradiction. She stood her ground against us in the dean’s office but shied away when I talked to her in the cafeteria. She pepper-sprayed us but froze in terror when I touched her.

So, which one was she? The timid mouse, or the fierce lioness? Because she couldn’t be both. Who was Georgia Pyne? If I could figure that out, then maybe I could figure out what my father was hiding from me. That was more important to me than the claiming.

Ravi obviously knew more than I did, but there was no way he knew everything. Not that he would tell me anything. He would lose his advantage if he did that, and that was the problem. Ravi had more cards in this game than I did, and I didn’t like that.

Ravi walked over to me and tipped his head. “Are you going through her purse again?”

Sighing, I tossed the Bible back on my bed. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

If I was going to bring Georgia Pyne down, I needed to figure her out. A good place to start was determining what kind of liar she was. Was she the bleeding heart I can’t say that to them type, or the I’ll say what I need to type? And most importantly, what were her tells?

Some people were better at dishonesty than others, but there was always a tell.

Fidgeting hands, a slight twitch in the corner of their mouth, or the way their eyes shifted when they spoke.

The signs were there, even for pathological liars who believed the bullshit that came out of their mouths.

Lying was not a flawless art, unless you were me.

I had no tells because I didn’t lie very often.

Unless the outcome of said fabrication would amuse me, I didn’t see the need.

I didn’t care what people thought or if I hurt their feelings.

In fact I preferred to hurt their feelings.

What I did give a shit about was getting what I wanted.

Was that narcissistic? Absolutely. Was it sociopathic? Maybe.

Now ask me if I cared.

Ravi dropped down and sat on the foot of my bed. “You’re wasting your time with this crap.”

Crap was exactly what this shit was. But I couldn’t stop combing through it.

All chicks were hoarders. They just kept it contained to their purse.

Digging through their packrat sack was like playing a game of What will I find today.

Their entire life was in that bag. I knew a chick once who had a bike lock in her purse, but no bike.

She had no idea where she got it, or why it was in there, but she wouldn’t get rid of it.

And she was offended that I would suggest such a thing.

So, Georgia’s purse should’ve offered some insight into her.

It did not.

Not only did none of this shit make any sense, but there were only twelve items. A necklace with a tiger’s eye pendant, a case for her glasses, with cleaner and a small cloth, a pair of yellow flip flops, two rocks, a granola bar, a white Bible, a small bottle of aspirin, hand sanitizer, and a notebook.

Reaching out, Ravi snatched one of the rocks off the bed. “Why the fuck does she have these?”

“A better question is where the fuck is her wallet?”

He tipped his finger my way. “That’s a good point.”

“It’s weird, right?”

“A little,” he agreed while inspecting the grey stone in his hand.

A wallet held your ID, money, credit cards, all the important shit.

People tended to carry that around with them, but not Georgia Pyne.

No, she’d rather take fucking rocks with her.

They weren’t even good rocks. They were small and grey with little flecks of something else in them.

Maybe she planned on throwing them at someone’s head?

That was about the only use I could see for them.

“The girl is kind of weird, though. Do you know she spent three hours last night watching a documentary on Pompeii. Who does that?”

My brow lifted. “How do you know what she was doing?”

“I got bored, so I figured I’d peek in her window, and see what she was doing.”

Peek in her window? “What did you do, stand outside her window for hours?”

“Yeah.” He gave me a slight shrug. “It was a good documentary.”

“You do realize that we can get in that house anytime we want, right?”

Craven House and the six others came equipped with security, alarms, and remote locks that we had full access to. I’d been unlocking her door for the past three days just to fuck with her.

Ravi looked right at me and said, “What’s your point?” As if I had just said the stupidest thing in the world.

I waved him off. If Ravi wanted to stand outside like a psycho stalker, that was his prerogative. I had other things to do, like deciphering Georgia’s notebook.

Grabbing the book, I flipped open the pink cover and stared down at the numbers written on the page.

Ravi tipped his chin to peek down at the page, “You figure out what that means?”

“No.” I could tell she was keeping track of something. I just didn’t know what.

“Maybe she’s counting calories,” Ravi suggested. “Girls do that kind of thing.”

“Not Georgia Pyne.” She wasn’t the type to count her calories.

“You don’t know that.”

Yes, I did. I spent the past three days doing a deep dive into not only Georgia, but her entire family.

I knew how much money her mom had in her bank account, where they buried her grandmother, what vaccinations they’d had, and how many times she’d been to the doctors’.

I knew everything there was to know about Georgia Pyne, and guess what I found?

Nothing.

Not a goddamn thing.

And that was the interesting part. My father said she didn’t have a Salem bloodline, but that she did have a bloodline. What kind of bloodline, I had no fucking idea. But whatever it was, it didn’t come from her mother’s side, which was where my problem came in.

Georgia’s father was a complete mystery.

I had no idea who he was, although I had a sneaking suspicion that my father knew.

Where there was no father’s name on Georgia’s birth certificate, there were plenty of pictures of her mother with men on her mother’s social media, but nothing from around the time of Georgia’s conception.

That was odd in and of itself. What kind of prom queen doesn’t post pictures of prom?

It could’ve been a one-night stand. That was always a possibility, but that only led to more questions. The Society had a hard enough time tracking down Salem girls, what with marriages and name changes over the years.

Finding one that was the result of a one-night stand would be impossible, unless they were keeping tabs on them.

And if that were true, The Society would’ve either killed her when she was a baby or taken her and raised her themselves like Aiden.

Meaning, they just found her, which again, just led to more questions.

I set the notebook back on my bed and looked up at Ravi as he cracked open a can of soda. “What do we know about Georgia’s dad?”

He immediately choked back what he was swallowing.

Bingo.

“We don’t know who he is,” he coughed out.

Ravi’s tell was a slightly raised voice while avoiding eye contact. “Yes, you do.”

He stared at me, confirming my suspicions. Whatever he was hiding from me had to do with Georgia’s dad.

“Don’t you think you have other things to worry about?” he cocked a brow my way. “Like the claiming.”

That was classic deflection.

However, before I could call Ravi out on his bullshit, I was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Ravi and I both turned to the open doorway where a familiar blonde stood.

My eyes narrowed.

Look who came to the lion’s den.