He glanced up at me. “All they want is for you to stop investigating them,right?”
“Seems thatway.”
“How do they even know you’re investigating them?” he asked. “Didn’t you say you were onlyjustlooking into it all at the library today? Like barely an hourago?”
Hunter scratched at his jaw. “Huh, that’s a good point,” he said. He looked at me. “Maybe they saw you leaving Harker Island with me the other night, and they just assumed there was a chance you might tell me about it, and then they figured that I might convince you to launch some sort of amateur investigation into them. So this shit today could’ve been more of a ‘don’t you dare eventryto look into us’ warning than anythingelse.”
I nodded slowly. “Maybe, yeah. If they’ve suspected that we might be looking into them since Friday night, that definitely would’ve given them time to set up this trap for ustoday.”
“Right.” Adam sighed again. “Honestly, I still can’t believe this shit. If you’d actually fallen into that hole…” He trailed off and scrubbed a hand across his face. “I know it probably wouldn’t have killed you, but what if you fell at a bad angle and broke yourneck?”
My chest tightened. I didn’t want to think about that, but he was right. These girls—and their overlords in the Network—were coming after me hard. This time, they only wanted to injure me as a warning, but next time, they might take it one step further. They might even decide to killme.
My thoughts suddenly veered off in another direction, and my eyes widened. “Oh,shit.”
“What?” Hunter said, foreheadwrinkling.
“Something you said earlier just came back to me,” I said, looking at Adam. “About the note saying to drop the investigation. Your first thought was that it was about Lindsay,right?”
He nodded. “Yeah, because of your plan to look into what happened to her. I didn’t know you were investigating the Medusas too, so it was the only thing that made sense tome.”
“Right. What if it’s all linked?” I said, pulsequickening.
“How?”
I swallowed nervously and turned to Hunter. “Do you remember when I stole your phone and tried to fuck up your Altonapplication?”
His lips twitched. “Yeah. Fondmemory.”
I took a deep breath. “This is so horribly awkward to say right now, but I went through your phone thatnight.”
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t have anything to hide inthere.”
“I saw your message drafts,” I said softly, cheeks flushing hot withshame.
Hunter stiffened. “Oh.”
“What was in there?” Adam asked, confusion etched in hisface.
Hunter sighed and rubbed his jaw. “I started writing a message to Lindsay after she died. Like an apology letter for being a shitty brother, I guess,” he said. “Never sent it, though. It just seemed pointless in the end. Wasn’t like she’d ever seeit.”
“I’m sorry for reading it,” I said. “But I remember you said something in it about how she loved stargazing from your rooftopgarden.”
“Yeah, she did. What does that have to do with any of this shit,though?”
“The first night I was here, I went to the old observatory on the other side of Blair Hall,” I explained. “I looked through the astronomy binoculars first, and I saw a bunch of weird lights in the distance. They were on HarkerIsland.”
“So?” Adam tilted his chin to oneside.
“So that was the first time I realized something weird was going on over there. The next time I saw them was at Chris Hewittson’s party, and I rowed over to the island and saw part of Dayna’s initiationritual.”
“I’m still notfollowing.”
I lifted a palm. “My point is: Lindsay loved stargazing. What if she decided to use the observatory here at RFA one night, and she saw lights on the islandtoo?”
Hunter’s eyes widened. “You think she might’ve looked into it all and found out about the Medusas and the Network. Just likeyou.”
“Yes. It’s possible,right?”