“You could ease up on her. She thinks you hate her.”
“I’m just joking around.”
“I don’t think you’ve ever been funny.”
The clock has started. The painting is gone.
It has to be linked.
“Back to what I was saying before your girlfriend interrupted. We’ve both had nightmares. Robert might be right about four members betraying the rest of us. And that painting means something.”
“Like what?”
“Why does Bizzy care about it so much?”
How do I convey to him that, like my swimming and his family’s fucked-up legacy, she’s obsessed with it? It just pulls her into the House’s business. Because like other secrets under lock and key, The Divinities, the painting, the legacy, it’s all part of what we’re meant to protect.
He sighs before getting up and pulling on his shirt. “Come on. We’re going to pay JJ a visit.”
Joshua Jay Getty, one of the House of Eights members, is well-versed onThe Divinities. His passion for art is only eclipsed by Bizzy’s.
“It’s a little late…”
But I go along anyway. His apartment is over a coffee shop a couple of blocks away. The entire walk there, Aaron ribs me about Biz before getting serious. He stops me before we ring JJ’s bell. “Trust me on this, don’t let Bizzy get involved with the House of Eights. Keep her as far from it as possible.”
His warning isn’t necessary.
When it comes to her, I’ll protect her any way I can.
JJ answers the door, grumbling as he lets us in.
Aaron takes the lead. I’m not sure what was time-sensitive enough that we had to come here at this hour.
“Alright, JJ, I think it’s time we let Eric in on our secret.”
What in the hell is he talking about?
The two exchange a look, assessing whether they need to tell me. I don’t like this. Why are my two closest friends keeping secrets from me?
Aaron helps himself to a beer, absently plucking at some of the strings on JJ’s guitar. JJ starts and stops his explanation.
Never patient, Aaron intercedes. “We had to keep this from you because it concerns Elizabeth. You’re not the least bit unbiased about her.”
“That’s where you’re starting this?” JJ asks. “Rob and I have been working on a cipher we found buried on campus. We spent two years trying to figure out what it belonged to. Then Bizzy… whether she knew it or not, gave me the idea.” He pauses. “Where could a hidden message be found? It would have to be something significant… important to either Rockefeller or Amherst.”
“The painting?” I take the beer Aaron hands me.
JJ waves us into his bedroom, where something large is covered by a sheet against the wall. My stomach sinks. He’d never… would he?
Carefully removing his flannel sheet, he revealsThe Divinitiespainting.
“You stole the painting?!”
“Fucking hell, Eric, announce it to the world why don’t you?” Aaron whispers harshly.
Then questions pour out of me in a quieter urgency. “How did you get it out of the chapel? Do you know how much this is worth? You’re going to get caught, you know that, right? What the hell were you thinking? Where did the replica come from?”
“I’ll tell you, but could you chill out? Sit down, man.”
