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“Yes.” My lips twisted with amusement as I took in her flushed cheeks and narrowed eyes. She looked straight-up murderous.
“Do you have any idea how fucking crazy you’ve made me look?” she shouted, throwing her hands up. “I yelled at some random girl from the basketball team over those drug rumors, and I told most of my friends to fuck off for lying and bitching about me. Even my parents think I’m losing it. They’re making me see a sleep therapist now!”
“Well, yeah. That was kind of the point,” I said, still smirking. “Making you look and feel crazy.”
“Why?” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “And why would you pretend to be a council member from the society when you’re literally in the society already? I know you are because I saw that letter in your car last week!”
“I’m not like you, Piper. None of the higher-ranking members have told me anything serious yet.” I paused and cocked my head. “I needed information, and I knew you had it.”
“Information about what?”
“I’ll let you think about it for a minute.”
Her brows furrowed, and she chewed on her bottom lip. Then her eyes lit up with a mix of alarm and surprise. “Oh my god. This is about Amerie, isn’t it?”
“Got it in one.”
“She’s not coming back, Jensen. You need to move on.”
“Nope. Not gonna do that.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re going to help me get her out of the Playground.”
She scowled back at me. “Oh, really? You think I’m going to betray everyone in the society and help you? After you terrorized me and made me look like a total nutjob?”
“I’m not asking you, Piper. I’m telling you.” I pulled out my phone and waved it in the air. “You already betrayed the society. You gave away information to someone who technically isn’t supposed to know it. So if I decide to turn this recording in to the Rosmerta council, you’re totally fucked.”
Piper sneered. “I’ll be fine. I didn’t tell you anything that night.”
“Actually, you did. I know where the Playground is now.”
“Bullshit. I didn’t tell you where it is!”
“That’s not true. You practically gave it away with all that talk about the farm and the market stall that you and your friends volunteer at,” I said, tilting my chin. “It took me five minutes to find a photo of you at the last twilight market, holding a jar with the name ‘Crimson Hollow’ on it. Took me another five to find out that Crimson Hollow is on McAllister Road, halfway to Rowley. Anyone else could’ve done the same after listening to all the shit you said.”
Piper’s face slowly turned ashen as I spoke. “That… that doesn’t count,” she said in a tremulous voice. “You tricked me. I thought you were a third-degree member. I thought it was some sort of interrogation.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I put my phone away and crossed my arms over my chest. “As soon as the rest of the society hears that recording, you’ll look like a total liability.”
A glimmer of self-satisfaction appeared in Piper’s eyes. “You’re bluffing. You can’t actually turn the recording in,” she said, arching a brow. “If you do, you’ll be just as screwed as me. Probably even more screwed. You impersonated a third-degree member to extract information from a fellow member. Also, you practically tortured it out of me with all those knife and gun threats.”
“Sorry, but I’m already one step ahead of you on that one,” I said, smirk widening to a grin. “I used a voice changer, remember? So there’s no proof that it’s me talking to you on that recording. It could be literally anyone. I can take it to the society and say that an anonymous source sent it to me. I’ve already set up a fake email trail to prove that if they ask.”
Piper’s smug smile wavered, and the glimmer in her eyes morphed into fear.
“Who do you think they’re going to believe when it’s your word against mine?” I went on, cocking my head. “Me? Or the girl who’s been exhibiting clear signs of a major mental disturbance lately?”
The smile had completely dropped off Piper’s face now, and her hands were trembling. I nearly had her.
“Even if you get away with saying that an anonymous source sent the recording to you, I doubt I’ll get in much trouble,” she said, still trying to sound brave. “I’ll explain everything, like how the person terrorized me and yanked me out of bed in the middle of the night at gunpoint. I was practically forced into saying that stuff to him.”
“So what?” I raised a brow. “Like I said, you’ll still look like a total liability to the society. They’ll know that all someone has to do is scare you a bit, and then you’ll start blabbing their secrets to any random person in a gold mask and black cloak. I literally picked that shit up from a costume store, you know.”
Piper went silent again, gnawing on the inside of her cheek.
“Also,” I went on, taking a short step toward her. “You won’t get away with saying that you genuinely thought I was a Rosmerta council member.”
“Why not?” she muttered, lowering her gaze to the floor.
“Because you know Rosmerta protocol. We have it drilled into us in those stupid lectures they make us all attend. If any of the higher-ranking members want to talk to us, they send an official summons. Like the one you saw in my car. You didn’t get one, did you?”
