Page 23 of Unhinged Obsession

"He knows." Noah's voice drops lower. "He crashed out so badly that Dad and three Elders had to haul him away. Paris is in the hospital, and they won’t let anyone in to see her. I went there before I came here, and I tried calling both of you multiple times, but your phones are dead." That tracks. I can’t imagine after everything last night that Elijah would have had the forethought to charge either of our phones. “She was found in one of the fields with a few horses, and that girl Elijah hates from your barn was found with her throat slit in one of the stalls, apparently.”

“Karin?” I gasp out the word, but Noah is already shaking his head in the negative. “No, the one with the scrunched-up face. Always telling everyone what they should be doing. Sarah?” He asks, and I can breathe because I know he’s talking about Serena. “Benjamin found her first when he was looking for Paris. I don’t know all the details, but Ben was the one who found her. He called me a bunch of times, I guess, before he went looking for her, but I wasn’t on campus.” I hear the emotion swing into Noah’s voice, and it makes my heart clench.

Ben probably tried to call us too, and none of us answered.

The thought of Benjamin losing control hard enough for four men to restrain him sends another wave of dread through me because Benjamin is the one who always thinks before he reacts. He is the calm one, the strategic one, the brother who knows exactly how much force to use and when to stop, so if seeing Paris was enough to make him completely lose himself, then whatever happened to her has to be worse than Noah is willing to say.

"Do you think this has something to do with what happened last summer?" I ask because to me, this doesn’t have The Society written on it. Serena was most likely an innocent bystander because I can’t see anyone who has been after us having an issue with her. The fact that her throat was slit is also a big red flag for me. Whoever is taunting us wants to do just that. Paris was beaten up, not stabbed, or worse, murdered. They drugged us and put us on display to scare us, to humiliate us, when they could have killed us if they wanted to.

Noah looks at Elijah, and Elijah looks back at him. I crane my neck so I can glance between them and see the two of them standing there with the same dark hair, the same blue eyes, and almost the exact same face, yet to me they couldn’t look less alike.

“Yes,” They answer my question at the same time. The truth is, Jonathan tried to push Annabell off the rocks, and she revealed she was pregnant by Jonathan and that Jonathan drugged and attempted to rape her sister Ivy. I was with Elijah having my first kiss when this happened, but Noah told us that Jonathan denied it, saying that Ivy wanted him to fuck her. Annabell screamed and said she walked in on him trying to take Ivy’s pants off and dared him to deny it just before she shoved him. Paris said It happened so fast; one minute he was there, and the next he slipped and fell to his death. A lot was happening that night, but I instantly clocked how angry Noah became at the news of Jonathan trying to rape Ivy.

Noah asked Annabell if that’s why Ivy disappeared all of a sudden, and when she only nodded, he cursed, pacing back and forth. He later told us that he didn’t know what Jonathan had done, and he’d said some pretty terrible things to Ivy when she told him she was leaving.

As a group, well, Paris and I mostly, because Elijah and Ben couldn’t give a fuck about either Jonathan or Annabell, and Noah stomped off looking absolutely gutted. We decided that we would say Jonathan fell on his own. Our story was that he was drunk, saying that he was going to skip town because he didn’t want to take part in the Choosing Ceremony. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to outrun The Society. The boys got rid of his body, and to this day I don’t know where they put him, and I don’t want to know.

I wasn’t close to Annabell; in fact, I’ve only seen her three times since I’ve been back on campus, but we haven’t spoken. I mostly thought it was the best idea because Jonathan was horrible, and I didn’t want Ivy to be dragged into the gritty details when she clearly wanted to be left alone. She was always the sweetest out of us girls, and I truly hope she’s doing well wherever she is.

Noah pulls me out of the memory when he asks me, “Do you remember anything about who might have drugged you?”

"No, but for some reason I feel like it was a woman," I say slowly, trying to put the feeling into words. “I can’t say why I think that. It’s just a feeling. I feel like someone’s long hair was in my face. Maybe dressing me in that ridiculous outfit? It could have been Paris’s hair that I’m remembering. I don’t know if they had us together at any point.” I bite my lip because it really bothers me that I don’t know who saw me naked. Elijah must sense that I’m uncomfortable because he lowers down enough to kiss the side of my head.

I see the looks the two brothers are exchanging between each other, and I’m over this whole not telling me things to protect me stuff. "What aren't you two telling me?"

Noah frowns before he says, “Have you seen Annabell? What if it’s her?”

“I think she has enough trouble on her hands. I mean, she’s fully pregnant, and I’m sure The Society hasn’t taken kindly to that. I mean, what will they do to her?” I ask, because I genuinely don’t think she’s capable of moving Paris and me across campus in her condition.

“Bradford then?” Elijah suggests, which earns him a humorless laugh from his brother.

“We know you want to beat the shit out of Bradford again, and I don’t blame you, but do we truly think he’s smart enough to pull any of this off and not get caught?”

“I don’t know anyone who hates us enough to do all of this for fun. I mean, what’s the end game? What do they want from us? That’s what’s so strange is that they’re not trying to blackmail us, they’re not asking for anything, they just want to torture us.” I huff, leaning back into Elijah’s chest, reveling in the safe feeling I’ve missed for months. My God, have I missed him in the worst way.

And then he speaks. “Karin,” Elijah says her name, and I don’t have to be looking at him to know he’s pulling a face.

“You can’t frame someone for drugging your girlfriend because she whooped your ass with a flyswatter,” Noah says, his face unamused. “You’re not allowed anymore guesses. From now on, Blair speaks for both of you.”

Elijah’s hand only leaves my body for a few seconds to flip off his brother, and then he’s back to running his fingers along my skin.

Before they can work themselves up to a fist fight in the hallways of their dorm, I ask, "Are you sure we can’t go see Paris?"

"They're telling everyone she got trampled, but from what Ben was saying, those weren't hoof prints,” Noah says, gritting his jaw. “They won't let any of us into her room. Believe me, I tried. I know Ben would want us to be with her."

“Freak accidents happen all the time, but there isn’t a horse at St. Augustine that I believe would trample anyone, especially Paris.” I huff, because of course The Society would try to blame a defenseless animal instead of whatever monster is after us.

I feel Elijah go rigid before I even turn toward him. The anger moves through him so quickly that every muscle in his body seems to lock in place, and when he speaks, his voice is quiet enough to sound more threatening than if he had shouted. "They'll fucking let me in."

Noah immediately shakes his head. "If you don't keep your temper under control, Dad is going to have you hauled away too, and then it'll just be me here trying to protect Blair and Paris." His mouth twists into a bitter expression as he looks between us. "And in case you haven't noticed, between the three of us, we haven't exactly been doing a stellar job."

Elijah's hand curls into a fist at his side, and before the anger can take hold of him completely, I reach for him and wrap my fingers around his thumb. It is such a small thing, something I've done so many times over the years that neither of us has to think about it anymore, but I feel the tension begin to ease from his body almost immediately.

"Can we go to the barn first?" I ask softly, still holding onto him. "Maybe we'll find something everyone else missed, and I want to make sure Beau and the other horses are okay."

Elijah’s expression softens as soon as he looks down at me, and he bends to press a kiss to the top of my head like it is the most natural thing in the world. Because now it is, and it feels so freeing to not have to hide our affection for one another. "Of course we can,” Elijah tells me without asking Noah his opinion. What I hear instead is, anything for you.

Noah's gaze drops to the oversized hoodie and sweatpants swallowing me whole, and a smirk finally cracks through the serious expression on his face. "I see we're sharing clothes now. Is it official? Are we in love?"