Half truth

“Relax,” I repeated, opening the album back up. “Relax?”

I couldn’t imagine anyone relaxing as they flipped through this album. One picture, in particular, made me pause and stare, a disgusted taste in my mouth. Three men in suits sitting in chairs while three naked women lay on the floor with their legs spread open, touching themselves as the men looked on. One man had reached down to seemingly help the girl, mid-picture. That man was my father. And that girl looked a lot like Lana. I slammed the book shut again.

“I can’t look at this. I’ll be sick.” I placed a hand on my queasy stomach. “Why don’t you show this to people before they go through initiation? This would be the exact kind of hazing that would scare people away.”

“We need you in.” She shrugged, a small smile touching her lips. “You’re a Bastón, you were always meant to be in The Eight.”

“I don’t know if I want any part in this. If I’m expected to walk around naked for these old guys—”

“No,” Nora said quickly, eyes wide. “These were things we recently discovered. You’d never be part of this.” She tapped on the books, then picked one up and opened it to the very first page, which I’d completely bypassed. Written in script was: Labor Union.

“Labor Union?” I said loudly. “This is disgusting.”

“It’s extremely complicated even for a crash course, but technically, they have this mentorship program and within that program is another in which girls are basically . . . prostitutes.” She gathered the books and walked to the shelf, sliding them in their place.

“It’s like a damn never-ending matryoshka doll,” I said, looking at the paper. “How did you find out about this?”

“The short story? Lana told a friend about it and that friend started showing up here, lurking in the woods out back, parking in front of the gates and looking in. It was creepy. I thought it was someone’s ex-girlfriend or someone Fitz pissed off.” She cringed as she said it. “Sorry. But Lana was here one day, for a gala, and saw the girl and said it was a friend of hers. She went outside and asked her to please leave. Apparently, the girl wanted to make sure she was okay.”

“You don’t buy that?” I asked.

“Lana worked for the paper. We all knew she wanted to tear the societies down from the inside and we all agreed she shouldn’t be here.”

Her words sent a chill down my spine. If she had been unwanted . . . was that why my brother was arguing with her in those pictures? Telling her to stay away from The Eight? From The Lab? From our father?

“How involved are the guys we know in this little ring?” I asked and felt the need to hold my breath as I waited for the answer.

“If you’re asking whether or not Logan fucks these girls, the answer is hell no. In case you haven’t noticed, Fitz is extremely particular with who he fucks and he’s never brought a regular around. Anywhere.” She frowned as she spoke the words, as if just now realizing this. “Honestly, you’re the only person I’ve ever actually seen him hang out with. I mean, we hang out, but he’s like a brother. He’s cordial, at best, to some of the girls around campus, but I wouldn’t say he’s very welcoming, if you know what I mean.”

I did know what she meant and it gave me a little more confidence in what we had.

“Does anyone else?” I asked. “Marcus? Nolan?”

“No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head. “My understanding is that this whole idea stemmed from The Swords. They’ve been known to hire girls.” She waved a hand toward another bookcase. The one with a row of red spines. “You can see those books for yourself. Of course, we only have blackmail power. We can’t really say for sure what goes on behind closed doors over there. Not even my brother will tell me that. The fact of the matter is, in recent years, The Lab Initiative decided to mentor some of these people—girls and boys alike, and I guess some have evolved into something more.”

“So they’re taking advantage of these people.” My stomach turned. My father was taking advantage of these students.

“My understanding is that the people being mentored don’t have to do anything, but a lot of them end up actually falling for these men.” She paused. “And women.”

“The whole thing is disturbing.” I crossed my arms.

Now I understood why Logan wanted to be here when I learned all of this. Between the pictures of my father with Ella and then my father with those naked girls, it was all too much. I thought about my brother and what he must have thought of all of this. It wasn’t that Lincoln was Mr. Perfect, but he was definitely a stickler for rules and this was not something I could picture him condoning.

He obviously knew about Lana and dad. I’d seen those pictures of them arguing. But then Lana just disappeared. I looked at Nora again, trying to wrap my head around everything she told me.

“Did The Eight have anything to do with Lana’s disappearance?”

“No. Of course not.” Her eyes widened. “We talked about needing her to get out of here and not welcoming her in, but we would never . . . ” She paused, suddenly looking contrite. “Your brother was the last person to see her.”

Logan had said this to me already, but hearing it again felt like taking a blow to the chest. Could my brother have gone that far? Could he have hurt her? I checked my phone again. Still nothing from my family. I desperately needed him to wake up.