Lauren leaned casually against her father’s chair. “Good God, Nicole, don’t look so put out. Torturing your boyfriend is our last-resort option.” In a playful gesture, she tousled her father’s hair. “Come on, Dad. Stop freaking her out.”
“All right, all right.” Orson chuckled, batting away his daughter’s hand. If it were not for the fact that I was tied to a chair, I might’ve thought I’d intruded on some sort of bizarre Lockwood family bonding time. “So, Miss Costello, your first option. If you so desire, you may choose to vanish from Waverly University entirely.”
“What?” I said, incredulous. “What do you mean by vanish?”
“Simply disappear,” elaborated Orson with a noncommittal shrug as if the suggestion wasn’t the most far-fetched idea I’d ever heard. “Pack up your things, take your boyfriend, and leave the area. Tell no one of our society. Begin your life anew.”
“Be aware, Miss Costello,” interrupted Flynn, “that should you choose this option, your record here at Waverly University will cease to exist. Your grades, your progress toward your master’s. It will all be lost, as though you never even set foot in the halls of our school.”
“But,” said Orson before I could open my mouth with a retaliation, “the Black Raptor Society would allocate the funds for your move, settle your student-loan debt, and set you up with a source of income. You could attend whatever university you wanted. Study until you’ve conquered every history book in existence. You would never have to work a day in your life. Your sweet rookie of a boyfriend could retire early. And presumably much to your delight, you would never hear from the Black Raptor Society ever again.”
“You’re trying to bribe me to leave Waverly?”
“Think of it more as a business offer,” Lauren chipped in. “A lucrative one. You’d be stupid not to accept it.”
“I think I’ve exercised my fair share of stupidity as of late,” I said. I wriggled my ankles, testing the durability of the duct tape.
“Your other option,” said Orson, “is to accept an honorary membership with the Black Raptor Society.”
I blinked, confused. “I’m sorry, come again?”
“We don’t offer this type of inclusion often, Miss Costello,” said Flynn. “Should you accept it, you would be privy to all of the Raptors’ secrets. Not to mention, you would benefit from the same advantages you’ve so adamantly condemned. I’m sure you’ll find your moral ground isn’t quite as defined when you reside on one of its higher levels.”
“Why the hell would you want me to be a member?” I asked. “It doesn’t make any sense. Isn’t your entire society the product of unwavering nepotism?”
“Every once in a while, if we discover a suitable prospect, we present them with the opportunity to join our ranks,” explained Orson.
I scoffed. “And you consider me suitable?”
“Quite,” confirmed Lauren. “You found your way down here, didn’t you? No one else in the history of BRS has ever done that. Except—”
Flynn cut Lauren short. “If you decide to become one of us, the process here becomes a great deal less troublesome. You would be free to return to your apartment. We would organize your induction ceremony sometime in the next week or so. Then you could continue your master’s progress. Of course, the Raptors would provide you with alternate material for your thesis, but you would graduate with the rest of your classmates at the end of this semester.”
“What about Wes?”
“Your boyfriend must agree to work under Officer Wilson as an informant for BRS,” explained Flynn. “If he does not comply, and you still wish to become a member, we would require the cessation of your relationship.”
To my dismay, my eyes began to burn, a sure sign that I might cry. If Flynn really thought that I would sacrifice my relationship with Wes just to get into BRS’s good graces, she was even more heartless than I thought.
“What if I decide to leave?” I asked. “What happens then?”
“We would escort you back to your apartment, assist with your packing, and supervise your departure from the Waverly campus,” explained Orson.
I glanced from Orson to Flynn to Lauren. All three were calm and collected. This was no more than a business meeting for them. I, on the other hand, felt a panic attack coming on. I couldn’t accept either one of the offered options in good conscience. Either BRS paid me to keep quiet, or I enlisted with their organization, effectively supporting all of the society’s exploits that I’d been so determined to reveal.
“Can I… may I have a few minutes alone to think about it?” I asked. I needed more time to weigh the pros and cons of each situation, preferably without the higher-ups of BRS breathing down my neck. There was no way I could accept either option, but there had to be some kind of loophole I hadn’t thought of yet.
Orson pushed his chair away from mine and stood up. “Certainly,” he said. “Ladies, we’ll wait with the others in the conference room. Miss Costello? Do you think ten minutes is sufficient time to mull things over?”
“Certainly,” I said, imitating his conciliatory inflection.
He flashed his signature smile as he held the door open and gestured Flynn and Lauren from the room. Outside, raucous laughter floated down the hallway. It sounded like the rest of the Black Raptor Society was in the thick of a mid-semester bash.
“I’ll wait outside the door,” said Lauren as she passed her father. She looked back at me with a wry grin. “Just in case.”
As soon as the door closed and the glow from the hallway sconces disappeared, I burst into action, wrenching my wrists back and forth in an attempt to loosen my duct-tape restraints. The little hairs on my skin tore away as the tape lost some of its grip, but like ripping off a giant Band-Aid, I kept at it. Maybe ten minutes was just enough time to break free. Although, even if I did manage to escape from
