Page 38 of Make Her Break

AS I RUSH TO THE MEETING spot in the dark, Jayden steps out from between two trunks so fast that I almost yelp.

“You scared the hell out of me,” I whisper.

He glances past my shoulder. “Did anyone see you coming this way?”

“There was a girl, but she didn’t even lift her head.”

He nods, and then his hand curls around the back of my neck and he pulls me in and kisses me, making me forget what I was about to say next. When he lets go, his gaze holds mine.

“I’ll go down first,” he says. “You’ll wait up here until I say it’s clear. If there’s someone in there, I don’t want them to see you at all.”

“And what will happen to you?”

“I’ll figure it out. I’m good at that part.” A grin tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Just don’t come down until I call you.”

I want to argue about it, since I’m not some kid who needs to be protected, but whatever. Maybe it’s better for me. He crouches next to a thick clump of bushes and pushes the lowest branches out of the way, and under them, there’s a metal hatch.

He hauls it up, and the smell that comes out makes me scrunch my nose. Did someone pee around here? I breathe through my mouth while Jayden lowers himself into the hole.

I crouch, holding the branches apart, my heart thudding like crazy. What would I say if campus security showed up right now and asked what I was doing here? Making out with a guy? Sure, why not? Except, the guy isn’t anywhere near me right now.

“Come on,” Jayden says, his voice echoing a little.

I slowly lower myself down. Jayden touches my elbow and tips his head, and we head down the hallway.

“We have to be quick,” he whispers, and I follow him, trying to remember how to return to the exit.

Wait, how does Jayden know where we’re going? Or is he fast just because he’s worried we might get caught and it doesn’t really matter where we’re going since we don’t know anything, so wherever we get, we’ll see what we discover. We pass by some doors, but Jayden keeps going.

Then he stops at a big door and tries the handle. “Locked.” He crouches and pulls something out of his pocket.

“Since when do you carry lock picks?” I raise an eyebrow at him when I realize what it is.

“Since... I don’t know. I figured we might need something like that.”

As he works at it, I watch both directions to make sure no one comes and sees us. After a while, Jayden pushes the door open. Whoa, he can actually pick a lock. Interesting. We enter a spacious room with a desk and a bunch of shelves and cabinets everywhere.

He goes straight for one of the cabinets to the right, so I head to the other side. The first drawer is full of folders with numbers on the tabs, and when I pick one up and open it, my eyes widen. Student profiles. A photo is in the corner, and there’s a name, year, hometown, and a major written under it. And then there’s a whole block of notes underneath.

A lot of it is boring. Plays basketball. Father owns four dealerships. Was on academic probation last spring. Some of it is more interesting, like, there’s a girl who apparently paid someone to write all her high school essays, with a date next to it and a small checkmark. My eyebrows shoot up. How on earth did they find that out?

As I flip through more profiles, I recognize some names from my lectures, like the guy who transferred out of one of my classes because he said it was boring. Wait, is Jayden going through older students?

Because everyone in here seems new and there are even some people who appear to still be in high school, but the society is considering them as potential members. Huh. It would make sense. Newer stuff to the left, and older stuff to the right. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. Not that it matters.

Jayden opens another drawer and quickly flips through the folders, as if he’s really looking for something specific. His own profile? Is he just not interested in anything else? He shuts the drawer and opens the next one.

“What are you looking for?” I ask.

“Same as you.”

Except, he isn’t after the same thing. I’m looking for my family and he already knows about his aunt and uncle, so there’s nothing for him to find on that front. Maybe something that could help us defeat the society, but he isn’t reading anything carefully, so he’s clearly looking for something specific, and he’s very impatient about it. He slams a drawer shut so hard the cabinet shakes.

“Hey,” I say. “Go easy on those.”

“Sure.” When he gets to the bottom drawer, a folder slips out of his hand, papers sliding across the floor, and he swears under his breath and gathers them up in a fistful.

“Jayden, we can’t leave a mess in here. If something’s out of place, they’ll know someone was in here.”