Page 40 of Make Her Break

“No. She trusts me now more than ever, because I let her escape while taking the fall for the whole thing. She thinks I did it for her.” I move a step toward the desk. “It’s progress and exactly what you want. She doesn’t talk to anyone on campus. Anyone new who suddenly wants to be her friend is going to make her suspicious.”

“My decision has been made.”

What the fuck is wrong with him? “No.”

“You should have come to me,” he says. “You made a decision that wasn’t yours to make, which is why the task isn’t yours anymore.”

“You’re wrong.” It’s the stupidest decision he could’ve made.

“Argue with me one more time, and you may lose your place with us for good.”

My jaw aches from how hard I’m grinding my teeth. “Really? After everything I’ve done for the society? And Veronica has nothing left but me. Just because something went differently than planned doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

“What you did tonight is serious,” he says. “You lied to two members and got them to leave their post, and then you opened a door that’s supposed to be locked. You brought a nonmember into our tunnels and our room. Any one of those on its own is a serious breach. The only reason I’m not kicking you out outright is because of how useful you proved to be before.”

“She saw nothing interesting anyway.”

“You don’t know what she saw, because you were busy with your own... research.” He tilts his head and I freeze. “And I don’t think the girl is only a task to you anymore.”

Fuck! How does he know that? There aren’t supposed to be any cameras in there, but I guess there were.

“She’s nothing to me,” I say. “And I had to make it realistic. It wasn’t like I was reading anything, but it would be weird if I’d gone with her and just stood there as if I couldn’t care less.”

“You’re with her every time anyone reports back to me, and you don’t seem to care about soccer anymore.”

“Everything I’ve done was to get close to her, which is what you wanted. If you wanted someone who could pull this off from across the campus, you picked the wrong guy for it.”

“Maybe,” he says. “But you got too close.”

Whatever he thinks he’s got figured out, let him, but I don’t want to argue and make things worse for myself.

“Here’s what I’m willing to do,” he says. “You need to step away from her and let someone else handle her, and you’ll still be one of us. You’ll wait for your next chance to prove yourself, but it may not come any time soon. If you interfere with the girl, or with whoever takes over from you, or if you do anything like tonight again, you’re out of the society.”

I want to knock the desk over and grab him by the collar of his robe and tell him he can fuck off. I don’t want to be back where I was last year, running errands and doing hours at an entrance while hoping he remembers I exist.

And I can’t let him stop me from finding out what happened to Elsie either. Too bad there was nothing in that damn room, or maybe that was a clue, because her file is more important than any other, so it might not even be there with the others.

“Fine,” I say, trying to stay relaxed. “I’ll step back. Someone else can do it. I don’t give a fuck.”

“Good.” He waves a hand at the door. “Now get out of my sight.”

I head for the door, and it takes all my willpower not to slam it behind me. But allowing some random asshole to get anywhere near Veronica...

Yeah, no. I’m not letting any of it happen. I just said it because it was what Supreme wanted to hear and arguing further would’ve just complicated things.

Veronica thinks I got caught to save her. She’ll come to me for sure. And the idiot who’s going to accept the task... He has no idea what he’s getting himself into, because Veronica is mine and no one else’s. Everything else be damned.

Chapter 28

VERONICA

THE COPY OF THE MAP is still spread out on my desk where I left it, and every time I glance at it, I want to tear it into pieces and throw the whole thing in the trash.

Every time I close my eyes, I see Jayden’s profile. A member since last year. He’s a second year, so the timing fits, and it means he was one of them before he ever spoke to me. The society was behind all of it from the start, from him showing up right when I had no one left after sabotaging me to his whole story about his roommate. And I argued myself out of suspecting him every time.

But what was he doing with those drawers? If he came with me to watch me, all he had to do was make a show of searching, but he went through one drawer after another so fast, and he slammed them shut and swore when a folder slipped out of his hands. He wanted something for himself, but he never said anything about it to me.

So whose side is he on? If he’s their loyal little soldier, why shove me toward the door and take the fall for both of us? Maybe it was the plan the whole time, and I’m supposed to be worried sick, feeling grateful, and ready to run to him the moment he shows up. And I almost did exactly that, which is the most humiliating part of all of it.