“Okay,” he says, but I can tell he doesn’t believe me.
I look around. “Where’s Sunny?”
Cam shrugs. “I don’t know. I was waiting for you.”
“No, you weren’t!” I say. “You ran out of the museum afterSunny.”
Cam rolls his eyes. “I needed to getyouout of the museum so we could talk.”
I glare at him. “Well, you’re not getting the box from us. And you still owe me my flyer. I bought that!”
His face softens a little, and he slides down the book spines until he’s sitting on the carpet. I don’t want to leer over him, so I have no choice but to sit down too. Our knees brush at first, and I jerk my legs back. I wish, so badly, that being close to Cam didn’t affect me anymore. It shouldn’t affect me. After a year of silence, things between us should be beyond stale.
“I’ll give you the flyer,” Cam says, picking at the carpet. He looks up at me. “But I want back in on the hunt.”
“No way,” I say, shifting against the opposite shelf. “You haven’t done a single thing to merit joining the group. Plus, we don’t need the flyer anymore.”
“You need the book, though.”
I shake my head. “We don’t, actually. We found scans ofthe chapter online. We solved the book cipher all on our own. Treasure Island builder reads—”
“Architecture seven two three.” Cam nods. “I know. But I can still help you.”
“Like you helped me earlier with your stupid Watergate books charade?”
“Hey, you were the one who planted that fake clue in the first place!” Cam says. He raises his eyebrows and smiles, like the idea of planting fake clues and stealing real clues and general sabotage is all just good fun.He does not really care about this hunt, I remind myself.He is only in this to win in his stupid game over me.
“No.” I start to get up. Cam crawls over and reaches for my hand.
“Please, V. Please. Hear me out. That box you have? It needs a key. I have the key.”
I open my hand like I’m supposed to find it there in my palm. Instead, all I see is Cam’s fingers interlocked with mine. I untwist myself from him.
“Then give it to us,” I say.
“Put me on your team.”
“Whose team?” Gabriel asks as he and Julia swing around the corner.
Julia sees Cam and gasps. She holds up her decoy box, then turns and runs headfirst into a life-sized Cat in the Hat.
“Run!” Julia cries, kicking the Cat in the Hat away.
“He doesn’t want the box,” I tell her. I look over at Cam. “He…wants to help us.”
Julia stands the cardboard cutout back up. She turns toCam and mashes her hands on her hips. “Help? Now? A lot of help he was when he stole our flyer!”
Cam bows his head and stares at his shoes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him properly ashamed like this. It should be nice. I should be reveling in it. But for some reason, the moment feels awkward and imbalanced. No one is on his side right now. Cam is supposed to be the guy surrounded by friends all the time. Instead, here he is, begging to work with us.
There has to be a catch, I remind myself.With Cam, there’s always a catch.
But even as I think this, my body begins to disassociate from my brain the way it did when I waved the box around in Cam’s face. Something sharp pokes my heart, and though I’m groaning and muttering inside, I know what I’m going to do anyway. He does have the key we need, after all.
Supposedly.
I tug on Cam’s arm so that he stands up next to me, then shift the both of us toward Julia and Gabriel.
“He’s working with us,” I say. “At least until we get to the next step. Now, let’s go find Sunny.”
