Page 77 of Make No Mistake

Nineteen

“You need to take it down.”

I stared at Aubrey pacing in front of me.

“The damage is done. Whoever broke in knows I’m the one behind the blog.”

“They said to stop.”

“It’s helping people organize and start groups to walk to and from school together. I’m not stopping that.”

Aubrey shook her head. “Your professors will understand that you had to take it down.”

“I’m not worried about my grades.” Sadly it was true. My classes were the furthest thing from my mind.

She finally stopped and faced me, looking an awful lot like her mother with her hands on her hips and a stern expression.

“Mckayla. Things have gone too far. Make copies of the pages from your site to turn in for your project then shut it down.”

Carter stepped out of the kitchen, looked between each of us, and stepped back. Chicken.

He and Jay were supposed to be making dinner, but they’d been hiding in the kitchen for over thirty minutes while Aubrey laid into me.

“Technically, he said to stop searching. For all we know, this could have nothing to do with the blog.”

She looked at me like I was stupid, and I had to admit my argument was lacking. How else would this person know I was tracking him if they didn’t know about the blog? It’s not like I broadcasted to the world that I was interviewing the girls.

“Mckayla.”

“Aubrey.” I wanted her and the attacker to know I wasn’t going to back down. “This is important. More important than a grade or a broken cabinet.”

“Is it more important than your life?” She interrupted me.

“Aubrey has a point.” I glanced to the kitchen to see Jay standing with his arms crossed, watching us.

I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off.

“This is serious, Mac. You can’t tell us everything is going to be alright or that nothing’s going to happen. It already has. You’ve been attacked. Your home has been broken into. You have been threatened. This is real.”

I understood where they were coming from. I did. But I needed them to understand how strongly I felt about keeping our campus safe. My blog was helping to make that happen.

“This is bigger than me. This is about saving more girls from being attacked. It’s about stopping this guy.”

Jay came forward and knelt down in front of me. “We know, Mac. What you’ve done is amazing and admirable, but we want to keep you safe.”

“That starts with you girls staying somewhere else.” Carter spoke while walking toward us.

“What? Why?”

He looked at me like I was stupid. Seemed to be the uniting consensus.

“Your home was broken into. Destroyed. And he somehow got past the security system. It was shut down using the password. He has eyes or ears in here, Mac. It’s not safe for you guys to stay here.”

I looked around the room for the cameras. No one had told me that he disarmed with a password. How had he known?

A sudden feeling of unease came over me and I felt like I was being watched. I didn’t want to admit it, but maybe I was underestimating who I was dealing with.

“Just for a few days. We’ll get some people in here to clean up the mess and fix your kitchen.” Carter looked around. “And the living room. We’ll install a new security system and look for any bugs in here. Just a few days, then you guys can come back.” He looked to Aubrey. “If you want.”