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“Then don’t go at all.” Jayden’s nostrils flare. “I’ll go instead. I’ll get up there and ask him about Elsie, and he can do whatever he wants with me afterward.”
“He won’t show up for you.”
“Why not?”
“Braxton said someone will be at the door checking, so they wouldn’t even let you go there, and then Supreme would change his mind.” I lick my lips. “And we’d again have nothing.”
He runs a hand through his hair and opens his mouth again.
“Listen.” I lower my voice. “Since I got here, every person around me has been deciding things about my life. The society decided I’m theirs, you did too, and now you want me to transfer and vanish so you could handle all of it by yourself. No.”
“I’m just trying to keep you alive.” He gives me a pleading look.
“I get that, but I’m going. You don’t have to like any of it, and you can be furious about it, but could you just... let me make a choice about my own life? Because if you can’t do that, then I don’t know why I’m even talking to you.”
Seriously, I still haven’t exactly forgiven him for what he’s done. Just because he had a good reason doesn’t mean he had the right to torment and bully me.
He glares at something behind me, his jaw tight. “Okay.”
“Really?” My eyebrows arch.
“No.” He sighs. “But okay. I get it.”
I’ve got until tonight to figure out what I’m actually going to ask Supreme, because I’m not wasting the only meeting I’ll ever get.
Chapter 33
JAYDEN
VERONICA WILL BE UP on a roof in the dark tonight, meeting Supreme, whose identity is unknown to us all, and I just agreed, as if she’d told me something totally mundane. But what was I supposed to tell her? It’s not like she’d listen to me, especially after everything I did to her.
Except, the problem is that there’s nothing I can actually do while she’s up there. If I follow her, whoever’s at the door will stop me, and then Supreme would call the meeting off and Veronica would be furious at me. And if I stay close to the building, I still won’t be able to do or hear anything, so if something goes wrong, it would take me too long to get there.
Campus security is useless too, because I’m pretty sure Supreme would find a way to disappear or they’d pretend they don’t see him, since I’m sure he has a deal with them, so Veronica would be the one explaining herself to the dean.
But what could Supreme even want? He’s going to ask Veronica to join the society, because there’s nothing else he might want from her, and she’s probably going to tell him no. And then he’ll have to decide what to do about her. Will he give up? Or will he try even harder?
My thoughts fly to Elsie. What if she refused to do something for the society and they decided to kill her? Okay, that sounds a little too extreme. Maybe she threatened to reveal some info about something important, and someone in the society decided it was too much.
Supreme pushing Veronica off the roof for refusing the membership sounds absolutely insane, though, but what do I know? Then again, Supreme wasn’t Supreme back then. It was someone else, and this has nothing to do with Elsie. The roof is probably just a coincidence. I don’t even know what really happened.
But I’m pretty sure the society wouldn’t go through all the trouble of covering up a student’s death over nothing. Supreme probably chose the roof to protect himself. There’s only one door leading up there, and no one can simply walk past and accidentally overhear any of what they’re saying.
And the worst part is that I love Veronica’s stubbornness and strength. Any normal guy would want a girlfriend who avoids trouble, but not me. I shouldn’t have just blurted out how I feel about her like that, though. It was fucking stupid.
She probably thinks it was another move from me to try to manipulate her or whatever. But it wasn’t, and I don’t want to take back any of what I said. If she never mentions it again, whatever. I’ll be fine. I guess. But I’d do anything for her, and I don’t care how pathetic that sounds.
I just wish I could... Wait, maybe I actually can do something. If I can’t be up there with Veronica and I can’t talk her out of going, then I can stop Supreme from reaching the roof in the first place.
He’ll probably come out of the tunnels somewhere near the library, and then he’ll have to get inside without anyone seeing him, because there are students out and about campus all the time and any of them could spot him and take a video or photo.
The lights behind the library haven’t worked since I got here, and there’s a tunnel entrance close by. The fact that they haven’t fixed it means the society wants it that way, so he’ll probably use that particular path. There are hedges and bushes behind the library, and if I hide there before Supreme shows up, I can jump him, get the mask off his face, and finish this whole mess before he even reaches the roof.
With the mask gone, I’ll know exactly who he is, and he won’t be scary to anyone anymore. He knows it better than anyone, which is why he’s spent so long not letting anyone hear his real voice. He’d have to leave Veronica alone and tell me everything after that, because I’d have more on him than he has on us. And if he brings someone with him, which he probably will, I’ll deal with them too.
But this whole thing ends. I’m done being nice. It’s not like I have anything to lose. Just a whole lot to gain.
THE BUSHES BEHIND THE library are thick enough, so when I crouch between them under a tree, there’s no way someone will see me in the dark. I hope there’s no other way to get to the library, because then I’m screwed. But there’s plenty of light on the other side, so I don’t think he’d risk that.
