Page 30 of Hide and Seek
“Being interested isn’t the same as being invested,” I say, or rather, snap at him.
“You’re getting awfully emotional right now,” he points out. “This isn’t like you, and you know it.”
“Maybe not,” I concede. “But you know better than anyone that what you’re saying isn’t even possible.”
“Lots of stuff we thought wasn’t possible ended up being very possible,” he points out. “And maybe I’m wrong about all this, but there’s also a chance that I’m right.” His bed creaks again as he rolls back over. “Night.”
“Night,” I say back, still smarting from being caught and called out.
Jace is wrong about me being emotionally invested, but he isn’t wrong about me not acting like myself. I just need to figure this kid out and deal with whatever problems he could cause for us, then I can forget all about him and move on to the next thing that needs to be dealt with.
Unease prickles at the back of my mind as I close my eyes, and images of Myles all curled up in his bed filter through my mind as I fall asleep.
8
MYLES
One of theonly good things I’ve got going on right now is that it’s exam time, so instead of going to class all day, I’m able to hide in my room under the guise of studying.
The problem with hiding in my room is that I’m going stir-crazy, especially since I haven’t gone for a run since I was jumped. I like being alone, and I’m used to being isolated, but there’s a huge difference between not wanting to leave my room and being too afraid to.
I’m also no closer to figuring out what the Kings are planning or if I have to worry about them trying to send me another “message.”
The problem with trying to figure all this out on my own is that I don’t know what questions to ask. I’m a computer guy. I’m good with code and numbers, and I’m really good at recognizing patterns and figuring out puzzles. But that doesn’t help me when I’m sifting through campus security reports or poking around in the Rebels’ or Kings’ systems and hoping something jumps out at me.
And it really doesn’t help when I’m trying to use non-hacker methods to get answers, like deep diving into articlesand looking up things in the public record. There’s just so much information, and so many places to look for it, that I’m probably missing a ton of useful stuff because I don’t know how to find it.
Leaning back in my chair, I scrub my hand over my face and let out a weary sigh. I need help, but who the hell am I going to go to? WhocanI go to?
I know Cipher and Echo would help me in a heartbeat, no questions asked, but I can’t put them at risk by dragging them into this. I live on a closed campus surrounded by top-of-the-line security and armed LEOs. Cipher lives in a house with three other guys, and Echo just moved into her own apartment. They don’t have any security or protection, and I doubt the people who had no trouble trying to off a college kid and seem hell-bent on taking me out for helping them do it would have issues hurting or using my friends if they thought it was worth their while.
There’s also no way in hell I can ever let my parents find out about any of this without them losing their shit and locking me in the house until I’m thirty.
I can’t talk to anyone at school since I don’t have any friends here, and the school admin or LEOs aren’t options. They know who pays our tuition checks and who keeps them safe from outside eyes. They’re loyal to our parents and the alumni, not us.
With a few clicks of my mouse, I put my computer to sleep. I’ve been going in circles for hours. I need to take a break and step away from everything for a while, then come back when my head is clearer.
My entire body is stiff when I stand, and I roll my shoulders and stretch out my back as I do a few laps of my room. My eyes land on my window, and that now familiar feeling of being watched intensifies.
On a whim, I grab a notebook and pen off my desk and head over to the window. I’m probably going to feel like a giant idiotin about sixty seconds, but who the fuck cares. If I’m wrong and there’s no one out there, at least no one will be around to witness my descent into insanity.
Chuckling at how melodramatic I’m being, I sweep my gaze over the clusters of trees outside my window. Everything looks exactly the same as it always does, but the feeling that someone is out there only gets stronger the longer I stand there.
Shaking my head at how insane I am, I scribble something on a blank page in my notebook using big block letters.
Are you out there?
When I’m done writing, I hold the page up to the window and press it against the glass.
I don’t know what I’m expecting to happen as I scan the trees, but after almost a full minute of searching, I pull the sign off the window with another shake of my head.
Yup, I’m officially crazy.
I’m just turning away from the window when a flash, like sunlight glinting off a mirror, catches my eye.
“What the fuck?” I mutter and squint into the trees. It looked like it came from between the lush branches of the tree directly in front of my window.
Is someone in the tree? That perch has to be twenty-five, maybe even thirty feet off the ground. Who the fuck is this guy that he can fight like a supervillain and climb trees like a spider monkey?
