Page 158 of Fight or Flight
He blinks at me.
“I’m not saying that to manipulate you,” I say quickly. “I didn’t even mean to say that, but I’m babbling, and it just came out. I’m done lying to myself, and I know it’s crazy and you can’t feel anything for me, but I panicked because I’ve never felt like this about anyone, and the thought that you were just using me didn’t just hurt… It fucking destroyed me, and I got pissed and decided I was going to find proof that you broke into my room and you’re the one who locked me in with the fire?—”
“You think I locked you in with the fire?” His voice is dark again, but that dead look hasn’t returned his eyes.
“No, not anymore. And really, not even then if I’m being honest. I just needed a reason to hate you again, and my dumb brain ran with it.”
“Why did you think it was me? You were at the meeting, you heard what the report said.”
“Like they’ve never lied to us.” I huff out a wry laugh. “But you’re the only person I know who has a dummy card, and I just latched onto that, and it seemed like the only explanation for what happened. I’m so sorry. I fucked up so bad.”
“You did.” He stands, but instead of pulling out his knife, he reaches one hand out to me. “But it sounds like someone made sure that you’d fuck up. And if that is Dan, then him being the mole is the least of his worries.”
28
JACE
Shane takesmy hand and lets me pull him to his feet. He still looks shell-shocked and unsure, but he’s not running away, and my instincts say he’s telling me the truth.
“Come on.” I motion for him to follow me to my computer.
“What are we doing?” he asks as I slide into my chair and he stands next to me.
“Go grab Jax’s chair,” I tell him as I flash up my computer. “What time do you think your room got broken into?” I ask as he drags Jax’s chair over.
“Sometime between four and seven.”
“When the key logs were off,” I say distractedly and pull up the security cam in the hallway outside his room. “But that doesn’t matter because we should be able to see whoever it was as long as they’re not a ghost.”
“How the hell did you do that?” He looks between me and the screen. “Hacking?”
“Hacking,” I confirm and cycle through the feed until I find the day and time I’m looking for. “Now let’s see who wanted you to think I broke into your room.”
“I’m really sorry I thought it was you,” he murmurs.
“You don’t need to keep apologizing,” I tell him. “I believe you.”
“I feel like shit.”
“You should, but it’s not your fault.” I pause the video as someone stops in front of Shane’s door, then go forward frame by frame until their face is in full view.
“That motherfucker,” Shane practically growls as he glares at Dan’s image. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Get in line, babe.”
He swings his gaze to me, his mouth hanging open in shock. “Babe?”
“You don’t like it? We’ll workshop something else,” I give him a smirky smile. “Now close your mouth and focus on the task at hand.”
“I didn’t hate it,” he mumbles and dutifully looks at the screen.
“Didn’t hate it? Or liked it?” I ask as I play the video and we watch Dan pull a key out of his pocket and unlock Shane’s door.
“Liked it.”
“Good to know.” I fast-forward through the next thirty or so minutes of footage until Dan leaves the room, a laptop and tablet tucked under his arm, and locks the door again before dashing down the hall.
“So Dan is definitely the one who tried to frame me.” I switch out of the feed and pull up a copy of the report about the fire. “And this report is true. It really was just a series of glitches. Myles and I went through the system with a fine-toothed comb and checked every line of code, and neither of us could find anything that even remotely suggests it wasn’t bad coding and human error.”
