Chapter 21 Xave
XAVE
Damon falls into step beside me as I lead him back down the path and away from the scene. We walk in silence for a few moments, then he looks around, like he’s trying to orient himself. “Where are we going?”
“To a cabin,” I tell him. “It’s in the woods, in Rebel territory.”
“You guys have a cabin?”
“You don’t?”
“Not as far as I know.” He falls silent for a few beats. “How did you…”
I squeeze his hand when he trails off. “I’ll explain everything, but it’s probably best if we wait until we’re away from the cameras.”
He nods and gently bites his lip ring.
“Are you okay?” I ask when he looks around again, like he has no idea where we are.
“I think so. I mean, yeah. I’m fine.” He blows out a breath. “Just processing.”
We walk silently for a few minutes, and I can feel Damon’s agitation growing the closer we get to the main part of campus.
I don’t give a flying fuck if people see us together, and a part of me wants to march through the heart of campus right now so everyone knows he’s under my protection, and that fucking with him means fucking with me, but it’s not that simple.
Damon isn’t just another student; he’s a member of a rival frat. Even my position and level of influence in the Rebels isn’t enough to make people just accept things, and neither of us needs that kind of scrutiny right now.
Not until I kill whoever dared to put those hits out on him.
“This way,” I tell him and lead him off the path.
He relaxes as we cut across a small grassy area and walk between two buildings until we reach the edge of the trees.
“Do you have your phone on you?” I ask as I dig mine out of my pocket and turn on the flashlight.
“Yeah,” he says and does the same.
The twin beams of light don’t illuminate much as we step into the woods, but combined with the clear night and nearly full moon, they’re enough that we can navigate through the brush without the risk of hurting ourselves or getting lost.
“You know where you’re going, right?” he asks, his grip on my hand so tight my fingers go a bit numb.
“I know where I’m going,” I assure him.
“How did you find me?” he asks, his words rushing together as we sidestep a fallen log.
“I put a tracker on your phone.”
“You did?” He sounds surprised, but not angry. “When?”
“Ironically, earlier today.”
“Really? How?”
“Do you remember getting a text from an unknown number?” I slow down as the ground gets rocky and uneven beneath our feet.
“Yeah,” he says, sounding confused. “But I didn’t open it. I just deleted it.”
“You didn’t need to open it for it to work,” I tell him. “Opening it cuts out the rest of the steps, but it also works if the text is moved to a different location on your phone, in this case, the trash folder. Once it’s moved, the tracker implants on your phone, and it gets activated by an ad.”
“An ad?” he asks and ducks under a low-hanging branch.
“Do you remember seeing an ad for discount sunglasses when you were using one of the apps on your phone after getting that text?”
He pauses. “I think so. But I never click on ads. I exit out of them as soon as they let me.”
“For this tracker, you don’t have to click on the ad. It’s enough that you watched it. Even a second of play is enough to activate the tracker.”
“How the hell do you have access to that kind of tech? That sounds like some spy-level shit.”
“It’s amazing what my cousin can come up with when he’s bored,” I say with a chuckle.
“Your cousin?”
I slow down and carefully sidestep some sharp, jutting rocks that would tear us to shreds if we slipped and fell on them. “Technically I didn’t put the tracker on your phone. Jace did it for me. He also created it.”
“Jace? Like the same Jace who can spin knives around like a serial killer?”
I huff out a soft laugh. “Yup.”
“So he’s like, a hacker or something?”
“Yep. And a damn good one.”
“Is Jax one too?”
“Not to the same level. His thing is code breaking. He’s been into cryptography as long as Jace has been into coding.”
“And what about Killian? Or you? Are all of you hackers?”
I laugh again. “Not at all. Killer and I are normies compared to them.”
“Killer?”
“One of Killian’s nicknames.”
“Considering what I’ve heard about him, that seems very fitting,” Damon muses.
“I remember when you told me how Jace and Jax used to use each other for target practice when you were kids, and I didn’t fully believe you.
I thought you meant they practiced hitting targets and would stand too close to them and accidentally get hit or something.
Now I know you meant they literally threw knives at each other, and they were the targets. ”
“Yup. Thank fuck they got bored with learning archery and axe throwing before they got to the using each other as human targets phase of those hobbies.”
“I know all this should terrify me, but it doesn’t.” He sounds befuddled, but not afraid, and that’s a good sign.
The kind of shit that just went down is pretty normal for my cousins and me, or at least normal enough that we’ve dealt with that kind of situation before. Damon obviously hasn’t, and I was worried he’d have another breakdown like he did after I took out those kidnappers.
“They’re different, aren’t they?” he asks, his voice hesitant. “Like, there’s something legit different about the twins, right?”
“Yeah, there is,” I confirm. “I’ll explain what I mean once we get to the cabin.”
We might be in the middle of the woods and away from cameras and recording devices, but I don’t feel comfortable telling him about the twins’ diagnoses out in the open like this.
“Were you tracking me before you…before you guys saved me?” he asks, and I can tell by the tone and cadence of his voice that his thoughts are racing. “Or were you just out and happened to have the best timing ever?”
“I was tracking you,” I tell him. “We were heading into town, but I noticed you went for a walk when you were supposed to be hanging out with your friend West.”
“How did you know I was supposed to hang out with West tonight?” He shoots me a surprised look.
“I overheard you talking to him about it a few days ago when you were leaving your Risk Management class together.”
“So you stopped what you were doing and came to check on me because I went for a walk?”
“Yeah. That didn’t fit with your plans for the night, so I needed to make sure you were okay.”
“You did?” He sounds surprised.
“Yeah.” I squeeze his hand.
He doesn’t say anything, but his grip on my hand tightens as he falls silent, and I use my phone flashlight to look around and make sure we’re going in the right direction.
It might seem like we’re wandering aimlessly through the woods, but there are subtle trail markers around. You just need to know what they are and where to look for them.
During the day, I can find my way to the cabin without them, but it’s different at night. But even without the markers, I know we’re going in the right direction because of the change in the forest landscape.
The trees are spaced further apart in this area, and the ground is rocky instead of soft.
Because the trees are less dense, the canopy of branches above us isn’t as thick as it is closer to campus, so a fair bit of moonlight can filter through and help light our way, and we walk a bit faster now that we don’t have to be as careful.
“How did you get my number?” he asks after a few beats. “To send me the text. I gave you my burner number, but not my real one.”
“Jace looked it up.”
“Yeah, I should have been able to put two and two together on that one. If he can create a tracker that gets activated by watching a single second of an ad, then he can obviously find my phone number.”
“You’re fine,” I tell him and give his hand a little squeeze.
This is the first time I’ve actually held hands with someone since I stopped being a flight risk and didn’t have to hold my mom’s hand every time we left the house.
I always thought it would be weird and uncomfortable, and sweaty, but it’s nice, and I have no desire to let go.
“It’s not much further, just a little bit that way.” I gently guide him to the left.
“I’m so confused,” he says. “One second that guy was pointing a gun at me and I thought I was about to die, and now I’m learning all this stuff and going to a cabin in Rebel territory, and I have no idea how I got here or why any of this happened.”
“I know. And I’ll explain everything when we get there.”
We fall silent again, and after about ten more minutes of walking, we come up on our destination.
“Why do you have this?” he asks as he follows me up the front steps of the cabin. “Like, what do you guys use it for?”
I type the code into the lock and twist the knob to crack the door open. “Mostly for meetings and ceremonies. Sometimes we use it as a safe house if someone needs to hide out.”
“A safe house?” He tosses me an incredulous look. “What the fuck goes on in your frat that people regularly need a safe house to hide out in?”
“A lot,” I tell him. “I’m going to turn the generator on. Will you be okay waiting here for a few minutes?”
He looks around nervously. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
I gently let go of his hand, and a weird, cold sensation settles over me at the loss of contact. “I’ll be right back.”
He gives me a weak smile, and I hurry around the side of the cabin and into the small shed with the generator and other supplies in it.
It flashes right up, and I’m back at Damon’s side in less than two minutes.
“You good?” I ask.
He nods.
“Come on. Let’s get inside.”
He follows me into the cabin, and I turn on the lights as he closes the door behind us.
“Won’t it be super obvious that we’re in here?” he asks, looking around the main room. “With the lights on and it being dark out?”
“The windows all have a blackout coating on them that makes the place look dark even if we turn on all the lights.”
“Handy,” he says absently and looks around again.