Chapter 30 Reyna
REYNA
I round the corner to the library and leap back, narrowly avoiding another collision. Hands grip on to my shoulder to catch my fall, and my breath leaves me in a rush.
“Oh, Jesus—” I snap my mouth shut. My lips twitch into an involuntary scowl. “Lawrence.”
I haven’t seen this prick since our pitiful date a week ago. I would’ve been happy if I never saw him again. Since we don’t run in the same circles, I figured it would’ve been doable.
I glance around at the deserted campus buildings that are cloaked in darkness. “What are you doing here?”
“Reyna,” Lawrence grunts, frowning down at me.
My eyes narrow on his hands when they stiffen on me right before he lets me go. My mouth dries when I catch a glimpse of his golden cuff links peeking out beneath his suit.
Bees. Tiny, unmistakable bees.
My breath rushes out, and I take a cautious step back, eyeing him up and down. He’s out of his uniform and in a cheap suit and polyester coat instead. There’s no reason for him to be on campus at this time of night. The university wouldn’t host an event well past dinnertime.
I will my face to relax and pass off as empathetic. “Hey, look. I’ve been meaning to reach out about the other night.” No, I haven’t been. “I’m…” Come on, just spit it out. “Sorry about the way things went.” The words taste like acid.
Lawrence’s smug little mouth tightens. I force a smile anyway and hold out my hand. “Let’s let bygones be bygones?”
He considers for a moment. “Sure.” He takes my offered hand, and my sights lock on his wrists again. Definitely bees.
I drop my arm, putting more distance between us.
“It was good to see you.” No, it wasn’t. “Sorry, but I really have to go.”
His annoying face scrunches up in displeasure and confusion. “Uh, sure.”
I smile sweetly at him and continue in the direction I was going, keeping my ears peeled for his footsteps. I spin back around once he sounds far enough away, and rush to the very edge of the building to peer around the corner at his receding frame.
He’s hiding something. Maddox is hiding something. My parents were hiding something. I’m going to find out what that is.
Digging my nails into my palm, I creep out of the shadows and keep close to the buildings, following Lawrence across campus—away from the library. My heart pounds as brick and plaster walls watch me stalk through the night.
The frigid air burns my lungs with every inhale but makes me feel like I’m coming alive.
The chill penetrates my bones when he turns around.
For a second, I swear he spots me shadowing him.
But he turns around and continues walking, pulling out his phone, completely unaware of my presence.
I breathe a sigh of relief and put more space between us.
We’re heading into a part of campus I’ve never been to.
Unease prickles the back of my neck when he slips into a side door at the very edge of the university.
If memory serves, it’s the administration building that holds all the higher-ups’ offices.
It’s one of the older buildings that isn’t as well kept, so it sees a lot less traffic.
The anxiety multiplies when I rush up to the door to find it unlocked. I mean, Lawrence doesn’t exactly strike me as a competent person, so I’m not surprised if he forgot.
Unless it’s to allow more people inside.
No, there could be an entirely reasonable explanation for this. Lawrence is a cop. He could be investigating something.
This late at night.
In a shitty suit.
Without backup.
I mean, I should follow him in, just to be sure.
Plus, it’s not like I haven’t been in substantially worse situations.
It’s dangerous, and I’m beyond giving a shit.
I’ve hit more dead ends than I can count, the two men who have any information about my father are conveniently withholding it from me, and I am so sick of being kept in the dark by everyone.
If this ends up with me in cuffs, or dead in a ditch, then it can be my father’s last act of disappointment. His life will forever be a secret, because if nothing comes from this, I’m done. I came here to find the truth about him, not pine after my serial-killing professor.
With a deep breath, I turn on my phone’s flashlight and slip into the building to attempt to retrace Lawrence’s steps… which is surprisingly easy since every door is closed except the ones I can only assume he’s gone into.
I keep turning down various hallways, padding along on the balls of my feet in case anyone is close enough to hear. Being somewhere I shouldn’t be is thrilling. It’s like taking a dip into the dark side without knowing if something will reach out and drag me under.
My feet stall at the threshold of an office room. Is that… What type of Scooby-Doo shit is this? Why is there a hidden entrance behind a bookcase?
As I ease closer, the musty air fills my lungs. I hold up my phone to shine light on the entryway that leads to a winding, uneven staircase descending into the earth. The walls are made of stone and mortar. It must have been made hundreds of years ago.
I feel like I’m in a knock-off Nancy Drew novel.
There’s no way Lawrence isn’t messing with me right now.
He has to know that I’m following him, right?
And why would a secret deadly organization have someone like Lawrence as a member?
Lawrence, the guy who fed me the crime-scene pictures of murders that may or may not be connected to that very same dangerous society?
If it’s a question of whether I’m dumb enough to risk my safety by going inside, the answer is yes. I am, in fact, stupid enough to follow a crooked cop into a mysterious, secret, ancient tunnel that may or may not lead to a sex dungeon.
I can hear my mom turning in her grave as I take a deep breath and move my feet closer to the potential kink club. The sandstone steps crunch beneath my boots and the echo through the tunnel makes me die inside.
Taking a deep breath, I descend the staircase, shivering at the sudden drop in temperature. It only gets worse the lower I get. I guess the silver lining is that I might die of hypothermia before I get murdered.
When I reach the bottom level, it’s like entering into my very own horror movie. Cobwebs and broken sconces decorate the arched stone walls.
Curiosity gets the better of me as I eye the crates lining the tunnel.
I lift the lid of one high enough to peer inside.
There are a bunch of books, and other stuff like plaques, vases, medallions, and whatnot.
I can’t look at them properly without causing a ruckus and letting everyone in the vicinity know I’m here.
My knees click as I lower myself to open a big wooden chest. I grab the padlock, mentally crossing my fingers that it just needs a little wiggle to unlatch. No such luck.
I’m about to move on when the insignia on the lock catches my eye.
A honeycomb.
My heart pounds in double time. The distant sound of heavy footsteps travels down the tunnel from the direction I came.
Panic seizes my chest in a vise. I kill my phone light, drop to the dirty floor, and wedge myself up against a chaise with a broken leg, tucking my limbs against my body to make myself as small as possible.
“No,” a deep voice says.
The single syllable has every cell in my body going haywire. I will my eyesight to adjust to the darkness as I frantically search for somewhere better to hide and notice the white cloth lying on the chaise beside me.
Footsteps grow louder as the man continues speaking in a hushed tone. I yank the cloth toward me, covering part of the furniture and my entire body. I curl as tight as I can, melting against the dusty fabric. I’ve never felt more exposed.
My pulse roars in my ears. What if I was right, and the secret society really does exist? I’m sure Maddox’s victims were killed because of it. What if I’m killed next because I found out? Or would they torture me? What if they killed my dad?
Adrenaline sends violent tremors through my hands as I fish through my satchel for my taser. It tumbles onto the stone, and the sound ripples through the tunnel.
I stop breathing.
The footsteps falter. Silence.
I hold perfectly still. Arm trembling in midair. They’re just around the corner. I can hear them. They caught me, and now they’re going to kill me.
It isn’t until the voice starts again that I dare snatch the taser off the ground and hold it against my chest.
“Maybe I haven’t made myself clear. The merger is going through—I said it’s going through, and you are going to do whatever needs to be done to ensure it proceeds as planned—”
I hold my breath, clamping a hand over my mouth and nose to stay completely silent. Light streams through the cloth concealing me. It grows brighter with every step. He’s right there—right in front of me.
He’s not talking. Why isn’t he talking? Blood roars in my ears, screaming my impending doom.
Tears burn my eyes, and a single razor-edged droplet runs down my cheek. I’m in way over my head. This is why Lawrence warned me to steer clear. Why Maddox told me to stop looking into his victims.
A sudden realization makes me nauseous. What if they know I’m onto them, and it wasn’t Maddox who I felt watching me these past few weeks?
The steps carry through the tunnel, losing volume as he walks right past me. “Congressman Wallace will vote yes, and if he doesn’t, you’ll make sure he changes his mind, won’t you?”
I take in my first breath, not daring to move in case he turns around. The taser continues to shake in my hand.
“Good. I don’t want to hear from you until it’s—”
He’s too far away for me to make out the rest. It gets quieter and quieter until the only sound comes from my raging pulse. But I stay exactly where I am long after the last echo flows through the cold space.