We crawled along the hedge line. Two more guards jogged toward us, radios blaring.
“Split up!” Parker whispered. “Meet at the fence!”
He veered right. Jace followed me left.
We sprinted past the fountain, feet pounding on the cobblestones. The marble statues of old benefactors watched, smug and useless.
“Why is it always cardio with this group?” Jace panted. “Couldn’t the Sphinx test loyalty with like, yoga?”
“Keep running!” I snapped.
Behind us, a flashlight beam clipped my shoulder. “Hey! Stop!”
Jace shouted over his shoulder, “Can’t! Gluten allergy!”
“Not helpful!” I said through gritted teeth.
We cut between two dorm buildings. Voices echoed above and I glanced up and saw students leaning out of windows, their phones raised. Great. Exactly what we needed.
If this went viral, we were dead.
A siren wailed somewhere near the front gate.
“This way!” I hissed, grabbing Jace’s arm and pulling him behind a building.
We slid into the shadow of a dumpster that smelled like old pizza. I pressed my back to the brick wall, gasping.
Jace bent over beside me. “Great workout plan, by the way. Break into an office, flee armed security, maybe puke behind a trash can. We should tell Coach about this one.”
“Listen,” I hissed.
Footsteps pounded past, fading as they headed toward where we’d just come from.
Silence.
I let out a long breath, my adrenaline crashing hard. My hands shook as I clutched the ledger to my chest.
Jace was grinning like he’d just stepped off a roller coaster instead of outrun campus security. “You realize we just pulled off something out of a heist movie, right? I’m, like, George Clooney inOcean’s Eleven—but hotter.”
“I’m not even going to respond to that,” I muttered.
“You two alive?” Parker whispered suddenly.
I nearly jumped out of my skin. He emerged from the shadows, his hoodie streaked with mud, breathing hard but grinning.
“I thought we were meeting by the fence?” I said, straightening up.
“I wasn’t sure the two of you would make it,” Parker responded, raising an eyebrow.
I nodded because…that was a possibility.
Jace threw an arm around him, and Parker almost fell over. “That’s why you’re my QB,” he said proudly. “Also, would now be a good time to tell the two of you that I lost a shoe?”
We all looked down. One of his socks was soaked through.
Parker blinked. “How do you even manage that?”
“Artistry,” Jace said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
