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“Uh-huh.” Her hair falls forward as she leans in, and she shoves it back behind her ear.

I focus on the small crease between her eyebrows so I don’t blurt out that I’m in love with her yet again.

“I saw the guard was knocked out.” She eyes me carefully. “Was that your doing?”

“He tried to stop me from getting to the door, so yeah. It was me.”

“Huh.” A smile flickers across her face. “Good.” She checks the cut on my cheekbone one more time, and then she flips my hand over in hers, cleaning my knuckles.

As I glance at her desk, I can’t look away from the pocketknife. I tip my chin at it. “What exactly happened on the roof?”

“Supreme grabbed my arm, so I got the knife out.” She lets go of me. “I cut him across the back of his hand.”

I gape at her, and then I want to laugh, because while I was fighting to get to her, she was doing great all on her own, but I’m not surprised. Veronica is special.

“He actually screamed,” she says.

“Oh? Good.”

“Yeah, well.” She caps the water bottle and sets it on the desk. “It also means he’s going to release the video.”

“I don’t think he’ll do that.”

“You can’t be serious.” Her eyebrows shoot up.

“He wants something from you, right?” I shift. “Did he tell you what it is?”

She bites down on her lip and looks away, and I instantly want to know every word he said to her.

“Money, mostly,” she says. “When my grandaunt was at Blackerville, membership was paid and the fees were apparently collected by whoever was leading, so she ended up with it, and she was supposed to invest it somewhere. She took the archives with her too. Then she disappeared, and anyone else who could have known what happened to the money is dead now too.”

“And he thinks you can get it back.”

“He thinks I’m the only one who can, since it’s my family, and I could ask questions without anyone getting suspicious.” Her mouth twists. “And apparently it would make me the society’s hero. He actually used that word.”

I run my hand over my mouth. Well, this is so not what I thought the whole thing would be about, but it totally makes sense why Supreme wants Veronica so much.

“He couldn’t even tell me how much money he’s talking about.” She scrunches her nose. “But I guess he expects it could be a lot, especially if it was invested somewhere.”

“Then he won’t publish the video,” I say. “Not while he still wants that from you.”

“But I cut him, and I bet he’s mad. Actually, he already was. I thought he was going to attack me or something. He mentioned something about writing a letter in my name allowing my best friend to research my grandaunt for a paper or something... I guess he just needs an actual excuse to get close to my family, and he can’t exactly tell anyone, Hey, we’re a secret society and we want our stuff back.”

I hold up a finger. “If the video went online, you’d be gone, and then he’d have it a lot harder to get anything, and you could tell your family or someone about the society since their main leverage would be gone. What else did he say?”

“Nothing special. How I’m more important than I think, and how everything here would go back to normal for me tomorrow if I said yes, and of course, if I refused, then it would get worse than anything they’ve done so far.” Her jaw tightens. “And he got closer and closer, and I backed up, but there was a low wall right behind me and if I tripped over it... He even said no one would miss me.”

I clamp my teeth together. Elsie could’ve died like that too, and everyone just accepted that she jumped. Of course, there’s no proof he and Elsie ever had anything together and he wasn’t the leader of the society back then, but what if there’s something in their code about how to get rid of people?

“Do you think he would’ve pushed you off the roof? Despite still wanting the money?” I furrow my brow.

Because that could change everything. Killing Veronica wouldn’t get Supreme what he wants, or maybe it would, but it would be super complicated or he would’ve done it already, so it’s weird he’d even think about it, but what if he’s like that? What if he just snaps and forgets everything else when he’s mad? What if Elsie got in his way somehow? Maybe it wasn’t the society’s business, but personal.

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Veronica lets out a breath. “I’ve been thinking about it and it makes no sense, because he needs me to find the money, so killing me wouldn’t get him anything, despite his weird idea that he could pretend to research my grandaunt.”

“If he’s impulsive and he snaps easily...”

“Sure, but he’s been after me for so long.” She shakes her head. “It makes no sense.”