Ruling silverlake High

The safe house

Landon didn’t take me back to the trailer park. He knew as well as I did that if Principal Vance called Charles Sterling, the first place his private security detail would look was my mother’s cramped, unprotected home.Instead, the truck tore down a narrow, unpaved road hidden deep within the pine woods bordering the Silverlake cliffs. We pulled up to a small, weathered cedar cabin that looked entirely abandoned, surrounded by overgrown weeds and shrouded in the thick coastal fog."What is this place?" I asked, my voice still trembling as I clutched the heavy, damp binder against my chest."My family’s old hunting lodge," Landon said, throwing the truck into park and killing the headlights. "My dad hasn't used it since his first Senate campaign. No one comes out here. There are no cameras, no paper trails. We’re safe here. For tonight, at least."We bolted through the freezing rain, Landon quickly unlocking the heavy wooden door. The interior was dark, smelling of dust and pine wood, but it was warm enough to stop the shivering deep in my bones. Landon clicked on a single floor lamp, casting long, dramatic shadows across the exposed-beam ceiling.I immediately marched over to the wooden dining table, throwing the black binder down. The edges were warped from the library sprinklers, but the ink inside was still perfectly legible.

Look at this, Landon," I panted, flipping open to the 2024 corporate deeds. I pointed a trembling finger at the bottom lines. "The Silverlake Expansion Project wasn't about building new science labs or athletic fields. Look at the offshore lender's routing codes. Blackwood Holdings LLC, registered in the Cayman Islands. Charles Sterling didn't fund the school's new wing; he used the school’s non-profit land grants as collateral to secure a massive private loan to bail out his own failing hedge funds."Landon leaned over the table, his athletic frame tense as his eyes scanned the legal jargon. His jaw dropped. "And Principal Vance signed off on it as the secondary trustee. If the state education board sees this, it's not just a scandal, Aria. It's federal embezzlement. Both of them will face prison time.""This is the leash," I whispered, the weight of the discovery crashing down on me. "This is exactly why Zander told me to find it. His father doesn't just care about Zander's rebellion. He’s terrified Zander would find out he’s running a criminal empire."Before Landon could answer, a sharp, buzzing sound cut through the silence of the cabin.We both jumped. Landon reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The screen was flashing with an encrypted number, the caller ID showing up as a string of unrecognizable, secure digits."It's the private server routing line," Landon breathed, his eyes wide as he looked at me. "The same one Zander used from the academy."He hit accept, throwing the phone onto the speaker between us on the table."Landon? Aria?"A voice cut through the static. It was low, gravelly, and laced with a terrifying amount of urgency. Zander. But he wasn't speaking in his usual lazy, arrogant drawl. He sounded out of breath, his voice strained."Zander!" I cried out, leaning over the phone. "We found it. We have the 2024 deeds. We have your dad's and the principal's signatures on the offshore loan documents."A sharp intake of breath echoed from the receiver. "You actually got it... damn it, Aria, I told you to hold the line, not trigger a manhunt. Listen to me very carefully. My father knows the archive was breached. He’s already pulled the campus security footage. He knows you and Landon have the binder."

We're safe, Zander," Landon cut in. "We're at the old cabin in the woods. Nobody followed us.""You're not safe!" Zander roared through the speaker, the audio crackling violently. "You don't understand what he’s doing. The headmaster at Vanguard just got a call from my father’s attorney. They’re transferring me out of the country tonight to a private estate in Switzerland to permanently isolate me from the trusts. But before they lock me down, my father is clearing the board. He sent his security team to the Silverlake diner twenty minutes ago to find you, Aria."My blood turned to pure ice. "The diner? Zander... my mom is covering my shift tonight because I was at the school."The silence that followed was suffocating."Aria," Zander’s voice dropped to a terrifyingly low, dead-serious whisper, the background sound on his end echoing with what sounded like distant sirens and heavy metal doors slamming. "Get out of the cabin. Go to the diner right now. If my father’s men touch your mother, I will burn his entire empire to the ground myself, inheritance be damned. Landon, drive her. Now."The line abruptly went dead, replaced by the hollow beep of a severed connection.I didn't think. I grabbed the black binder, shoving it back into the oversized pocket of Zander's varsity jacket. The fear that had been paralyzing me for hours instantly evaporated, replaced by a fierce, protective rage."Let's go, Landon," I said, my voice dead and cold. "The King told us to move. It's time to end this game."