This Fearless Girl (St. Clary's University #2) - E. M. Moore Page 0,69

smirks. “Not possible.”

He unlocks the door after we stare at each other for a little while longer. It’s a signal that this place is no longer our little safe haven. We have to go back in the real world where there are real threats and mounting pressures.

Stone gives me one last look before pulling the door open and stepping out, tugging me behind him. Wyatt and Lucas are there with their backs to us, walking toward the main entrance, but when they hear the door, they spin. Lucas comes right for us. “Where were you guys? We were looking for you.”

Wyatt smiles knowingly.

“I had to calm Dakota down,” Stone explains.

Wyatt peeks at Stone’s crotch. “Obviously, you didn’t calm yourself down.”

Stone pulls at his jeans, his erection pretty obvious. “We shouldn’t even be joking about that.”

Lucas pulls me to him. “Where is she? I’m going to take her down a peg or two.”

“Did you hit her?” Wyatt asks, smiling.

“I tried, but Stone pulled me away in time. I only nicked her.”

He frowns, and Stone backhands him in the chest. “She could get kicked out of school. I have to go pull some strings now. You two take her somewhere off campus, and I’ll text you when I’m done.”

Lucas tucks me under his arm, and Stone enters the Saint Clary’s Admin offices with his head held high and his shoulders pulled back. The picture reminds me of Lance and doesn’t sit well with me. That attitude that he’s better than everyone else is easy to pull off when he gives in to that persona.

“Maybe it would be better if I was kicked out, anyway,” I hedge. “The work, the treasure, it’s all a little too much.”

“Please, like you’d let Meghan win,” Wyatt says with a cocksure grin.

He’s right. Even if I wanted to leave, I’d definitely stay now. I’ll feel bad when Stone uses his influence to get me out of this mess for about point five seconds until I see the look on Meghan’s face when she realizes she can’t touch me.

I’m not the girl with no friends anymore.

I’m not her verbal punching bag.

I’m Dakota Wilder, daughter of a treasure hunting legend, and she can go fuck herself.

24

We wait for Stone in the library because what better place to kill time? Instead of letting the opportunity go to waste, we ask the librarian to pull us out some old maps of the Superstitions. She smiles knowingly at me. I’m sure my father has asked to see the same thing a hundred different times.

On the crudely drawn map, there’s a valley between what looks like two peaks. It’s a fairly good clue, except for the fact that there are many different valleys between two peaks up there. Some that are big enough to see on maps and some that aren’t. One of the hardest things to decipher is what kind of scale it was drawn to.

If we can find the old lantern and the valley between two peaks, it would be easier for us to find the path to the mine and therefore the cave with all the treasure in it.

After half an hour, Lucas and Wyatt get texts. Wyatt glances over at me. “You know you should start carrying around your cell phone, right?”

“The only people I talk to are right next to me.”

“We might not be one day,” Wyatt cautions. I can tell from the worried look on his face that he’s only preparing for the worst. Just like our gun training and self-defense session this morning, he wants to make sure all of our bases are covered no matter what happens. After all, he’s used to dealing with the thing that came out of far-left field.

“He’s coming,” Lucas informs us, typing out a response to Stone. “He says we’re meeting an antique jeweler about the ring.”

Lucas starts to roll the maps up, placing them back where he saw the librarian get them. It’s too late to save him from this mistake because the librarian is right there in an instant. “No, no, no,” she calls out, scurrying over to where we are. “I’ll place them back. Thank you,” she glowers, sizing him up as he moves out of the way.

I hide the smile on my face as we walk away. “You knew she was going to do that, didn’t you?” Lucas asks.

“You moved too fast,” I explain, biting my lip to hide the giggle that’s threatening.

When we get outside, Stone’s pulling up to the curb. Wyatt takes the front