Mercy (Somerset University #3) - Ruby Vincent Page 0,5

the information isn’t. And that’s the only thing that’s not in here.”

“What does that mean?”

I navigated to a tab labeled “freshmen” and a list of names rolled down the screen. I clicked one at random and leaned back for Val to read.

She squinted at the information—face wrinkled with curiosity, then confusion, then shock, and finally the emotion I settled on: horror.

“What the fuck is this?!”

“Notes,” I said. “Pages and pages of detailed notes on every freshman in the Sam house. Eating habits, sleeping habits, weight loss, weight gain, grades, study habits, classes, friends, family, background, career plans, and how they respond to different situations.”

Val’s cheeks drained of color as I rattled off the list.

“It’s not just the freshmen,” I continued. “He’s got a file on everyone in the Sam house and look at this.” I clicked a folder labeled training camp. “That trip you and Ezra went on—where you ran the obstacle course. Read some of the things he wrote.”

“Davidson paused and looked back when his opponent fell,” she read. “Nicolas climbed with perfect technique. Nathan didn’t throw the race to let his girlfriend win. Jose showed anger after his loss.” Val turned to me. “I don’t understand this. It was a friendly game over who’d pay for spring break vacations. All he needed to write down was who won or lost. Why would he record all of this? Why pay attention to who looked back or got angry?”

“You mentioned that Leighton and Aiden seemed intent, huddled together over their clipboards and talking in hushed tones. That obstacle race was clearly about more than who won the bet. He calls it a training camp.”

“Training for what?” she asked, mostly to herself.

Valentina clicked back to the freshmen folder. She fell silent as she scanned the info and then looked through the other grades as well. “Pledge points,” she spoke up.

“What?”

“Most of this is the criteria Aiden said he uses to assign pledge points, but this is on a stalker-level scale. The stuff that he’s dug up on these guys. Not just one secret. He has all the secrets. Dirt that would put them and their families six feet under.”

“He’s hacking them,” I said. “Maybe even tapping phones.”

“It doesn’t say what he does with the information except for one or two cases.” She pointed. “Look. Aiden discovers one of the guys’ father is in possession of child porn and he anonymously reported it to the police.”

“What’s the guy’s name?”

“Donald Seward.”

I quickly looked him up. “Yeah, I’ve got a record of his arrest.”

“There’s another guy he found out was taking up-skirt shots of unsuspecting girls. Says he was dropped from the Sams and another anonymous message was sent to the dean. Seems like Aiden is capable of doing the right thing.”

“Don’t raise your opinion of him yet, Val.” I pulled up a chair, sitting next to her. “He discovered Brian was being threatened by the Sons of Slaughter and he wasn’t moved to report that. He blackmailed Ezra to keep his mouth shut.”

She nodded, lips pursed. “If he’s making a habit of blackmail, there’s nothing in here about it. No records of payments or favors. All there is are checkmarks next to the secrets that will be used to test loyalty.”

“But it can’t just be about that,” I argued. “Tracking what they eat and searching out gang connections is bigger than getting into a silly fraternity. What does all of this look like to you?”

“Sleeping habits. Grades rising or falling while in the Sams. Tracking their health and stamina through the physical requirements. Honestly... if I didn’t know better, I’d say these were files you’d keep on lab rats.”

I bobbed my head, observing the dozens of tabs holding even more names. “I had the same disturbing thought.”

“Do you think this information is going to someone? The they Aiden spoke about in the basement. I can’t believe he woke up one day and decided to do all of this for shits and giggles.”

“That’s even more disturbing.”

“Who would want to know these things?” she asked. “What do they do with it?”

I lifted my shoulders. “It’s possible that Aiden doesn’t record payments or favors because someone else is collecting.”

“That would explain the digging for secrets. Not all of this other stuff. It’s like the guys are in an unknown contest for who is the number one Sam.”

I met her eyes. “I’m betting it’s not just the guys.”

“You think Leighton was keeping a file like this?”

“She dug into your lives like Aiden Connelly does. She had mysterious