Page 67 of Make Her Break
My fingers curl into fists.
I’m going to destroy him.
ACCORDING TO THE COLLEGE events page, every professor is stuck on campus late for some conference, Camden included, so he won’t be home for hours. Still, as I press myself against the trunk of a tree at the edge of his lawn, I can’t help glancing at the road whenever headlights show up in the distance.
The house is dark, and nothing moves behind any of the windows. At least there aren’t any other houses nearby, so no one’s going to spot Veronica and me out here unless they drive right up to his door.
Behind the next tree, Veronica points at the front door. “Camera,” she whispers.
A small black camera is mounted above the door. Another one is attached under the edge of the roof by the garage, aimed at the driveway.
“And I bet he has an alarm,” Veronica says.
I study the side of the house, looking for any way to get past all that. On the wall near the garage, there’s a metal box, a bunch of cables running out of it. If I cut those, the power would go out and probably kill all the cameras and any alarms, unless he has an alternative power source, which I hope he doesn’t.
“Wait here,” I whisper.
“Where are you going?”
“To cut the power.”
Hunching over, I inch from one tree to the next, and then I hurry across the grass on the side the garage camera doesn’t face. When I reach the box, I flatten myself against the wall. A small padlock hangs from the latch on the cover. Great, he locked it.
I get the lock picks out of my backpack. A moment later, Veronica appears next to me, breathing hard. So much for waiting.
“I told you to wait,” I whisper.
“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t want to.” She eyes the padlock. “If you turn off the power, won’t he know?”
“He’ll probably get a notification that the cameras went offline.”
“That’s—”
“Shh.” I glance toward the road. “He’s stuck at the conference, and he can’t just run out in the middle of it. Besides, he’ll probably think the internet went down or something.”
“And if he doesn’t and comes here anyway?”
“Then we’ll have to be fast.”
She scowls at me and then jerks her chin at the box. I fit the pick into the keyhole, and after some fumbling, the pick pops out. I try again, wiggling it until the lock clicks open.
I yank the padlock off and swing the cover open. There’s a row of switches, with a bigger one at the top. I push it down hard, and it snaps into place with a loud clack. When I peek around the corner, the small light that was above the front door is gone.
Veronica gives me a nod. “The cameras and everything should be dead. If he gets a notification and leaves right away, how much time do we have?”
“A while, I hope. Let’s not find out.” I tip my head toward the back of the house. “Come on.”
When we get to the back of the house, there’s a door with a glass panel in the top half. I kneel in front of the handle and get the picks out again. This lock is a lot harder than the padlock. I twist and prod, but the lock won’t budge.
“Hurry up,” Veronica whispers.
“I’m trying.”
Her hand grips my shoulder. “Car!”
Headlights come down the road, and my heart thuds. The car passes the house without slowing down, and the road goes dark again.
Veronica lets out a breath, and I go back to the lock. After what feels like forever, something inside it gives, and the handle turns under my hand. The door creaks open.
