Boyfriend Material (Hawthorne University, #2)(30)

I’m shocked by the touch, then laugh as she dances away from me.

Okay, okay. Things aren’t weird between us.

Taylor speaks up. “The hunchback didn’t say I hope you like THE dark. He said I hope you like DARK. Try DARK as the combination.”

I didn’t hear a word Igor said.

Reece tries the four letters and we hear a click. The bars squeak as he swings them open.

We rush out of the cage to continue the search while Taylor stays on the bench.

I flick on a light switch and the room fills with a purple glow.

“Another fucking door,” Boone says faintly. “With words written on it.”



GOOD TO 5EE YOU MADE IT THIS FAR,

BUT ABANDON H0PE.

IF YOU WANT TO AVOID BEING D1NNER,

DON’T CH0KE.





I motion them into a huddle. “Alright, team, we’ve got a poem and we need a key to open the door. Look for puzzles, maps, anything you find could be important.”

A few minutes later, I find a key under the rug, but it doesn’t fit any of the doors.

“None of you searched this bench,” Taylor murmurs.

Julia rushes over to the bench, feels around the legs, and finds a small drawer underneath. A box falls out with a four-digit combination lock.

“We need four digits to open this,” she says, looking at me.

Several minutes pass as we go over the current clues we have, then— “5010!” yells Julia. “The poem has a 5 instead of an S on the first line. Some letters are actually numbers. 5010.”

She uses the combination and squeals as the box opens. “A key!” She hands the key to me and I open the new door.

We enter a room with chainsaws, sledgehammers, handcuffs, knives, and chains on the wall.

“Serial killer shit,” Boone grouses.

“Keep searching,” Julia and I call at the same time, then look at each other and laugh.

I slide in next to her. “We seem to have the same sense of team spirit.”

She smirks. “Good thing. One of your guys is terrified and one of mine is sitting out.”

“I knew the first clue!” Taylor shouts, obviously listening to us.

Reece works a puzzle box but can’t get it to open, Poppy examines old news clippings about missing college students while Julia and I do a crossword.

“Fun?” I ask her.

“Less talking, more puzzle solving,” she says tartly.

“Seven minutes on the clock, loves,” Taylor calls out.

“We’re not gonna make it,” Poppy cries.

“Fine, I’ll help.” Taylor sways into the dungeon room and glances down at the crossword. He scoffs. “Two across is CUR. And nine down is a seven-letter word for Banal. The answer is TEDIOUS. Just like this puzzle.”

Julia shouts in victory. “Good job, Tay. Okay, guys, the word in the puzzle is ICHTHYOLOGY.” She throws a wild look around. “Does anyone know what that means?”

We stare at each other.

“It’s the study of fish,” Boone says and we stare at him. “What? I know things,” he adds grouchily.

“There’s a bookshelf on the wall. Mostly anatomy books, but I saw one about fish,” Poppy says.

We rush to it, and inside are more news articles. We place them together, revealing four shapes in order: a square, triangle, circle, and hexagon.

“Use it for this,” Julia calls out as she holds up a lock box with another combination.

“The sides of the shapes. Square has four, triangle three, circle one, and hexagon six,” I call out. “Four, three, one, six.”

We hoot as we open the box.

“It’s a bat key!” Poppy exclaims. “It’s the way out! Go, go, go!”

Julia takes the key and rushes to the door.

“Thirty seconds,” Reece calls out.

Julia fumbles with the key in the lock. “It won’t turn!”

I grab her hand and we jiggle it.

“Sometimes you just need to wiggle it in just right,” I say.

Julia laughs. “Oh, hockey player, you slay me.”

I snort. “I wasn’t being sexual.”

“Sure,” Reece calls. “Now shut up and try it again.”

It finally clicks. We swing the door open and rush out into the hallway.

I call out, swoop Julia up in my arms, and swing her around while she bats at my shoulders, laughing.

“You’re crazy,” she calls as her hands rest on my shoulders.

“No one’s going to swing me around?” Taylor says with a pout, and Reece sweeps him up like a bride and lets out a big victory yell.

Taylor fans himself. “Just keep carrying me, darling. I feel faint.”

I let Julia down and our eyes cling until she looks away, a slow blush working up her throat to her face.

“Boop. That was fun.” I touch her nose.

“Hmm,” she murmurs.

“Worst experience of my life,” Boone calls, but he’s laughing.

“You’re the first group to solve that room since we opened,” the vampire says as we exit to the front.

Boone walks to the counter and leans on it. “Liam Neeson has the old man ability to kill lots of human traffickers in movies, and my skill is having friends who enjoy escape rooms. We wouldn’t have gotten out if I hadn’t known that last thing,” he reminds us. “Hey, Fake Dracula, you guys sell T-shirts?”