Page 62 of Reasons We Break

There’s a sudden pain in her thumb, and she looks down to realize the hangnail she’s been biting is now bleeding. While she’s wrapping it with a tissue, Zohra hops up on the desk beside her. “Back there, with Rajan, it wasn’t what it looked like. I swear I’m not playing jealous ex.”

“We’re not together.”

Zohra continues like she hadn’t spoken. “I was trying to distract him. He was losing control. Dangerous place to be in, when you don’t have the tolerance anymore. He hasn’t done any of this stuff in months.”

So it’s hisfirstrelapse. Relief floods her, mixed with another emotion that urges her to ask if Zohra kisses everyone in danger of overdosing. She wrestles it down. “You sound like you know from experience.”

“I’ve seen my fair share of bad things happen.”

Her voice is dark. Simran’s curiosity finally overpowers her. “How did you even end up here?”

Zohra lifts a dark brow. “As in, with the Lions?”

“It’s just...”

“I’m a girl? And you don’t see girls on the news being arrested at shootouts?” She shrugs. “That’s exactly why I’m useful. People don’t expect me.” A flash of teeth. “You definitely didn’t.”

Simran would rather not reminisce about that. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“It’s not that interesting. I dated someone in the LS.” Zohra pauses. Hesitation, Simran might almost call it, but Zohra doesn’t seem the type. “He was older, and gave me all the attention I wanted. Plus, he was loaded. I was shopping seven days a week, driving luxury cars...first time in my life I had money.”

“You didn’t question where that money came from?”

“Of course I did. I knew Jai was involved in the LS. But honestly, I liked it. Hard to resist the sexy bad-boy thing.” She shoots Simran a knowing look. Simran pretends not to notice. “So when he started asking me to do things forthem, I didn’t mind. Like, I’d put his gun in my purse when we went out. I’d drive him and his friends around because cops wouldn’t suspect a seventeen-year-old girl. Things like that. I didn’t care. Especially because on top of everything else, Jai’s friends were offering to pay my university tuition. Before that, I never thought I’d get to go.”

Simran has to admire the Lions’ resourcefulness. Of course they’d invest in a future lawyer on their payroll. Of course an organization of their magnitude has people in high places. She waits for more, but Zohra doesn’t offer. “You’re using a lot of past tense.”

Zohra glances at the door, still slightly ajar. “Don’t you have work to do?”

Simran hears the signal loud and clear. She finally turns her attention to the transactions in the book, fixating on one in particular.

“Give me a pen,” she says after a moment. Her focus has returned.

Zohra does. “How’re you going to figure it out?”

“By context.” She taps the page. “Add up all the digits in the ones place. If B plus B plus BequalsB, B has to be either zero, because zero times three is zero, or five, because five times three is fifteen. Right?”

Zohra frowns, seemingly doing the math. “I...guess so.”

Simran points at the tens place. “And here, B plus U plus UequalsB. For that to work, Bhasto be zero. And U has to be five.”

Zohra nods slowly. “Because...ifBwere five, you’d have to carry a one to the tens place, and it would’ve fallen apart.”

“Exactly.” Simran smiles. “Now we have a foothold to figure out the rest.”

And so she does. Zohra’s silent at her side while she works, and several minutes later, she has the code: the numbers zero through nine are encrypted with the letters of the wordBANKRUPTCY.

Zohra laughs softly when she writes it down. Then pulls up a chair to sit. “I wanna help.” Whatever she’s been using tonight has made her a gentler, warmer version of herself. Simran doesn’t object, just places the ledger between them.

“Holy shit,” Zohra says once they’ve decoded all the transactions. “That’s...a lot of money, right?”

Simran nods. “And a lot of drugs they’re keeping somewhere.”

Somewhere. She can’t help but think about the cipher in her notebook at home. Can’t help but wonder if it holds the key.

Zohra pushes the ledger away and stretches. “Well, this was fun. I can see why you’re a good math tutor.” At Simran’s expression, she shrugs. “What? We read up on you. Mathlete. A-plus student. Golden girl of your school, awards from the city, involved in apparently every nonprofit in town. Pretty impressive.”

“I like to keep busy.”