“Sorry to break up the three way, but you assholes are late for class.” Monroe’s rough voice washed over us and we pulled apart to look at him where he stood in the open doorway with Tatum at his side. “And I just caught Rivers trying to cut class down at Sycamore Beach too. So tonight you’re all going to be spending detention with me running a lap of the school campus. And unless you’re looking to make that a week in detention, the four of you will get your asses in uniform and run to Miss Pontus’s lesson within the next five minutes,” he demanded.
All three of us were looking at Tatum but she only had eyes for me and her gaze burned with a hatred so pure, I felt it searing away at my flesh.
She was wearing my goddamn coat and it was covered in sand which made my fingers twitch with the urge to spank her. But stronger than that, I was swept up in the idea of pulling her into my arms. Just for a moment. Just to be sure she was back here. Where she belonged. Not that I did either of those things.
She turned away from me dismissively before bounding up the stairs to get her uniform but as I made a move to follow, Monroe called me back.
“I need a word, Memphis,” he demanded, striding into my home like he’d been fucking invited. “Bowman, Roscoe, fuck off and get dressed.”
Kyan and Blake stalked away without a word and I was left with my football coach, folding my arms as I looked at him. “Yeah?”
“The headmaster informs me that you stole the school’s supply of toilet paper,” Monroe began, throwing me off entirely. I’d assumed that Barbie had gone telling tales, but it looked like she knew how to keep her mouth shut after all. His gaze slid beyond me to my hand crafted toilet paper throne and his lips twitched. Possibly with amusement or possibly with rage. Hard to tell with him.
“I’ve had that throne for years,” I commented lightly. “But if he’d like to enter into sales negotiations with me, I’d be open to it. Unfortunately, in the current climate the demand is quite high though, so obviously the price would have to reflect that.”
Monroe lunged at me so suddenly that I didn’t see it coming, my back hitting the wall beside the door as he snarled in my face. “You and your little friends have already got detention with me tonight. After that you can pack up this toilet paper and deliver it back to Brown’s office. Are we clear on that, Memphis?” he yelled.
My jaw locked and my anger rose again, but I couldn’t let it rule me. I needed to play this right. There were a lot of things I could buy my way out of. Hitting a teacher wasn’t one of them. Not easily anyway.
“No problem, sir,” I agreed, though the death threat in my gaze would be letting him know there was a problem alright.
I shoved away from him and headed up the stairs, meeting Tatum as she tried to step out of my closet dressed in her school uniform.
“Move,” she snarled, but of course I didn’t. I backed her into the confined space and shut the door behind me.
“Are you gonna keep up the kicked puppy act all day, Barbie?” I asked, eyeing her uniform carefully before reaching out to straighten her tie.
She jerked back so I couldn’t touch her and I pursed my lips. My gaze snagged on that fucking hicky on her neck and I fought against the urge to ask her what Kyan had done to earn the right to put his mouth on her flesh. He said he hadn’t fucked her and I believed him, but clearly something had happened between them. I just didn’t know if I wanted to hear about it or not.
“Just so long as you keep up the evil asshole routine,” she growled, making a move to push past me.
I caught her arm to stop her, glaring down at her as she tried to walk away from me. “You agreed to belong to me. To all of us. You can’t have thought that would be easy.”
“I hate you,” she hissed and the raw emotion of those words hit me like another punch. “Now let me go or I’ll scream for Monroe.”
I released her without a word and she strode to the door, flinging it open.
“Oh, and you should probably fix your face before class,” she said acidly. “That fucked up nose of yours really looks like shit.”
The door snapped shut in my face and I stood in the silence as chaos reigned inside me. My ritual had gone to fuck. My only friends had been lying to me. Monroe was inside my Temple. And Tatum Rivers had just gotten the last word in. My life was officially in tatters.
School was just about bearable. I put on my fiercest resting bitch face, sucked up the Night Keepers’ bullshit and even got to partner with Mila in English for an assignment. Not that I told her what they’d done to me. I gave her a false smile and said nothing could hurt me. I had a heart of iron. And by the time I was back in The Temple, cooking dinner for the assholes who owned me, I wished I did.
I’d made many wishes in my life; wishes on stars, wishes on birthday candles, wishes in wells. And I’d wasted them all. Because if I could exchange just one of them to replace my heart with a lump of cold, hard metal then fighting back against them would have been easy.
Every time I saw them laughing and smirking together, I thought of those letters. I thought of all of those private words being poured secretly into those pages only to be burned out of existence. And my heart felt it all.
When I’d finished washing the dishes at seven thirty, Saint called me upstairs. There had been few words shared between any of us today. I’d answered their requests with as little syllables as possible and done all of it with a mask of indifference on my face.
My stomach knotted as I headed across the room, feeling Kyan and Blake’s eyes on me from the couch. We had detention with Monroe at eight and I wished he’d done me the favour of only giving it to the Night Keepers. A couple of hours here alone would have been a dream come true. Even if they’d locked me in the bathroom.
I made it to the top of the staircase, finding Saint lying on the bed and gazing up at the vaulted ceiling. He’d somehow managed not to wrinkle the sheets around him and was dressed for a workout like Monroe had requested. His grey T-shirt clung to his muscular frame and his feet hung over the end of the bed despite the fact that his designer sneakers didn’t have a speck of dirt on them.
He patted the space beside him. “Lie down,” he commanded and I clenched my jaw as I approached, sighing as I dropped down, making sure not a single hair on my head touched him. I gazed up at the high ceiling above, the wooden rafters curving overhead in a beautiful display of craftsmanship.
“Your silence is boring me,” he drawled and I felt him turn to look at me, though I didn’t repay the favour.
“What do you want me to say?” I asked innocently, knowing he’d hate that. As much as he wanted my compliance, he wanted me to fight back even more. They’d all made that clear. And today, I was not going to rise to it.
“You could start by apologising,” he said in a growl, a note of amusement in his tone.
I bit down on my tongue, my heart screaming in my chest.
“Well?” he pressed in a cold voice, a threat living between the letters.
“I’m sorry,” I forced out on a breath. “Sorry that your mother is the only woman in the world who will ever love you. I’m sorry that your life has been so empty that you have to fill it with pointless, expensive things. And I’m sorry you have to break those things when they don’t bring you the happiness you so deeply fucking crave, Saint.”
My words hung in the air for a full minute before I turned my head to look at him, waiting for the wolf to bite back. His gaze was on the ceiling and his jaw was ticking with an unreadable kind of anger. One that didn’t seem to be directed at me for once.
“You got one thing wrong.” He turned his head to face me and I took in the darkening bruise across the bridge of his nose with the sweetest kind of satisfaction. “My mother loves her other sons, but not me.”
“I thought you were an only child?” I frowned.
“I am, but not if you count Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and even George Washington on those little dollar bills. I guess my complexion didn’t
come out green enough for her to love.” He sneered like those words didn’t touch his heart and they probably didn’t. I reckoned if I slammed a knife into Saint’s chest, he’d keep on living like the walking dead. So if it came to it, I really had to remember to aim for the head.
I said nothing. Because nothing was everything sometimes. If he wanted pity from me, he was going to be sorely disappointed. But I didn’t imagine Saint would ever want that from anyone. So I wasn’t really sure what he was angling for.
I moved to sit up, but he planted his arm over my shoulders to make me stay. My skin prickled where he touched me and I fought the shudder he wanted to draw from my flesh.
“And what about your mother?” he asked, though it wasn’t out of politeness or even curiosity. I suspected now that Saint had fired the most powerful ammo he had at me, he was hunting for another magazine to load in his gun.
“Your mother and mine have something in common, Saint. She took half my dad’s money and left when I was three. So feel free to bad mouth her all you like. I’ll even join in.”
He extracted his arm from me then rolled over to prop himself up on his elbows, his gaze travelling over my face, pausing on my lips before slipping to my neck. My breathing came faster as this predator assessed me, then he slowly reached out and laid his hand over my neck like he was about to throttle me. His fingers grazed my pulse and it elevated at his icy touch. My face might not have betrayed my fear, but my heart wasn’t capable of lying.
“Where’s your necklace?” he hissed and my throat closed up.
I acted fast, rearranging my features into confused worry as I lifted a hand to feel the absence of it too. “Shit, I must have lost it.”
His gaze narrowed as he hunted for a lie. My fingers grazed his and his hand twitched at the touch, like for half of half a second he’d considered taking my hand.
“I’ll make sure it’s found,” he said darkly before rising to his feet and straightening down his T-shirt. “Get up and get dressed. We leave in five minutes.” He strode away down the stairs and I sat up, my hand still at my throat. Nothing gets past the devil unnoticed.
I spotted the clothes he’d left for me piled neatly on his nightstand and moved to grab the navy sports bra, matching fitted yoga pants and black Nike sneakers. I was soon dressed and I left my clothes strewn beside the laundry basket to piss Saint off later and headed downstairs.
The guys were all ready to go and I followed them out the door into the cool night air. I didn’t miss the appreciative glances the push-up sports bra served me from Kyan. But despite the night of fun we’d had together, I was now firmly pissed at him. He let Saint get away with whatever he wanted. And any small ounce of humanity I thought I’d seen in him had clearly been a total lie.
“Looking good, baby,” he purred as he waited for me to walk past him on the path so he could check out my ass. I flipped him the finger over my shoulder and his chuckle reached me.
Blake was having trouble keeping his eyes off of me too and I scowled as he offered me a smirk. “There was never any mention of Cinderella’s huge rack in the original story. I like this version better.”
I rolled my eyes at him, quickening my pace so I didn’t have to listen to any more of their shit.
We headed down the track to the right, making our way to the path that led up to the faculty quarters, Maple Lodge. Monroe was waiting for us there on a bench, sitting on the back of it and resting his feet on the seat. He glowered as we approached, looking like a crossroad’s demon ready to bargain for some souls. I’d rather he owned mine than the current possessors though.
“Evening, sir,” Saint said, his eyes full of malice. He did not like getting detention at all. And that made it all the more gratifying to watch.
Monroe jumped down from the bench, striding toward us with no patience in his expression. He had something gripped in his hand and he reached forward, taking my arm and strapping on a black fitness watch with a square screen. He tossed the rest to the others and I felt his fingers lingering on my skin for a long moment after they were gone.
“You’re all going to do a lap of the entire campus. Your watches are set to the same route. Follow it,” he growled. “The route will finish back here at this bench where I’ll be waiting for you.” He smirked. “If you’re not back here within two hours, you can do this all over again tomorrow. Is everyone clear?”
“Yes, sir,” I said in time with the others. It might have been a long ass run, but it beat hanging out with the Night Keepers for the duration of this detention. Little mercies and all.
“Good. Your time starts…now,” Monroe announced and all of our watches beeped as the run started. I checked the map and headed back in the direction we’d come while Kyan and Blake fell into pace with me on both sides, fucking flanking me, while Saint followed right behind my back.
I gritted my jaw, ignoring them as I jogged on, waiting for them to pull ahead and leave me behind, but they just kept with me like goddamn hounds.
I tried slowing my pace, but they just fell back to match it and I huffed in annoyance.
As the map guided us off of the main path up a track to the right, we headed into the trees and Blake’s arm brushed my right while Kyan’s brushed my left.
“Now,” Saint hissed and Kyan collided with me, whirling me back against a tree, making my heart lurch into my throat. The three of them closed in on me and my breathing came faster and faster.
“What the fuck?” I spat, my heart jack-hammering as they surrounded me.
As one, they all shed their watches, grabbed my wrists and tightened the straps around my arms.
“Enjoy our run, Cinders,” Blake said with a dark laugh. “We’ll meet you before you reach Monroe again and you can tell him how much fun we all had running together.”
Kyan pushed me up the path as the others stood back then he slapped my ass. “Yah pony!”
I growled my rage, wanting smack his damn face but before I could even get my thoughts in order, the three of them turned, running back to the main path and darting out of sight in the direction of The Temple.
I clenched my jaw then started jogging again, cursing them with every name under the sun as I hurried up the dark track.
After a while, it felt good to be working out the tension in my muscles at least. And I supposed I had gotten my wish of some alone time, so there was that. In fact, apart from the chilling hoot of an owl in the distance, this was pretty damn sweet. And after living in a house with three monsters for days on end, I knew I didn’t need to fear being alone in the woods. It was having company in the woods that worried me most these days.
I soon fell into the rhythm of my feet pounding along the track and I wished I had my headphones with me to listen to music on my phone.
The track curved down towards Aspen Halls at the head of campus and my feet hit a solid path again as I followed the map around the huge gothic building towards the main gate.
I spotted the football team and the rest of the popular crowd sitting on the benches in the courtyard at the back of the building. I saw Mila amongst them and she waved as she caught sight of me, beckoning me over. I raised a hand at her, but my heart twisted as I kept running. I wasn’t going to tarnish her reputation by going over there, even though I appreciated the sentiment. I spotted the Unspeakables on their own table and frowned as Chad McCormack jumped up onto it and started throwing bread on the floor, demanding they pick it up with their mouths and make quacking noises. The worst feeling of all was when they did it.
Just as I was nearing the front corner of the halls, a figure stepped around it and I crashed into them full speed. I grabbed his arm before he hit the ground and blurted an apology.
Bait was seriously recognisable with the landing strip carved through the centre of his hair and my gut twinged with guilt for me putting it there.
“Sorry, are you alright?” I asked and he laughed nervously, patting himself down as if to check.
“I think I’m all int
act, Pla – ah – Tatum.”
“It’s good to see you,” I said earnestly.
“You too.” He stepped past me, glancing around as if expecting the Night Keepers to appear at any moment. “Goodnight,” he said before hurrying off down the path toward the rest of the Unspeakables. My gut sank with disappointment as I watched him go. A conversation would have been nice, but I guessed whatever had been left of the guy’s balls had been lopped off the second my escape plan had failed us. I still felt shitty about that. But I mostly felt pissed at Sneak’s mom for abandoning us.
I headed around the building to where the gravel drive stretched out towards the gate, glancing wistfully that way as I pictured the freedom that lived beyond it. This place had become my prison. And I couldn’t imagine a time when those gates would be open and I could step out of them freely.
A foot crunching against gravel caught my attention and I slowed to a halt, a shard of ice sliding smoothly down my spine.
I looked towards the gate once more and I could have sworn there was movement in the thickness of the shadows.
My breathing came unevenly as a guy moved up to the gate, clearly unaware of me as he slid his hands around the bars and rattled it. My throat dried up as I took in the sinister expression on his face. He had dark, torn jeans on and a check shirt that didn’t marry with anyone on campus. He wasn’t a student and he definitely wasn’t a teacher.
Where are the damn guards?
“Hey!” I called out to him and he looked up in surprise before darting back into the darkness.
My heart shuddered in my chest as I stared at the gates. For a second it almost looked like the chain wasn’t in place around them. But that couldn’t be right.
I might not have been in a horror movie, but I sure as shit wasn’t gonna go over there and check all the same. The guards would be patrolling. If that asshole came back, they’d catch him.
I wet my lips then jogged on, trying to figure out if I should be worried about that guy or not. I guessed it was a good idea to alert the guards so I brought up the school app on my phone and tapped on the security alert button, shooting them a quick message. As it sent, my shoulders relaxed.
Kings of Quarantine: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 1) Page 45
