Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,107

Keepers are angry at me for the things the newspapers are saying about my dad,” she breathed eventually.

“You don’t believe he did it?” I asked.

She shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes along with a hint of doubt. “I know him, I love him, I can’t believe he’d do something so awful, so…” A sob escaped her as a tear fell and my thumb swiped over her cheek to catch it before it could drop between us.

Tatum looked at me like she knew I shouldn’t have touched her like that and like she was hoping I might do it again. I seriously need to take this down a notch.

“If they’re bullying you because of-”

“They aren’t bullying me,” she replied in a quiet voice, blinking to still the tears before they could turn into a flood.

“Then what? If you don’t want me to take it any further than this room then I swear I won’t. But I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”

She only hesitated for another moment but I could tell that her walls were crumbling. She needed to tell someone what was happening and I was the lucky fucker who’d landed on the job.

“The Night Keepers took me down to that old rock with the carvings at Sycamore Beach,” she whispered, like the words alone might summon the demons who haunted her. “And they threatened me, threatened my friends, promised to do all kinds of unspeakable things to me. Unless…”

“Unless what?” I growled.

My grip on the edge of the desk was punishing and I could feel myself losing control as I waited for the words to leave her mouth. Because I could already see it. See how Saint and his asshole friends had done something to her just like his father had done something to me. Something so big that it changed everything, ruined everything and yet so small to them that all they did was laugh about it if they even thought of it at all.

“They made me promise to be theirs, mind body and soul,” she breathed, her gaze never shifting from mine.

“Be theirs? How? What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, not liking the sound of that at all.

“I belong to them. I have to do anything they say, everything they say.”

“Are they forcing you to have sex with them?” I growled, gripping the desk so hard I was surprised the fucking thing didn’t break. If it was true, I’d hunt the three of them down myself right now and show them all the ways that you could use a baseball bat outside of the field.

“Not that,” she said quickly. “But everything else. I have to do things like hand feed them and wash their football jerseys…”

I ground my teeth as I fought my temper back under control, shoving away from the desk as I paced away from her and pushing a hand through my dark blonde hair as I stalked back and forth a few times.

Tatum watched me, her gaze burning me as I prowled like a mountain lion, but I couldn’t help it. The anger that resided in me because of my lot in life, the injustice, the hopelessness, the endless thirst for vengeance that had damn near consumed me more than once was rising up to drown me. I needed a minute. Just a minute.

I finally blew out a breath and turned back to her.

“Fucking with their football jerseys was a dumb move,” I said finally and she pouted as the walls slammed back down behind her eyes.

“Great. Thanks. I’m so glad I shared my problem with you.” She turned and stalked towards the door but I caught her as she yanked it open and knocked it closed again, leaning an arm against it above her head to hold it shut as I looked down at her.

“You didn’t let me finish,” I said in a dark voice.

“Go on then,” she challenged.

“It was a dumb move because they told you to wash them. They’d know it was you the second they turned up with pink shit all over them. Besides, they won’t give the slightest crap about stained jerseys. You need to hit them where it hurts if you want to strike back at them…and I just happen to know all of their weak spots.”

“You want to help me?” she asked sceptically.

“Yeah. My problem is that I can’t get close enough to use all the shit I’ve got on them. I need someone on the inside to make use of all