Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,129

fault, but if he needed to blame someone within his grasp, I guessed it would be me. And in some twisted way, it at least made more sense why his hatred toward me burned so fiercely. But grief was like an endless tide. And if you built a dam against it, it was eventually going to break through and pour out all at once. Which was exactly what he’d done, and now I was laying at the bottom of that dam, receiving the full brunt of his rage whether I was culpable or not. It didn’t matter, so long as someone took the fall and helped him ease that pain. I’d been there too. I’d taken it out on my dad, the world. But I’d never built a wall against it, so my grief had spilled in a steady flow. The way Blake was dealing with it was brutal. Destructive. Both to him and me.

“Don’t underestimate him,” Monroe continued. “Blake Bowman is volatile when he’s angry. I’ve seen him send more than one guy to hospital during a football match. And that’s just through his desire to win. But you can use that against him. He won’t say no to any challenge which is why he’s been butting heads with Saint for years.”

“Really?” I asked. I hadn’t seen them fighting before, but Monroe clearly knew them better than me.

“Yeah,” he said. “Bowman wants to be top dog. He doesn’t like losing at anything, including social hierarchy. Being second to Saint eats away at him constantly until every now and then he rises up and clashes with him.”

“So I need to make them clash?” I whispered excitedly.

“Yeah, and the way to do that is through fucking with Saint’s need for control,” Monroe said and I swear I was getting so wet for him over the way he was talking that I was surprised he hadn’t noticed me panting yet.

“Go on,” I encouraged, biting on my lower lip. His gaze dipped to my mouth for half a second before he dragged his eyes back up to mine like a good teacher. I kinda wished he was a bad one though.

“You need a way to get into The Temple.”

I laughed dryly. “Well they’re making me live there so that’s easily done.”

His eyes brightened with that news and I kinda wanted to punch him for it. “That’s brilliant, you’ll be in the perfect position to strike at them. I imagine Saint keeps the place a certain way. And from what I know of Blake, he’s a messy fucker and that would drive Saint to insanity. If you can figure out what Blake does regularly to piss him off, you could do some of those things too…”

“And get him blamed for it,” I finished with a grin.

“Exactly. Generally with Saint, if you can get him feeling out of control, you’re gonna break down their entire little Bermuda triangle of bullshit.”

I nodded keenly, but my heart leapt as the door flew open. Blake strode in with fury in his eyes and my heart thrashed fearfully against my chest.

“What the fuck, Bowman?!” Monroe jumped to his feet and Blake slowed to a halt, folding his arms as his eyes slid to me on the floor. I was mid-stretching out my right calf, gazing up at him in horror. Holy shit, what if he heard something??

“I’m here to pick up, Pl- Tatum,” Blake said simply.

I rose to my feet as his gaze slipped to me.

“We’ve been looking all over for you, sweetheart,” he said, his voice overly sugary and I scowled at him, more than happy not to bother with the compliant bullshit now that I had a bunch of ammo lined up against him. And I couldn’t wait to start firing it.

“She has kickboxing lessons with me three times a week,” Monroe growled. “And if you ever walk into my training room uninvited again, I’ll have you in detention for the rest of the semester, Bowman.” Monroe’s muscles were rippling and the sweat gleaming on his body drew my gaze for a hot minute. He was going to bat for me and hell that made me gooey inside. I wished I could show him how grateful I was…

“You didn’t mention that, Tate,” Blake said to me with a firm stare.

“Didn’t I?” I asked with an innocent shrug.

“Rivers will be training with me. I think she’s got a shot at the regionals and fuck if I’m missing out on the opportunity to train an athlete like her,” Monroe