Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,135

man,” I warned her as she looked at me like she really could see the monster lurking beneath my skin. The T-shirt she wore beneath the hoody was her own so she was in luck – she wasn’t going to have to walk around in her bra for the duration of this little mission.

I turned and strode away from her as I heard the carts pulling up outside, using my keys to open the loading doors at the far end of the store room.

Kyan smirked at me as he spotted the hoody which was still clenched in my fist and I tossed it in his face. “You start dressing our girl in your clothes regularly, we’re going to have a problem,” I growled.

“Yes, boss,” he replied, tossing me a salute to go with the asshole smirk and I was damn tempted to punch him.

I threw a glance at the space in the back of the cart instead and turned back into the store room to gather supplies as he left to get another cart.

“C’mon then, Barbie, if you wanna avoid pissing me off, I suggest you start pointing out all the things in here that you’re going to need to keep me fed in the way that I like,” I called and Tatum gritted her teeth as she moved to follow my orders.

“Fine,” she ground out and for once, I let someone else tell me what to do as I followed her directions, piling up the carts with all manner of tinned and dry food as well as some fresh stuff that we would be able to use in the days to come.

Once Kyan and Blake were helping too, we made fast work of piling everything we needed onto the carts. I insisted on taking the entire fucking stockpile of toilet paper too. If that was gonna become currency then just call me the bank of Saint Memphis. If anyone wanted to wipe their asses they’d be coming to me to trade in gifts and favours and I couldn’t fucking wait.

By the time the carts were stacked and the store room shelves were looking suspiciously empty, the sun was just beginning to spill over the edge of the horizon.

All four of us were coated in a layer of sweat and I’d long since ditched my hoody. Delivery personnel were seriously under paid for doing this kind of work all day. Must suck to be them.

Blake gave me a hand as I locked up, leaving Kyan to look after our girl while we checked we hadn’t left any evidence behind in our rush to gut the place.

People talked about preppers and hoarders like they’re a bunch of vultures, circling a fresh kill and just making the scene of the death worse. The news was full of stories of people fighting it out over a pack of toilet paper like their entire fucking life depended on wiping their ass until it shined and there was an unnatural addiction to dried pasta taking place too. But what they always forgot about vultures was that the lions had to come and make that kill in the first place. And though the Hades Virus panic may have been a little late in coming to Everlake Prep, we’d just drawn first blood. And I was sure that carnage would soon follow as the vultures flocked to find the carcass picked clean.

Once I was sure that no one could irrefutably point the grand theft toilet paper back to us, I locked up the doors around the front of the building and circled back to the carts.

“Do you think Headmaster Brown is gonna know it was us?” Blake asked me with a smirk that said he was looking forward to the carnage this would create.

“He may have an inkling,” I agreed, my own lips curving up in amusement.

“Priceless. I can’t wait to see him lose his shit. I bet his face gets all red like a beetroot and his fucking beard sets fire.”

I snorted a laugh at that mental image as we headed around the back of the building to meet the others.

I fell still as I rounded the corner and spotted Barbie perched in Kyan’s lap as he showed her how to drive the fucking thing. His tattooed arms were tight around her waist and he guided her hands with his as he placed them on the steering wheel like she couldn’t figure out how to steer it for herself.

“Why do I get the feeling Kyan really