Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,214

there was no leash on me at all. Nothing to keep me in check, no reason for me to hold back. Hell, every fucker in the world would be on my side in this. I was protecting my motherfucking home from trespassers. I was practically a superhero. Though with less morals and a fuck tonne more bloodlust. But still, Batman had nothing on me. For a start I had an actual bat. He couldn’t claim that shit. And I had to say as far as weapons went, this one was pretty damn epic.

We made it to the door of The Temple where it hung open and I bellowed a challenge as we burst inside.

The place had been ransacked, the fridge and kitchen cupboards hanging open with nothing left in them, the toilet paper throne scattered and broken, drawers, doors and boxes open and turned out. They’d even upended Saint’s fucking chair.

Saint roared in agony as he saw the state of his spotless home, charging past me as he leapt on a guy whose arms were full of toilet paper. He punched, kicked and even bit with the fury of a wild animal and I felt like I really was seeing a demon given flesh as I watched him for a moment.

The grin on my face couldn’t be dampened and Blake raced across the room towards the flagstone which concealed the safe, barrelling a guy over with a classic football tackle as he went.

I looked around to pick my own target and swung my bat at an asshole who was trying to steal my fucking guitar.

He leapt back, waving the guitar in front of him to keep me away as I stalked closer.

“People don’t steal from me and live to tell the tale,” I warned him in a dark voice.

“This is my guitar you motherfucker!” he shrieked. “You stole it from me when I was busking in town last summer! It’s my whole life you piece of shit!”

“Oh.” I’d almost forgotten about that. A laugh burst from my lips. This shit was funny. Like some kind of cosmic irony. “You can go then,” I said, waving him away with my bat.

“Really?” he gasped, not waiting for my response as he darted for the door.

I let him get four steps before I chased him, swinging the bat with all my strength so that it slammed into the middle of the guitar, shattering the thing into a thousand shards of wood and wire.

The busker screamed like I’d just butchered his wife or something and I laughed as I hefted the bat again.

“You want it to be your skull next?” I taunted.

The busker’s eyes widened and he shook his head as he backed away from me, his features painted with terror.

“Then get the fuck out of my house! And don’t ever let me see your sorry face again or hear your piss poor attempt at singing either!”

He bolted like there was a rocket jammed up his ass and I laughed as I turned back to the room.

“Kyan!” Blake bellowed and that warning coupled with my instincts helped me dodge aside just as a hammer swung straight for my head.

I threw the bat up between me and the asshole who’d just tried to kill me and as the two weapons collided, it was ripped from my hands and spun away across the flagstones into some dark corner.

My hand closed around the asshole’s throat before he could get another swing in and I threw my arm up to deflect the next blow before it could brain me.

Pain splintered through my forearm as the wooden handle of the hammer collided with it and I roared a challenge as I slammed the motherfucker back against the closest wall.

His head hit the bricks so hard that the strength left his limbs and the hammer fell beside us with a dull thump.

The guy’s hands locked around my wrist as he tried to rip my hand off of his throat and he was damn strong. But I was stronger and as my fingers cut off his oxygen and his eyes widened in panic, I knew he knew it to.

I held his life in my grasp and my pulse thrummed hungrily as I watched his fear spike to panic and finally begin to dull.

The sound of a gunshot snapped me out of the moment and I dropped the asshole just before he managed to blackout, whirling back towards the room and finding Blake standing over the safe with Tatum’s gun in hand