Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,215

as he aimed it at the closest looter to him. There was a shiny new bullet hole in the brick wall beside the stained glass window.

“You’ve got thirty fucking seconds to leave our stuff behind and get the fuck out of here or the next one goes straight in someone’s skull,” he snarled and that flat, black look in his eyes told me he meant that with every fibre of his being.

In less than a heartbeat, every fucker in the room dropped their shit and ran. The guy I’d almost choked out tried to grab his hammer but I stepped on it before he could, snarling at him as he glanced up at me for a moment and then ran for it. I wondered if he’d seen his death in my eyes when I’d been choking him. I wondered if he knew just as surely as I did that he owed his ongoing survival to my mercy. Because there was something about being the owner of that power which had me lighting up from the inside out.

I whirled around to check that the rest of the fuckers were gone and spotted Saint covered in blood splatter as he continued to beat the living shit out of the guy beneath him.

I strode across the room and grabbed his shoulders, forcibly tearing him off of the thief who was still clutching a single roll of toilet paper in his hand like it had all been worth it if he could just keep that.

Saint damn near swung at me and Blake leapt on him to hold him back as I looked down to see if the guy he’d been pounding on was still breathing or not.

He groaned but didn’t seem capable of walking so I grabbed him beneath the arms and hauled him across the flagstones to the door. I tossed him out onto the path beyond The Temple doors and reached down to snatch the roll of bloody toilet paper from his fist.

He whimpered like that was the worst thing to have happened to him in all of this and I ripped a single square from the roll before dropping it on his chest.

“Clean your bloody face up and fuck off,” I snarled. “If you’re still out here when I come back, I’ll toss you in the lake to drown.”

I slammed the door between us and locked it before I turned back to the destruction of our home.

Saint’s lips parted on what was bound to be a tirade which would last into next week, but before he could start it, a scream echoed up to us from the open door which led down to the crypt and we all froze.

“Was that-” Blake began but Tatum screamed again and something cold and sharp slid deep inside my chest, threatening to gut me more surely than any knife.

We all raced for the door at the same time but I got there first, taking the stairs three at a time before landing in the gym and spotting the gate which led down to the catacombs standing wide open.

“If someone followed her down there to hurt her, I’ll rip their organs out and force feed them to them,” Saint hissed behind me, but I didn’t respond.

My own rage had no words. It had no voice and no time for thought.

It was deep and pure and endless.

Tatum Rivers belonged to me and I had no intention of that ever changing. She’d wormed her way beneath my skin and I’d given my word to protect her as my own.

There were no words which could describe the depths of my anger, but as Blake began cursing behind me as we ran, he got as close to voicing them as possible.

We dove into the dark without any need to discuss it. Because it wasn’t a choice we had to make.

Tatum had agreed to belong to us, but perhaps she hadn’t realised the depth of that promise as she’d made it. She’d bound herself to three monsters and we were bound to her just as surely in return.

We might own her, but she owned us too.

And a woman capable of wielding three demons was something to be feared. Especially by any creature who might hurt her. Because if we found her with a single hair on her head out of place, we’d do far more than rain down hell on the perpetrator. That would be a mercy by comparison.

Strong hands grabbed me from behind, one slithering up my bare stomach and