Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,219

to thank me. That I’d do that a thousand times and more for her. Kill for her. Paint my soul in blood for her. It made no sense to me but it was true. I’d just proved it. Were they wishing they could say that too? And was their silence guilty like mine was? Were they cursing themselves for not being faster. For not helping her sooner. For letting that foul creature who lay dead beside us get his hands on her for one single second?

Were they wishing she wouldn’t thank them and drowning in the need to apologise for being so late. Almost too late…

I didn’t know, and with all I understood about them I wanted to seriously doubt it. But it was hard to ignore the way the three of them were staring at her. Hard to deny the depth to those looks. The intensity in each of their gazes.

And harder still to ignore the bond this secret put on us. All of us. Together.

What the fuck did that mean for me?

“Strip, now,” Saint barked and my gaze flipped to him again as Blake released Tatum and the three Night Keepers instantly ripped off shirts, kicked off sneakers and downed sweatpants. Tatum stripped the watches off of her arms too, dropping them with our clothes.

“Everything but your underwear, baby,” Kyan said, reaching out to brush his knuckles against Tatum’s cheek and causing her attention to fall on him.

The look she gave him made my gut clench and writhe in a way that I couldn’t even try to pretend wasn’t jealousy.

“We can’t deal with the body now,” Saint added. “If we’re gone much longer we’ll be missed. We need to get back out there and help make sure these motherfuckers are all gone for good.”

My gaze fell to the body beside us and the blood slowly pooling across the floor. Had the Night Keepers done this before? Did they know exactly how to deal with a body because they’d had a lot of practice?

“Now, Nash!” Kyan snapped and as my eyes flicked back up to him standing there in his boxers, I caught a wild kind of fear in his gaze which made me think not. No, they hadn’t killed before, but they knew how to destroy evidence.

They were all standing in their underwear waiting for me, Tatum’s arms crossed over her bare chest as she looked my way with a desperate apology painted across her beautiful features.

I quickly stripped out of my clothes, dropping them with the rest and stepping over the puddle of blood to join them.

Blake moved to lock the gate, stooping down to switch off the rapist’s cell phone too and plunging us into darkness. A moment later, Kyan’s phone illuminated the way on and he started jogging up the tunnel towards The Temple.

We soon emerged in a wide space that had been converted into a gym and I glanced around at the state of the art equipment.

“Wait here, Tatum,” Saint commanded and she fell still wordlessly as the Night Keepers jogged up the stairs and out of sight.

I didn’t follow them and they didn’t look back.

Tatum turned to look up at me, her blue eyes glimmering as she drew in a ragged breath. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed, drawing closer to me to keep her words private. Her hands and stomach were coated with blood and there was a savage kind of beauty to her as she stood there in nothing but her panties with her arms wrapped around her chest, smeared in the blood of her attacker. Her jaw was set tight and the determination in her gaze let me know she didn’t regret what she’d had to do for one second. She was a warrior embodied, refusing to bow down no matter what was thrown at her. And only rising stronger each time she fell.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” I growled. “If I’d just gotten to you sooner after you called, I-”

“But now you’re tied to the Night Keepers for life because of me,” she protested and the look in her eyes said she knew what that must have cost me even if she didn’t fully understand what Saint’s family had done to mine.

“Not because of you,” I growled. “For you. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

A soft sob escaped her and tears gathered in her lashes for a moment which I knew were entirely for me and nothing to do with that fucker we’d left cold in