Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,22

for him. They weren’t looking at me like they wanted to hurt me anymore. They were looking at me like they wanted their hands on me too. And it set off a fire in my flesh I couldn’t ignore. But after the dodgeball bullshit and the hair pulling, I only had time for one of them.

I turned back to Blake with a smile, gliding my fingers over his arm. “I don’t care if they like me, golden boy.” I ran my hand all the way up to his shoulder, his muscles flexing beneath my touch.

“But you care if I do, right?” he growled like he needed to know the answer to that.

I leaned in close to his ear, a smile pulling at my mouth as I prepared to tease the hell out of him. “No, not really.”

I turned and walked away to join Mila in one half of the class, scooping up a dodgeball and preparing to get some revenge on Saint and Kyan. Blake wasn’t deterred and he crossed the room to join my team too.

“You okay, girl?” Mila asked, her brows pinched in concern.

“I’m fine,” I said firmly, casually tossing my hair over my shoulder in case anyone around me was sniffing for weaknesses.

“Monroe always does that shit to newbies. Although, you’re the first one I’ve seen fight back. You were lucky they were playing nice.” She grinned at me and I broke a smile.

My dad had taught me to scream, kick and bite if I ever got backed into a corner by an enemy. But the key was to never get cornered to start with. So if the Night Keepers were intent on testing me tonight, I had to be ready for whatever their initiation involved. Because if that was an example of the boys playing nice, I wasn’t looking forward to finding out what it was like when they played dirty.

The dodgeball game was as savage as expected with this bloodthirsty lot. Eric Balthers was the first to be sent to the nurse when Kyan Roscoe slammed a ball into his face hard enough to break his nose and Kirstin Effers followed him as Blake Bowman’s ball took out the backs of her knees and she fell hard on her elbow.

I was sure she hadn’t broken it, but I couldn’t stand a crier so I’d sent her scurrying off too. She could wipe her snotty nose and dry her damn eyes good and proper before she came back into my class. No. Thank you.

I watched the princess as she darted around the sports hall. Her aim was good and she had the cutthroat instincts she’d need if she expected to survive this place. She wasn’t even afraid to go up against the top dogs and I suppressed a smirk as she aimed a ball perfectly, catching Saint Memphis square in the back of the head. It was against the rules to hit above the shoulders, but I didn’t give a shit about enforcing that particular rule. Especially for him.

Saint swung around with the glint of the devil in his eye as he snatched up a ball of his own and threw it back at her with his full strength. The princess didn’t even flinch, planting her feet and catching that motherfucker like a pro. She stumbled back a step, but it was clean.

“You’re out, Memphis!” I shouted, punctuating it with a blast of my whistle.

Saint stalked from the game with a heat in his expression directed at Tatum which said he was gonna kill her or fuck her. Maybe both. I just hoped she didn’t lose that spark in her eyes once she fell prey to him and his friends. Which she would. The Night Keepers weren’t even trying to hide the fact that she’d become their latest infatuation and the sad truth was, that probably wouldn’t end well for her.

I glanced at my watch as we closed in on the end of the lesson and released two short blasts on my whistle to call time on the game.

“Next time, let’s see if any of you can actually dodge the balls,” I growled, letting them see my disappointment in the piss poor effort I’d just seen from most of them. There were a few exceptions to that, but I didn’t hand out praise like candies at halloween. If they wanted my flattery, they’d need to do something a lot more impressive than be good at a game designed for kids.

Blake Bowman cupped his hands around his