Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,104

me. You can trust that he would die to protect Tatum and it's not like we have anyone else to ask." Kyan quickly finished typing out the message to his uncle then shoved his phone into his boot to conceal it.

"Not to mention the fact that I can protect myself," Tatum added.

A loud pounding came from the bolted door and we all froze. "This is Sergeant Jeffers with the Sequoia State Hades Defence Squadron," a man called loudly. "We need you to open up and submit to a virus test."

Tatum hesitated, but I gave her a little push towards the crawl space Kyan had found. "Go, princess. We can escape some camp easily enough, but getting you back from Troy Memphis for a second time might be impossible," I whispered, begging her with my eyes to accept that this was the way it had to be. I knew she hated us making sacrifices to protect her, but she had to see that in this instance it was the only way. And frankly, I was gonna end up gagging her and shoving her in there myself in a second. I wasn’t going to lose my girl again. No matter how mad she might be at me for making that choice for her.

"Just a second!" Blake called out to the officer, tossing a worried look towards Tatum before she finally nodded and dropped down to crawl into the gap behind the bed. It was clear she didn’t like it, but she obviously realised this had to happen.

She shuffled right back into the shadows and Saint passed her the bag of guns, cash and our most valuable possessions before I grabbed the box of vaccines out of the fridge and just about managed to force it in in front of her. The last thing I saw was the fear for us reflected in her blue eyes before Kyan gave her his hunting knife and baseball bat then placed the wooden shelf back in front of her, concealing her from view. He closed the cupboard door and pushed the bed back into place before standing upright again.

I exchanged a worried look with Saint before jogging over to take a seat on my bed and Blake checked we were all spread out around the room looking innocent before he unbolted the door and pulled it wide. They must have broken in downstairs somehow and I guessed that meant they really weren’t messing around.

Two big guys in army uniforms complete with full ventilator masks stood in the doorway and as Blake backed up to let them in, another four soldiers followed them into the room.

"What is this about?" Saint asked casually as he moved towards them.

"You may have seen on the news that we have now taken the decision to split the population of our state into different groups in an effort to contain the spread of the Hades Virus to prevent any more people from catching it. As such, we have currently locked down Hemlock City and divided it into quadrants while we go door to door testing everyone and assigning them a group. This is not voluntary. Everyone must submit to a finger prick test and throat swab. Failure to do so will result in you being grouped with the infected members of the population. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Kyan replied from his position laying on the bed, sounding anything other than respectful.

"We need to see some ID if you have it on you," a female soldier said, stepping forward and glancing around at the apartment in an old movie theatre like she was wondering what the hell we were doing here.

I pulled my new passport out of my back pocket and got to my feet, my pulse racing as I thought of my girl still hiding in that cupboard. What would happen if they found her? We couldn't take on the fucking army, but I knew we'd fight for her all the same. I eyed the assault rifles the four soldiers carried and swallowed thickly. Shit, I really hoped they didn't find her.

The female officer took my passport as I offered it up and I realised I should have double checked the damn information on it in case she asked me to confirm it.

My heart thundered as I waited for her to flick through the pages and find whatever photograph Saint had used to get this forgery made. She looked at it for a long moment before snorting a laugh which she tried