Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,105

to cover with a cough.

"Is everything alright?" I asked her, my brow furrowing as I wondered if she could tell it was fake. I'd just blindly trusted Saint to have gotten us good forgeries but how the fuck was I supposed to know if it would be good enough?

"Your name is Simone Dipsickle?" she asked, clearly biting her tongue on another laugh as one of the other officers snatched it from her to see, this one laughing shamelessly as he looked from the document to me. "Isn't Simone a woman's name?"

My lips parted as a mixture of confusion and annoyance filled me. Simone fucking Dipsickle??

"He insists that it's a male name in Italy," Saint deadpanned but as I looked at him, I caught the edge of an evil smirk at the corners of his lips.

"You don't look Italian," the male officer pointed out. "And Dipsickle sure as shit ain't Italian. Did your momma hate you or something? Why else did she give you a name like that?"

"It's a family name," I ground out, not needing to hide my irritation because if my name really had been Simone Dipsickle, no doubt I would have been fielding this shit my entire life.

"Okay then, Mr Dipsickle, will you submit to a finger prick test?" the female officer asked, handing my passport back.

"It didn't much sound like we had a choice," I replied, holding my hand out to her as she produced the testing kit.

Saint handed his passport to another man and Kyan climbed out of his bed, making a show of hunting around for his in the pile of crap beside his bed. Most of our stuff was still loaded up in the car, so at least we didn't have to worry about them finding some of Tatum's clothes or anything because Saint might have told them my name was Simone, but I wasn't going to pretend I liked wearing lacy thongs too.

The sharp prick to the pad of my finger drew my attention back to the soldier standing in front of me and I watched as she carried out the test, using a pen to add my fake name to it as she set it down to wait for the results.

I obliged her as she took a throat swab too and she directed me to sit down and wait as she started work on Blake.

Saint took a seat beside me when he was done, his thigh pressing up against mine as he kept his eyes dead ahead. None of us had so much as glanced towards the cupboard where Tatum was still hidden behind the bed and the adrenaline surging through my veins was making my fingers tremble a little.

It felt like we should be running. Or fighting. Anything but just sitting here while these armed people sniffed about and drew closer to discovering our girl.

A couple of the soldiers headed off into the rest of the building, searching for other people despite the fact that we’d told them we were alone when they asked.

I noticed Saint's passport poking out of his pocket and reached over to pinch it, needing something to take my mind off of freaking out about Tatum being discovered.

"Rex Power?" I muttered, making sure my voice was too low to carry to anyone else.

Saint didn't reply but that hint of a smirk was back as he took the passport from me and returned it to his pocket.

Asshole.

I snorted a laugh and nudged him with my elbow, hard enough to knock him forward a few inches as I swear he actually laughed too.

Blake and Kyan came to sit with us once their tests had been carried out and we watched as the soldiers moved around the space, opening doors, looking behind the couches lined up against the rear wall. One of them even yanked the bed back to open the door to the cupboard where Tatum was hiding, and my pulse raced as I tried not to look that way.

I shifted in my seat and Saint’s hand landed on my thigh, squeezing once tightly before he released me, a clear warning for me not to do anything stupid but my heart was thrashing and my need to protect Tatum was overwhelming me, urging me into action.

Kyan cracked his knuckles in a move that almost looked casual, but let me know he was readying himself for a fight too. Just in case. Because if they found her, we’d do everything and anything it took to stop them from taking her.