Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,78

a holder on the dashboard in confusion. “I thought you gave all the phones to Mila and Danny.”

“I have spares for us all,” Saint said simply.

“Does it have the same passcode?” I swiped it up, unlocking it with the code he’d given me earlier and his lips twitched like he wanted to reprimand me for that, but couldn’t think of a suitable reason to do it.

And I sure as hell wasn’t scared of his punishments anymore. I headed onto his music app, finding it stocked with all kinds of classical songs and a bunch of playlists for just white noise. Not exactly a barrel of fun. I started to build a more Tatum friendly playlist as I connected it to the Bluetooth in the car.

“Don’t play anything by that Bieber boy,” Saint warned. “I will not have my ears assaulted.”

“Oh come on, Saint, you could use the culture lesson,” I teased.

“I assure you, I do not need any such thing,” he said lightly.

I hadn’t been planning on playing some Bieber, but now the temptation was just too high to ignore. I chose Anyone and grabbed Saint’s hand as he thrust it towards the off button on the dash. I ran my thumb along the centre of his palm and the tension in his shoulders eased as he met my gaze for a moment.

“Love you,” I mouthed, meaning it from the depths of my heart - even if I did say it five percent to distract him.

His features softened and he brought my hand to his mouth, stamping his lips to the back of it before resting both of our hands on his thigh.

I actually really liked this song and when Blake started singing along, I joined in, soaking in the sweet feeling of freedom I felt with being on this endless road that stretched away into the distance with the four loves of my life.

It wasn’t much longer before Hemlock City came into view on the horizon and we drove through the suburbs which were deathly quiet. I’d heard the lockdown was especially strict in higher populated areas and it made me sad to think of all those people stuck in their homes, fearing what was going to happen. It was uncomfortable knowing we carried a box of vaccines that could protect some of them. But we had to be sensible about what we did with them. We couldn’t just hand them all out, we needed to find someone who would know how to make more from this batch. Humanely. Without using me as a damn blood farm.

We drove through the city, the high rises casting long shadows across the ground as the sun began to set, the place eerie with how quiet it was. The few people we did see wore masks and were hurrying along like they were desperate to get to their location. It made me miss normality more than ever. And I hoped we found a way back it. Because seeing the effect of the Hades Virus first-hand like this made me worry there wasn’t going to be a normal to go back to.

Saint eventually drove around the back of a boarded up old building and came to a stop in front of a set of metal shutters. They rattled as they opened and I frowned in surprise as Saint drove down into an empty underground parking lot, the camera aimed down at us apparently recognising the plates on the car.

“What is this place?” I asked excitedly.

“A safe house,” Saint replied simply.

“I know that,” I said in exasperation. It was like getting blood out of a stone with him sometimes and I swear he took a sick kind of pleasure in that. “But I expected some fancy ass manor house or something.”

“That would be far too obvious,” Saint replied, offering me a dark smile before parking and stepping out of the car. Cunning bastard. Why did that get me so hot?

I headed out too and Monroe and Blake followed, clustering close to me protectively and I wondered if they even realised that they were doing it. It was cute as shit though and I certainly wasn’t complaining.

“So, who’s gonna wake the beast?” Blake questioned, tossing a smirk at Kyan who was still fast asleep in the car.

My heart squeezed at how peaceful he looked and I wondered if Deepthroat’s death had helped him sleep better. He wasn’t even protecting his crotch anymore like he always did. Though I couldn’t imagine he’d wake up like Sleeping Beauty