Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,18

Saint called, the ring of an order in his voice. It helped me reclaim a little piece of myself and I took a shaky breath as I forced my pain aside.

I headed to the stairs, swiping at the fresh tears staining my cheeks. How long was it going to be before I ever felt okay again? I'd never truly healed from the loss of Jess and now losing Dad too...it felt like the world really was ending. And it was the kind of apocalypse my father never could have prepared me for. It was one I wouldn’t survive.

I walked over to the table, my teeth clenched as I took a seat opposite them all and was glad when none of them commented on the redness of my eyes. I laid the papers down, unfolding them and finding emails Dad had printed detailing how Agent Mortez had manipulated him into giving him the virus samples. I read through each one, passing them to the others as I did so and when they reached Saint, he pressed them out neatly and made a pile of them in chronological order. The truth glared back at me from the words I’d read. How Mortez had gotten Dad to give him the virus and vaccine samples under the guise of protecting the country.

Saint drummed his fingers on the table as I looked at the other pages I had before me, detailing some of his work on the Hades Virus. "Did your father talk about Mortez with you?" he asked and I glanced at the others, figuring I had to lay my trust in them now. Blake's expression was dark, unreadable, like he'd retreated into his own mind.

I took a breath and relayed everything my father had told me about Mortez, how he’d said he was CIA and there had been real evidence that my father's boss had weaponised the Hades Virus and was looking to sell it on. How Dad had been offered large amounts of money to work for Mortez and gather intel on him and eventually sneak out samples. After that, he hadn't heard from him until the Hades Virus was leaked. Then Mortez had asked to meet with him and had tried to kill him.

"Do you think Mortez was really CIA?" I asked nervously. I'd killed him brutally. If the CIA came looking for him, found his body and my DNA...

"My family have covered our tracks, baby," Kyan said, evidently reading where my thoughts were headed. He hooked his foot around mine under the table and I relaxed a little. "They’re the best at what they do. It doesn’t matter who he was, he’s nothing now and there’ll be no evidence that links him to any of us."

Saint was still quiet in thought and he held out his hand for the rest of the papers.

"It's notes about the virus," I explained. "Looks like there's a login here to access his work files too. Can you get them to your father?" I felt nervous handing them over, this most precious thing that my dad had asked of me. The last thing he would ever ask of me. But after what Saint had done for me, I found it easier to place my faith in him.

"I will go through everything first and decide what the best course of action is to take," Saint said simply. And I guessed I should have realised that would be his plan. But maybe it was for the best anyway; if my dad's innocence was going to be irrefutably proven, who better to achieve that than Saint Memphis with his O.C.D. ways?

I pushed them across the table to him and our fingers grazed, a hungry pull in my belly drawing me to him.

Blake suddenly pushed out of his seat, striding from the room and a second later his bedroom door slammed so hard that the windows rattled. I gasped, pulling away from Saint and staring after him.

"What's his problem?" Monroe frowned.

"Beats me." Kyan shrugged.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Saint said, seeming exasperated with the rest of the room who were unable to keep up with him. "These notes prove the innocence of Tatum's father. Blake has been punishing her brutally for those crimes. And it turns out he was innocent just like she said all along." Saint said it with no remorse, just a conversational tone to his voice. My heart thrummed harder at his words and I glanced at Kyan who was looking at me with a furious energy