Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,188

raised his chin an inch said he'd noticed it alright.

"I see."

If I'd thought Saint was a guarded bastard before all of that then I was wrong, because I swear I saw the shutters slam down behind his eyes as he looked at me. And for a moment I actually felt shitty about it. He'd just shared a whole lot of truth with me. The kind of truth I was sure he didn’t share easily or with many people and I'd straight up lied to his face in return.

The worst thing was that I actually felt like an asshole about it. But that was insane because there was no fucking way I could give him any of my truth. But I guessed he really did take this Night Keeper bond between us seriously. I just had to remember that that was a good thing because it made him vulnerable to me. The tattoo on the back of my neck made him believe that he could trust me and I had to use that to my advantage. I needed to reel him in, not go up against him, so I decided to try and offer him something to distract him from my lies and earn me back an ounce of his trust.

"I offered to take the necklace from Tatum because she swore she wasn't going to let you beat her and she didn't want there to be anything left in her possession that you could use against her. I was protecting her. Even before I made a vow to do so. It just felt like the right thing to do,” I said.

Saint's expression loosened marginally at that admission and he nodded thoughtfully. "She does have a knack for getting under our skin, doesn't she?"

"Something like that," I agreed, feeling uncomfortable about discussing my feelings for her too much with him. His obsession with her was obvious enough and with my feelings thrown into the mix, it was just another thing for us to butt heads over.

"Well, far be it from me to upset our girl for no reason." Saint reached behind his neck and unclasped the necklace before handing it over to me.

The warm metal pooled in my palm and I looked at it with a frown as I tried to figure out his angle.

"So, you just changed your mind about stealing it because you don't want to upset her?" I asked, the scepticism clear in my tone.

"Believe it or not, I don't gain pleasure from hurting her," Saint said with a shrug as he walked towards the door.

"Why are you so good at it then?" I called after him.

"Because I’m not a nice person. But that doesn't make it intentional. It’s just the way it is. Besides, the only reason I ever craved her pain was because I wanted to use it to gain her compliance. For the most part, she bends to my rules these days. She understands my need for control in ways that no one else I've ever met has. And we have an understanding about each other’s limits...or at least we used to. As it stands, I have enough on my plate with her marrying that neanderthal and fucking up the power balance in our little quartet. I don't need to have her angry at me for taking this too. When she's ready to trust me fully, she will wear it again herself."

"If you want her to trust you then maybe you should give her letters back to her," I growled, my protectiveness making it easy for me to find my anger with him again.

"Well, the problem with that is that I don't trust her either," he said smoothly, like that whole situation wasn't totally fucked up. "Those letters give me control over her and I need that control in a way you couldn't possibly comprehend. But feel free to let her know we had this chat, I'm sure she will be interested to know I allowed you to keep the necklace."

He didn't give me the chance to reply before heading outside and closing the door behind him, leaving me there wondering what the fuck it must be like to live inside his screwed up head. I had no idea why the hell he thought it was okay to force control over Tatum, but that was an issue for another day. Once we were done with this place, I was more than ready to grab that girl and run as far away from him and the other