Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,239

at the world. “Err, yeah, how about I…put you back on the football team?”

“Really?” he asked hopefully, looking like the idea of that appealed to him more than the megabucks Saint was dropping. Fuck yes.

“Yeah. And Blake said he wants you to be captain,” I added, hoping that Blake would be okay with that. He would probably be pissed though, because his whole thing was about being the best but we had made this kid’s life hell, so it seemed like a minor sacrifice in comparison.

“Wow, yeah, my dad would be so proud, that would be amazing,” Toby gushed and I grinned, turning to Kyan and passing the buck to him.

“I will offer you one free shot at me.” He rolled upright and moved to stand before Toby so that he could deliver the hit.

“How many times exactly have you punched him during his time served as Stalker?” Saint drawled like he was less than impressed by this offer.

Kyan thought about that for a moment then smirked triumphantly. “I lost count. So to make it fair, he can use the bat.” He hooked the baseball bat off of the floor and spun it around to offer Toby the handle before standing there with his arms wide, waiting for the blow to fall.

Toby stared at the bat in his hands for a long moment and I couldn’t help but take a step forward in protest.

“He could break bones,” I said, shaking my head. “Or cave your damn skull in.”

“Is that what you want, Toby?” Kyan taunted. “Are you hungering for my death in payment for my crimes? Come on, I bet you’ve been aching to make one of us bleed. You’ll never get a shot like this again.”

Toby got to his feet, his brow furrowed as he hefted the bat in his hand like he was weighing it and Saint placed a hand on my shoulder to hold me back as we waited to see what he’d do.

He gripped it in two hands, swinging it back as he looked at Kyan and my gut knotted in concern at the insanity of this, but Kyan didn’t even fucking blink.

“No,” Toby said suddenly, dropping the bat so that it clattered to the floor. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want you to find the motherfucker who set me up and make them pay. Make them pay for Tatum and make them pay for me too.”

Kyan laughed darkly and slapped his hand into Toby’s. “You have yourself a deal, brother.”

“I’m guessing you’ve had plenty of time to think about who might have been the one to set you up,” I said. “So have you got any ideas for us on where to look?”

Toby sighed and dropped back down onto his bed with a shake of his head. “I wish I fucking did, man. I’ve thought about it over and over and I just can’t think of a single person who hates me enough to inflict all the shit I’ve been through on me. All I keep thinking is that the night you all turned up here to search our rooms, you took them by surprise and they had to get rid of the evidence that linked them to the stalking fast. So maybe it’s someone who lives on this floor and I was just the dumb fucker who left my door unlocked or maybe it’s someone more calculating than that who knew me and Tatum were friends and thought you’d believe it was me easily.”

I huffed out a breath as I thought on that. “On the night they first shot at Tatum with the bow the evidence conveniently pointed us towards Mila too. What if that wasn’t an accident? What if they have purposefully made it look like her friends so that she feels like she can’t trust anyone. It would be a good way to try and isolate her. Make her more vulnerable to them.”

Kyan growled like a wild beast at that suggestion, sweeping up the baseball bat and swinging it in a savage arc which ended with a dent in the wall.

“A bow?” Toby asked, wincing slightly at the damaged brickwork. “Like the ones the archery club use?”

The three of us exchanged a loaded look and Saint clucked his tongue.

“I’ve already looked into the seven members of the archery club and come to the conclusions that, A, they don’t have the balls to pull this off and, B, none of them have any motivation. They’re not even students who would