Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,243

pee-wee football club growing up and obviously I couldn't just attend any club, he had to join me up to one full of the most elite kids in Sequoia state, including the son of the owner of the Redwood Rattlesnakes. He wanted to connect with Blake's dad while he was campaigning for mayor, no doubt offering funding for the various clubs and teams his father had sway with. Kyan attended the team too. We were ten. I already knew him from playdates since my father had been working on building connections with the O’Briens for years. Our friendship had been written for us since the day of our fucking conception. Of course, I hadn’t expected to like Kyan, but I had immediately recognised a darkness in him that mirrored my own soul and we’d found enough to bond over. It wasn’t like that with Blake. Blake was enthusiastic, loud, obnoxious. All qualities I can’t tend to stand in a human being.”

I laughed a little and he tossed me a dark grin that made my heart hammer wildly.

“Anyway, Kyan immediately took a liking to Blake, their competitive sides driving them together on the field until they realised taking down the opposition side by side was far more satisfying. I, however, grew jealous of Kyan’s relationship with Blake. Kyan was the only friend I had ever had. The only person I’d ever let in. And now he had found a boy he seemed to enjoy the company of more than me. I wasn’t like Blake, I didn’t offer Kyan easy laughs, I tended to prefer a more regimented kind of fun. Games I was in charge of were my forte. Not rude jokes and fart noises as Blake Bowman seemed to be fond of at that age. And I wanted to hurt him for it.”

I pictured the three of them at that age, Blake and Kyan playing together and laughing while an angry little Saint Memphis stood watching from the side lines, plotting Blake’s downfall.

“And did you hurt him?” I asked, enraptured by the story.

Saint released a low laugh. “Yes. I broke into his locker while he was showering one day and took a signed photograph of him and the Rattlesnakes’ linebacker, Dirk Hadley, he’d been flashing around to everyone on the team that day. He searched for it frantically after his shower and I watched with a sweet satisfaction over taking something so precious from him, of wielding that power against my enemy.”

Woah, even at ten years old Saint had been an itty bitty psycho. Why is that so freaking cute?

“My plan took a turn when Kyan started hunting for the photograph too, sizing up to all the boys on the team and threatening to beat their heads in if they didn’t give it back. That made me angry in a way I couldn’t put into words, so I took the photograph from my pocket, showing Blake I had it before marching into a bathroom stall. I ripped it into ten pieces and dropped it in the toilet before pulling the chain.”

I gasped. “What did Blake do?”

“He punched me,” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “And Kyan threatened to do the same, only…Blake stopped him.”

“Why?” I asked in surprise.

“He said…he knew that I was jealous of him and Kyan. And that I could be his friend too if I wanted.”

My heart squeezed. Typical Blake. He always knew when I was in pain, and he could clearly sense that in Saint too.

“I said no, obviously,” Saint deadpanned and I snorted a laugh. “But then when his father showed up to collect him outside the locker room and started screaming and shouting at him about losing that photo, Blake didn’t tell him I’d done it. He took the fall. And the next time we had football together, he kicked a boy who dared to say he hoped Santa Claus brought me a personality for Christmas. That was where our friendship truly started. But the thing is, after that day I became afraid of the idea of losing those two people who made my life good. And after I’d seen Blake’s reaction to losing his photograph, I realised he would have done anything to get it back. So I took something important from each of them…” He leaned over and opened the drawer of his nightstand, taking a little silver box from it which I had seen before but had never been able to open. He twisted two little dials until a click sounded and