Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,103

kids weren’t just normal kids. They thrived on secrets and game playing, they were conniving, manipulative, even borderline psychotic on occasion. And they were suspicious of everyone. I guessed growing up around these kinds of people would do that to you, but it made getting close to them hard fucking work.

I’d made headway in my time here, but it wasn’t nearly enough. And now the little fucker was in his final year. I needed to up my game and fast or I was going to lose this shot. And I’d worked too damn hard to do that. I’d sacrificed too much. I knew I was close to something, I just couldn’t quite figure out what.

I leaned back in my chair as my laptop booted up and sighed as I tried to think of some new angle, some different way to come at this. But it felt like I’d already exhausted all of my options.

A soft noise caught my ear from somewhere beyond my door and I frowned, wondering who the hell would still be here. I’d seen the football team leave as I was still packing up the sports hall after our session and no one else had any reason to be lingering in the gym this late in the evening.

The login screen appeared in front of me and I quickly typed in my staff access code before loading the CCTV feed for the building.

I clicked through the cameras one by one, eyeing the empty sports hall, corridors, dance studio and fencing hall before finally spotting my intruder on the feed for the store room. Tatum Rivers was standing at the back of the room using the sink intended for washing down muddy boots to clean a bunch of football jerseys.

Though as I looked closer, she didn’t seem to be doing a very good job of it.

I sighed irritably, pushing myself to my feet as I headed down the corridor to the store room so that I could go and tell her to get the fuck out.

I pulled the door open and the princess gasped as I strode into the storage space, passing nets of basketballs, stacks of cones, racks of baseball bats and lacrosse sticks until I reached her.

“Explain,” I demanded in a hard tone.

The princess bit into that full bottom lip of hers, fiddling with the knot she’d tied in the hem of her black dress and tugging the whole thing down an inch, drawing my gaze to the tanned skin of her full breasts for a moment. My attention snapped back to her blue eyes instantly. I might have been horny as fuck tonight, but that didn’t mean I was going to be letting my eyes wander to a student. Especially not a rude little brat like her.

To make matters worse, her gaze shifted down my bare chest too and she looked for a moment too long for it to be a cursory glance.

“I, umm…I’m just washing a few of the guys’ jerseys for them,” she said, batting her eyelashes innocently.

“Cut the innocent act, Rivers,” I growled at her. “I don’t know who you manage to fool with that shit, but I know trouble when I see it and everything about you screams trouble.”

Her long, blonde hair was tied in pigtails as if she’d been working the innocent angle all day and the sigh that escaped her told me she wasn’t done, despite my warning. But I was the kind of kid who had pulled the girls’ pigtails at school then dragged them behind the bike shed for a make out session, so she’d gone for the wrong look to get away with anything around me.

“I’m sorry, sir. I was just finishing up though, I promise to be gone in five more minutes, if you’d just-”

I strode around her, nudging her aside so that I could look down into the soapy water where three jerseys had been submerged. She was up to something alright.

I hooked the closest jersey out, holding it wide so that the name Memphis was visible in dark green against the white background. Except it wasn’t a white background: it was pink.

“Last chance to give me the truth. If you’re meant to be doing such a great job of cleaning these jerseys then explain to me exactly why you’re attempting to ruin them?”

Tatum’s lips popped open in a perfect little O as her gaze flickered uncertainly. “Whoops…I must have accidentally dropped my lipstick in there, somehow…”

“Mmmhmm.” I reached forward to drain the water from