at a time.” Zachary looks back at me, and then his eyes move to Reuben.
“Bring her.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Zac
My mind’s reeling. I don’t know who rattled the door, but thank fuck they did. Shit was about to get out of hand, and in a big way.
I was so close to losing control, I can still taste mint in my mouth. That would always happen back then when I lost myself in the moment.
We all found ways to deal with the shit we went through. I absorbed everything like a sponge. But there was no one to squeeze me out. That shit stayed inside me and festered into something dark and perverse.
I thought I had a handle on it.
Fuck, I think we all thought that until this girl arrived, all pure and innocent and shit.
Like dropping a mouse into a pit of hungry vipers.
“What are you waiting for?” I click my fingers. “Bring her.”
Reuben blinks like he’s coming out of a trance. Then he scoops up Trinity and throws her over his shoulder.
I take my keys out of my pocket and toss them to Apollo. “Make sure the coast is clear.”
He nods and hustles outside with his broken camera under his arm, leaving the door to swing closed behind him. I happen to look at Cass, and we lock eyes for a moment. I don’t expect guilt or remorse. Most of us aren’t capable of expressing those emotions anymore. What I don’t expect is the brief flash of uncertainty.
I give Apollo a few seconds to check the hallway, and then beckon the guys after me as I make for the door.
We don’t encounter anyone else on our way to the exit. Whoever had tried to enter the bathroom had disappeared. Maybe one of the younger guys had wet their bed or something. That kind of shit happens a lot around here.
Apollo’s waiting for us at the door leading to the northern grounds. Soon as I give him a nod, he runs to the crypt.
I wait a few seconds, and then slap Reuben on the shoulder not currently occupied by the bound and gagged girl we’d almost fucked in the showers.
Trinity lifts her head anyway and glares amber daggers at me.
Fuck, but she’s beautiful, even with Reuben’s belt between her teeth. Probably especially because she’s fucking gagged.
In class she’d been meek and submissive—the perfect prey. But she showed me her teeth tonight, if only for a moment. It had roused the animal in all of us. Self-control, morals, revenge—for a few minutes nothing existed except our new toy.
Will I ever get to play with her again?
I grab her chin and brush her skin with my thumb.
Not a chance. It’s too easy to lose control around her. Too easy to make a mistake. We haven’t gotten this far for someone like her to fuck this all up.
Reuben breaks that brief contact as he steps forward and breaks into a trot. Cass and I stay behind, waiting for him to get clear.
“Ever wonder what’ll happen when Rube gets mad?” Cassius murmurs as he squeezes into the doorway beside me. “I mean like really, really mad?”
“Like when he comes face to face with his Ghost?”
Of course I’ve wondered. That imaginary scene of chaotic violence has been the focus of some of my best jerk-off sessions.
“Yeah. Like that,” Cassius says before jogging across the grounds.
I follow after a beat.
Reuben is only a few yards from the crypt entrance when we arrive. When he throws open the door, there’s nothing but pitch black beyond. Apollo hurries forward and holds open the door for me, giving me a mock salute when I step through.
He doesn’t follow us inside.
His job is to make sure we aren’t disturbed.
Reuben’s already halfway down the library’s easternmost aisle when I reach the basement level of the crypt. Cassius trails him, toying with Trinity’s hair as they walk. People come down here so rarely there’s a layer of dust over everything. That’s why we make sure to tread where we least suspect someone will notice our footprints.
Over the months and years we’ve been enrolled at Saint Amos—and especially after I got my first set of keys as a teacher— we’ve managed to carve out a space of our own. Back here, far out of sight, we’ve arranged a few of the bookshelves so it looks as if the library ends a few yards short.
The ground floor of the crypt is for short meetings. This place, on the other hand…it’s our nest. A sacred space no one