“The years passed. I collected information on Singh, sent Agent Mortez anything I could get my hands on. It was difficult. Moving around the country to the different facilities so often meant I wouldn’t see Singh too much, but I was able to get a few bits and pieces, it was just never enough to condemn him.” He ran his hand down the back of his neck, breaking eye contact with me and my heart beat out of rhythm as I tried to absorb all of this. “After a few years, I got some intel from Singh’s computer, emails to a private buyer saying the virus was ready and they could sell it to them within a few weeks. A new vaccine was almost finished too, being put through trials again and I knew Singh wouldn’t have risked cutting corners this time. If this vaccine worked, it was the real deal. So I told Mortez everything and he asked if I could get samples of the virus and the vaccine out of the lab in California and bring them to him so he could pass them on to the right people. Ensure more vaccines were made to protect the world from this deadly virus. Make it useless as a weapon against our country or any other nation. So…I did.”
I nodded, still gripping his hand as my pulse pounded in my ears, not wanting to say anything more until he was done.
“I met up with Mortez and gave him the samples and after that, I didn’t hear anything more. I emailed, called, but heard nothing. All lines of communication between us were dead and in the meantime, the virus was leaked into the world. That’s when I started to get nervous, so I enrolled you at Everlake, sensing something wasn’t right. I’d stolen a deadly virus from one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the country. I could go to prison for that alone, especially if the CIA were going to deny all knowledge of my involvement with them. I laid low after I dropped you off, waiting to see if I was being paranoid, but my hunch paid off. My name was splashed over the news when they obtained that footage of me stealing the samples and confirmed that the leak had come from the Apollo Company. A day later, I got a call from that very same agent, asking me to meet him, apologising for cutting me off and saying that it was protocol. He said if I met with him he could ensure my name was cleared. That my old boss was responsible for the leak of the virus and that we needed to expose him together.”
“Did you go?” I asked, my fingers digging into his skin as I held onto him. Could this Mortez man help us? Could he really clear Dad’s name?
“Yes,” he sighed. “But I was cautious. The whole world were hunting for me so I couldn’t make a wrong move. I gave him coordinates to a forest in Haverwood so I could be sure it was far away from other people. But when I got there, the fucker started shooting.”
I gasped, clutching his hand tighter. “What? Why?”
“He’s a corrupt piece of shit, that’s why. Wherever that virus went after I handed it to him, it wasn’t to some government lab to make more vaccines. So now he wants me dead to tie up his little loose end. Singh didn’t leak it. Mortez fucking tricked me to get his hands on those samples and I’d bet my life that whoever he gave them to, they released it on the world. ”
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “You’ve been running from him all this time?”
“Him and everyone else in the country,” he said grimly. “Dead or alive, my head is worth over a million fucking dollars right now, kiddo.”
I sat back in my chair, releasing his hand as I anxiously threaded my fingers through my hair. This was worse than I could have imagined. How were we ever going to fix it?
“We have to expose this. Can’t we call a reporter or something?” I suggested desperately.
He hung his head. “I don’t know. I’ve thought about all of it, every angle. But I don’t think I can easily approach anyone without ending up in handcuffs or worse, with a bullet between the eyes.”
“Don’t say that,” I begged, the thought making my heart twist. “We’ll find a way.”
He smiled sadly. “You get that from me, that stubbornness. Of course, your mother had it in her too.”
“I don’t wanna talk about her. Where is she when the shit hits the fan?” I said bitterly. “Where is she at all?”
He nodded, resting his elbows on the table with a sigh. “Well, I’ll tell you what, she’s missing out on knowing her beautiful daughter. You didn’t get her foolishness, Tater-tot, and thank fuck for that.”
“I don’t know…” I dropped his gaze as my stomach knotted. “Sometimes I don’t think I make the best choices.” I thought of everything that had happened between me and the Night Keepers. I’d tried to survive and ended up tangling myself up with them so deeply, I didn’t know where my loyalties lay anymore.
“You follow your heart, always have. Your mother followed whatever wind happened to be blowing. Trust your choices, baby girl. I know you’ll always make the right ones.” He glanced out the window into the dark. “That man out there, don’t ever tell him that I said this, but he’s a good bet.”
“You reckon?” I asked, heat rising in my cheeks.
“Yeah, he’s got that look in his eyes…” He turned to me again. “Like he’d kill for you. Any boy who looks like that at you, I know his heart’s in the right place.”
I thought of the other Night Keepers and wondered how fast Dad would take those words back if I told him about them. I couldn’t imagine he’d ever want me with men who hurt me so deeply, even if they had protected me too.
“I’m glad someone’s been there through this. And I’m sorry it couldn’t be me.” He frowned and I felt the depth of his feelings about that right down to the pit of my soul.
“We’ll come up with an answer for all this, Dad, I’ll help you,” I swore to him, feeling that vow in every inch of my being. “I’m not going to rest until your name is cleared and the people responsible pay for what they’ve done.”
We sped through small towns in the dead of night, Saint driving almost as fast as he had been on the freeway, though his controlled driving style made it easy to ignore the speed. We’d taken his car because it was the biggest, but Saint was also the world’s worst backseat driver so it was the only way me or Kyan could stand to be in a car with him anyway. Luckily, because Saint was a control freak, he kept two cars on campus because he liked to be prepared for ‘whatever situation might arise’ and he also kept the batteries charged up and the tanks full of gas at all times.
Sometimes his OCD drove me insane, other times, I had to admit it came in damn handy. So as we sped ever north towards the markers on the GPS which pinpointed Tatum and Monroe’s location, we were cocooned in the luxury Maserati Levante which Kyan had mocked him for tirelessly when he’d bought it. And in all fairness, it had seemed like an odd choice of car for a teenager to drive an SUV with its slick black paint job and red leather interior like a fucking CEO, but that smug little look on his face when he’d explained it would suit us for long journeys had certainly been proven correct. I’d called shotgun and claimed the front seat, but I honestly couldn’t imagine how Kyan would have ever even fitted into the back of any of our sports cars, let alone stayed cramped up back there for almost three hours.
Getting past the security guards had been painfully easy too. Saint just handed over a wedge of cash which probably came close to their yearly salary and they looked the other way instantly. I just hoped none of the other entitled little fuckers in the school got the same idea and put our isolated safe zone at risk.
“That’s it,” Kyan snapped from the back seat, leaning forward between the seats to start fiddling with the screen on the dash to change the music. “I can’t take any more of this intense classical shit, it sounds like we’re on our way to destroy the fucking Death Star or take down Voldemort or compete on The Apprentice. If I have to listen to any more of it then I’m gonna take my bat to the motherfucking speakers back here.”
“It’s called mood music, asshole,” Saint bit back, but he didn’t bother to stop Kyan as he searched for the music he wanted.
“Yeah, well I don’t want to be in the mood to destroy planets or battle it out in a goddamn boardroom.”
“
Let me guess, you want to listen to music that reminds us all of sweaty bars and bathroom brawls?” Saint drawled.
“And fucking hot girls like an animal,” Kyan added with a smirk just as Old Town Road – Remix by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus started up and I smirked as I joined Kyan in singing along, putting as much gravel in our voices as we could while Saint tried not to smirk and failed.
I cranked the volume and for a few minutes we pretended we weren’t out on a hunt. Or maybe it was just another way of keeping ourselves pumped for it.
“Don’t you think we should concentrate on what we’re doing?” Saint growled as the song ended and I started searching for something else while Kyan kept trying to bat my hand aside and search too.
“I’m all up for raging out when we get there,” I said with a huff of frustration. “But we’ve literally been driving for fucking hours. I’m going out of my mind here and I need a fucking piss.”
“Well tie a knot in it,” Saint growled. “Because I’m not stopping until we find them and figure out what the fuck they’re up to. Check the GPS again.”
I snatched his phone from the dash and looked at the markers more closely, frowning as I realised we’d gained on them, then zooming in.
“Shit,” I breathed, staring at the two stationary dots as the markers for the three of us closed in on them. “They’ve stopped.”
“Where are they?” Saint demanded and I frowned as I tried to find any kind of landmark on the map where they were, but there was nothing.
“They’re… in the middle of the fucking woods,” I said and Kyan grabbed the cellphone from my hands, using the end of his baseball bat to push me away from him as I tried to snatch it back.
“Blake’s right,” he said like it needed confirmation and I tutted irritably as I shoved his stupid bat away from me and snatched the phone again.
“Well, if they’re out in the deep, dark forest then that’s where we’re going too,” Saint said in a low voice which was almost lost to the heavy purr of the engine.
“And what if they really have run off? If they have no intention of coming back with us?” I asked, because so far we’d been so caught up in the hunt that we hadn’t discussed many theories about what the fuck they were up to out here. But it had to be something important.
If Tatum had been alone I would have been sure she was running from us, but with Monroe in the mix I couldn’t figure out what the fuck was happening. I mean, maybe they’d just gone on a run out for some supplies they really wanted and couldn’t get delivered. Was there a Twinkie shortage back at school? The most frustrating thing was that I had no fucking idea. But I needed to understand. Because the idea of her just running from us without even saying goodbye cut into me even deeper than I wanted to admit. I knew she resented being ours, but recently, I’d started to let myself believe that she was starting to see some good in it too. More fool me.
“Then we drag them back kicking and screaming,” Saint said darkly. “They made a vow. And they’re going to stick to it. There is no getting out of the bond the five of us share. Not in this life. So if they try to run, we catch them and drag them the fuck back.”
“I can pin Tatum down if I get close enough to catch her,” Kyan said with a smirk that said he was more than happy to do that. “She’ll fight like a tomcat but I don’t mind her roughing me up. I can keep her in my arms in here the whole way back to campus.”
“Yeah, sitting on your lap, I’m guessing,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“Well, if that’s what it takes, I’m sure I can suffer through it,” he teased and Saint huffed irritably.
“And what about Monroe?” I asked. “You gonna perch him on your lap too? Give him a nice ride on your dick the whole way back?”
“We all know he prefers pretty boys like you,” Kyan tossed at me and I smirked, running a hand through my black hair like a douche and not even caring that I was one. I liked my pretty face.
“If Monroe has tried to run off with our girl then he’s in for a world of pain,” Saint promised. “And the least he can expect is a few savage smacks from Kyan’s bat, a damn good kicking from all of us and a journey back to school in the trunk of my car. After that, if they’re still a flight risk we’ll have to give them plenty of reasons to change their fucking minds. Even if that means chaining our girl to one of us at all times.”
The look I exchanged with Kyan let me know that neither of us hated that idea and I had to wonder what that said about the three of us. We’d literally vowed to destroy a guy for stalking our girl and now we were all chasing her into the dark and planning to drag her back to our lair kicking and screaming and chaining her to us if she still wanted to run. Yeah, we definitely had some problems. I bet we could have kept a therapist in work for years with our emotional issues. Not that that made me want to change my mind about the plan. Tatum Rivers had promised to be ours and I was going to hold her to that vow no matter what. Even though I knew it was fucked up, I just couldn’t stand the alternative.
I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted as we sped on down the dark roads. “I am the dark in the dead of the night!”
“Hear me roar!” Saint and Kyan instantly replied and I laughed darkly as we all howled like animals.
I had to admit, my monster was showing again. And it liked the scent of blood in the air.
“I know you want to help, kiddo, but you can’t come with me,” Dad said seriously. “It’s too dangerous.”
“But-” I started and he cut over me.
“It’s not a debate. I need you safe. You’ve gotta give me that, Tatum. You can be of more help at Everlake anyway.”
“How?” I demanded as he rose from his seat, glancing out the window again. He didn’t answer and I got to my feet in frustration. “How, Dad?”
“I hear the Governor’s son is there, right? Can you get close to him?”
“Dad, I…” So many words got stuck in my throat and I couldn’t let any of them out. I know him, he tortured me, tried to destroy me, he holds me captive, punishes me, cares for me, killed for me… Holy shit. “Yeah, I can talk to him,” I said at last.
“Tell him what I told you and ask him to speak with his father. If the Governor will listen, give him this.” He reached into his coat pocket and took out a folded wad of papers. “It’s everything I have left from my correspondence with Mortez. The number he called me on, the emails we shared. It’s not much, but if someone looks into him there has to be a trail. There has to be evidence,” he said, his voice rising as if he was desperate to believe his own words.
I took the wad of paper and tucked it into my pocket. “I’ll do my best,” I promised.
“Then you will do exceptionally.” He smiled, moving toward me. “I’ll contact you again when I can. I’m sorry…” He inhaled deeply, the weight of the world seeming to hang on him. “I’m sorry for everything, for all I’ve put you through. When this is over, I’m going to buy us a house on the beach. One home, no more moving around.”
“You mean it?” My heart squeezed at the thought.
“Promise, Tater-tot.” He pulled me into a hug and I tried not to come apart in his arms. I was afraid of how long it would be until I could see him again. But I had to be strong, do what he’d asked and ensure his name was cleared.
He stiffened suddenly and stepped away, grabbing his gun just before Monroe burst through the door.
“There’s men out there, coming this way,” he panted, his breath fogging before him as the cold air swept in from outside before he pushed the door shut. “They’re close.”
“Fuck.” Dad strode to the window, closing the curtains then gazing through the crack in the middle. “Get out the back.”
Monroe grabbed my hand, but I dug my heels in as my heart lurched. “Dad, come on.”
“Take my daughter. Get her out of here,” Dad commanded Monroe and panic seized me as he half dragged me across the room.
“Dad, no,” I demanded, trying to twist my hand free of
Monroe’s. “I’m not leaving without you.”
“Donovan Rivers!” a deep voice carried from outside and we all fell still. “I know you’re in there meeting with your daughter.”
“Mortez,” Dad hissed, turning to me with a shadow cast over his face. “Get out of here. Now.”
“Dad.” I shook my head in desperation, but Monroe’s arms locked around me and he forced me to look at him.
“We need to go, princess,” he growled, fear flitting through his eyes. But I couldn’t leave my dad. He was the only family I had, the man who’d raised me, loved me when my mother refused to. I’d sooner cut off an arm than leave him behind.
“Don’t do anything foolish!” Mortez called and Dad cursed again. Monroe’s muscles flexed as he pulled me closer, the look of a cornered tiger in his eyes.
“How did you find me?!” Dad demanded.
“I’ve been tracking your daughter since the moment you abandoned her at Everlake Preparatory, old man.” Mortez laughed. My heart shuddered with terror at his words. I’d led him right to my dad. The sound of more laughter followed Mortez’s words and my skin prickled. There were a group of them out there, but how many? “It was only a matter of time until you did something idiotic like this.”
My heart thrashed in my chest as I tried to think of a way out of this. But we were caged in like birds. Dad had this place built with a bunker big enough and well-stocked enough to get us through a hundred years of war, but the only way into it was outside. It was no good to us unless we could reach the hatch.
“Dad,” I hissed. “We have to run for it.”
“Go,” he growled. “I’ll keep them busy.”
“You have to get out of here. It’s you they want,” I insisted, my throat tight with fear.
Dad’s eyes darted to me and back to the window. “He’s not gonna leave until everyone in this house is dead, kiddo. I’ll hold them off.”
Dad never sugar coated anything for me. So I knew he was telling the truth and it was a terrifying truth to swallow. But that didn’t mean I was just going to abandon him.
Kings of Lockdown: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 2) Page 61