KINGS OF QUARANTINE
Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep
Book 1
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Contents
CAMPUS MAP.
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
Welcome to Everlake Preparatory School.
This series is set in the fictional U.S. state of Sequoia and centres around a pandemic similar, but more extreme than the coronavirus. It’s dedicated to everyone who is self-isolating, on lockdown, in quarantine and to all the key workers who are struggling through this impossibly hard time. We hope you get a few hours of entertainment out of this book to escape from reality and forget about the fact you can’t see your loved ones right now and are missing normal life.
If you need a place to chat books and escape from the world, we’d love for you to come and join our reader group. It’s a great community who you can share your passion for books with as well as having a few laughs with!
We hope to see you there :)
Click the map to enlarge.
There’s nothing like starting your first day at a new school with your dad tossing a gun into your lap.
“Dad!” I gasped, snatching the nine millimetre Glock into my grip and shoving it back at him. “Are you crazy?”
His usually smooth brow wrinkled in that way that told me he was about to show me the sterner side of him. We were closer than two knotted necklaces and just as inseparable, but when his usually long fuse ran out, he was one scary son of a bitch. My fuse was longer than his, but I didn’t think I could pull off the Freddy Kruger stare he was pointing at me right now.
“Tatum, I’m only going to say this once.” He reached over into the back seat of our Audi A4 Wagon, hooking my backpack off of it and unzipping the front pocket. He stuffed the gun inside before I could voice any more complaints and barrelled on. “This is for your protection. You’re taking it with you.”
“Dad, it’s a boarding school for the richest kids in Sequoia State and beyond. What could possibly happen to me here?”
He released a sarcastic ha!, pushing his glasses up his nose. They were the only thing cliché about him being a virologist. He was a gun enthusiast, a black belt in karate, had scars on his knuckles from the fights he’d been in in his youth and his favourite hobby was doomsday planning. Like, he had legit bought a house in Elmwood Forest a few hours north of here with a bunker stashed with enough tinned food to get us by until the year three thousand.
To put it lightly, he was any teenage boy’s worst nightmare. That was probably why I kept my dating life brief and to the point. Besides, with the way we moved around all the time, one night stands were a good way to defend myself from a broken heart. If I had no intention of making something last more than a few hours at a time, then I never had to worry about heartache and all of those other lovely things I’d rather avoid. I’d already had my fair share of that when I was a kid anyway after Mom had up and left us.
Dad gripped the back of my seat, leaning in close and giving me a firm look. “I’ve seen a lot of life, Tater-tot.”
I rolled my eyes at the nickname and turned away, gazing through the iron gates ahead of us. A huge gravel driveway led up to the gothic manor house at the far end of it. It looked like something plucked out of a horror story, the clouds above not letting in a crack of light to brighten the ancient grey walls. Who even built a place like that all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? Count Dracula?
“Look at me, kiddo,” Dad growled and his tone set my pulse racing.
I turned to him, frowning as I tried to figure out why he was acting like a lunatic over me going to boarding school. It wasn’t like I’d wanted to come here. He’d been the one to push and push until I agreed. He had to work, he said. He needed to travel all over the country, he claimed. But why couldn’t I just go with him? I’d been doing it my whole life. Why stop now?
“You need some stability. And with the Hades Virus taking a grip in the world, I’m needed now more than ever.”
I clucked my tongue. The virus. For the past couple of months ‘the virus’ had been like a pissy next door neighbour in our lives who let his dog shit on our lawn and peeped over our fence any time we got too comfortable in our own space. It was an ever-present, lonely pervert of a neighbour who needed to get a life.
I knew Dad needed to do this. He was important. He was working on a cure to save millions of people when this disease got out of hand – which it would apparently. But there hadn’t even been a single case of the Hades Virus all the way out here in northern Sequoia. Not even in the next state over yet. The number of cases in America as a whole was only in the hundreds, but Dad was a virologist and he knew more about it than the government were letting on right now. If the virus got out of control, shit was gonna get bad. Like, really bad.
The problem was, Dad was also the only person in my life. It may have been selfish, but I didn’t want to give him up. We moved around so often that the only friends I had were short-lived and fair-weather. Over the years, I’d turned to the company of books more than people when Dad wasn’t around. Characters could never escape me. Not when I could trap them in my kindle for the rest of time. Suckers.
I bashed my head back against the seat, knowing it was petulant but not caring in that moment as I threw a growl of frustration into the mix too. “Why can’t I just come with you?”
“Don’t drag up that old argument, Tatum. This has been a long time coming. It’s not like I want to leave you here.”
I turned to him, finding so much love in his eyes that it made my heart hurt. Dad was my one constant thing in this world. As much as I hated to admit it, stepping out of this car into that scary-ass horror movie of a building was kinda freaking me out. And with the frantic look Dad was giving me and the gun he’d just stashed in my bag, I wasn’t exactly getting the calming vibes I needed right now. Sure, I was trained to shoot, fight and forage. But this wasn’t the apocalypse. I reckoned that would have been a walk in the park compared to this. Because this was the one thing I actually feared. Bonding.
Normally, I could fly in and out of people’s lives like a breeze, never getting attached. I was a pro at that. But here, I was going to be immersed twenty four seven in the company of other teenagers. I was going to have to ‘make an effort’, ‘get out of my comfort zone’ and – heaven forbid – ‘mingle’. Though the idea of making real friends had always appealed to me, the reality was that I was always ready to up and leave them behind. For my scenery to change and for the faces around me to change with it. But this wouldn’t be like that. Dad had enrolled me for the entirety of my senior year.
“Don’t hate me
,” he said softly and I pursed my lips. I was seventeen. A year later and we wouldn’t even have been having this conversation. Why did fate have to be such a bitch?
A guard ushered us through the two immense iron gates and Dad pushed the stick into drive as we sailed through them.
“Have you got your pepper spray?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
“And your tactical pen?”
“Yup.”
“And your self-defence keychain?”
“Yes, Dad,” I groaned. “You know I’m not actually allowed any of this shit inside the school gates, right? If I get caught-”
“I taught you too well to get caught,” he said proudly and a smile tugged at my mouth.
“Well that’s true,” I conceded and he shot me a grin.
We pulled up alongside the huge wooden doors and I tried not to feel intimidated by a building. It was working its hardest to look like a mean bastard though.
A guy appeared around the side of it, strolling towards us up the path and the sight of him made the breath stall in my lungs. Like, had the air actually just turned to stone? I couldn’t get a single ounce of it into my chest.
He wore a Titans football jersey in the school team colours of forest green and white, the material clutching his powerful frame. His face could have charmed a snake from a mile away, every line and feature the kind of angular I’d only ever seen in magazines. His inky hair fell into eyes that were the colour of jade and his boyish smile looked like it needed to feed regularly on innocent girl’s heart’s to keep it intact.
I wasn’t the type of prey this hunter was used to, but I also couldn’t deny the way my cheeks flushed and I was still choking on nothing but apparently solid air. My blonde hair, blue eyes and full lips were nothing but a mirage painted there by my genetics. They were skin deep, but I knew how to wield their power when I needed it. This guy clearly knew how to wield his own power too. But where I wore my skin like a shield, he wore his like a weapon.
He walked forward in the slow, casual way that said he was in complete control and he rolled up his sleeves before leaning down to knock on my window. Dad lowered it from the master button, opening it an inch as he glared out at the heart-eater.
“Yes?” Dad asked curtly.
“Hey sir, you must be Mr Rivers? I’m here to show your daughter to her dorm.” He tossed me a flirtatious wink like my dad wasn’t looking, even though he’d addressed him and not me. I casually flipped him the finger in response and his hungry smile widened.
Dude had balls, I’d give him that much.
“It’s Dr Rivers,” Dad growled, closing the window again before the guy could reply and he laughed as he backed away from the car.
I unclipped my seatbelt but before I could get out of the car, Dad pressed his hand to my knee to keep me in place. “Don’t take any shit, kiddo. You remember my self-defence lessons against rapists?”
I laughed, shaking my head at him. “I remember. How could I forget? Always go for the balls,” I echoed from his teachings.
“That’s my girl.” He tugged me in for a hug, pressing a kiss against my temple and something in the tightness of his hold made me worry. “Nothing can hurt you here.”
I smiled as I pulled away, my heart twisting as I reached for the door. “Love you Dad.”
“Love you too, kiddo.”
I stepped out onto the gravel, taking my backpack with me as Dad popped the trunk from inside the car. My escort moved around to it promptly, flipping it open and lifting out my big ass suitcase which was covered in worn stickers from every state we’d ever visited.
“You get around,” the guy commented with a smirk, closing the trunk.
I nodded vaguely as I waved goodbye to Dad. He blew me a kiss before he drove away and I swallowed the hard lump in my throat as I was left behind. It had just been the two of us for so long. What was life even going to look like without him in it?
“I’m Blake Bowman, quarterback of the football team.”
I turned to the guy, throwing my pack over one shoulder and masking any pain that might have dared slip into my features.
“That’s pretty typical of you,” I teased and he raised a brow.
“What? Good looks and star player for the Titans?” He pushed a hand into his hair, making his shirt ride up to give me a glimpse of the muscular V tapering beneath his waistband. I dragged my eyes back to his face again as heat licked down my spine. He was a stereotype of every woman’s fantasy. Tall, dark, handsome. And I could have made a pretty solid guess that he was also rich, charming and heartless too.
“No…arrogant and predictable.” I turned my gaze to the building beside us, gazing up at the honest-to-god spires poking out the top of it. Weirdly, there was a classic red Ford Mustang parked up before it with a little plaque saying it had been donated by a former student. This was only the beginning. The map I’d received in my welcome pack showed an entire campus awaiting me. The estate had been built on a huge plot of land between miles and miles of pine forest. There was a lake, a football stadium, a boat house, a state of the art gym and so much more. It wasn’t just a prep school, it was a damn resort. And I couldn’t deny I was pretty keen to see it.
“Arrogant, maybe,” Blake chuckled. “But predictable?” He walked up behind me, laying his hand against my back and sending a shiver through to my core. His rich scent of spiced cologne was too delicious not to notice as he leaned in close to my ear. “You won’t ever be able to predict my next move, Tatum Rivers. I promise you that.”
I lingered there for a long moment, the allure of him drawing me in hard. Expelling a breath, I pulled out of his honey-trap, glancing at him over my shoulder as electricity skittered through my skin. Maybe I’d read him wrong, maybe he wasn’t Everlake’s golden boy. Because right then he looked dangerous, like a hunter who hadn’t eaten for days.
I painted on a smile as a cold breeze wrapped around me. “How do you know my name?”
“Because I was assigned the task of showing you to your dorm, duh. Come on.” The darkness in his eyes faded from existence and I watched as he dragged my suitcase along behind him and led the way down a path to the right.
“Aren’t we going inside?”
“That’s Aspen Halls. For classes only. And as it’s Sunday, it’s locked up tight. If you wanna study on the weekends you can head to the Hemlock Library on westside. Accommodation is on east.”
We rounded Aspen Halls and my pulse elevated at the sight before me. A hill rolled down to the most beautiful lake I’d ever seen. Its glistening blue water stretched out towards a snow-capped mountain in the distance. It was picturesque, breath-taking.
“That’s Tahoma Mountain.” Blake pointed it out. “And right down at the base of it is Sycamore Beach. It’s a decent hangout, especially in the summer.”
“Nice.” I smiled.
Everlake Preparatory was right on the edge of the Chinquapin Mountain Range and though the air was cold, it was also the freshest I’d ever tasted. It was a far cry from the beach town in SoCal I’d been calling home for the past few months. I could practically feel my tan fading already as a lick of Fall hung in the air.
Most of the trees that circled the lake were pines and more gothic buildings poked out from within them, while others sat right on the lake’s edge. I spotted the huge boathouse in the distance and students out kayaking on the still waters. The landscape lured me in, begging me to explore the rising hills of forest either side of the lake and the sun gilded beach at the most northerly point of campus.
“Wanna know the story of the Everlake, Tate?” Blake asked, his brows arching as that dark look entered his eyes again. He spoke to me like he’d known me a lifetime and I couldn’t help but start to feel comfortable around him already. He had the kind of aura that drew people in and made them hang on his every word. I could see what he meant about being unpredictable, there was something purely wild about him which a part of me longed to know.
“Sure,” I agre
ed as he led me down the hill toward the path that curved to the east of the lake. I hugged my coat tighter around me as a cool wind washed off of the water and brought the scent of reeds and the sound of chattering birds with it.
“There’s a Native American legend from the Kotari tribe who used to inhabit this land. They warned the men who came here and settled around the lake that the Night People who lived in the forest were always watching them.”
“The Night People?” I breathed. That sounded seriously creepy.
“Yeah, they’re dark spirits who come in the night and drag their enemies into the trees never to be seen again.” Blake’s dark green eyes sparkled with the story and a grin pulled at my mouth as he went on. “The Kotari tribe warned them that if they didn’t send sacrifices into the woods once a month, their entire people would be slaughtered.”
“So what happened?” I asked, falling into the tale despite being totally sure it wasn’t true.
“They didn’t listen,” he said in a gravelly tone that sent heat flooding into my belly. “And a week later, their mutilated bodies were found floating in the lake. Hundreds of them. Men, women, children…”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, do you really expect me to buy that?”
He shrugged innocently. “I’m just telling you how it is. You’d better watch out or you might get offered up to the Night People for the monthly sacrifice. Because if no one dies…then we all die.” He jabbed me in the side and I laughed.
“So how can I avoid being chosen?” I played along.
“Well if you suck the right cocks I’m sure you can stay out of trouble.” He smirked and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“I don’t suck dick for favours. Besides, if I got thrown to the Night People, I reckon I’d come back leading them so I guess I’ll take my chances.”
“Is that so?” His eyes dipped to my mouth and he wet his lips like I was his next meal.
“Yeah, that’s so.” I smirked, turning my gaze out across the water.
An incredible old church stood out on the far bank, its high walls climbing up to a steepled roof. It even had a huge stained glass window in the shape of a crucifix taking up most of the front wall, staring out over the lake. I itched to spend some time exploring the building. I could see myself spending a whole lot of time in there.
Kings of Quarantine: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep Book 1) Page 1