Saint quickly grabbed his laptop and charger from the desk and shoved it into the bag before beckoning for us to follow him as he hurried across the room and another, more forceful knock came at the door. Clearly those assholes were hoping to ambush us by tricking us into opening the door, but if they seriously thought that we were just a normal bunch of high school kids, they were about to get a rude awakening.
We made it into the crypt, closing the door behind us and hurrying down the stairs before crossing through the gym towards the gate that led into the catacombs.
“We're going to have to run like the demons of hell are up our asses," Saint growled and the note of concern in his voice was more than enough to let me know that the men his father had sent after our girl meant business. We couldn't risk them catching any of us.
"Shit, we're never coming back here, are we?" I breathed, casting a look over my shoulder towards The Temple where five broken souls had built a home together, a pang of sadness in my chest.
"Never," Saint agreed and the raw edge to his tone made my heart ache for the little boy who had always dreamed of having somewhere like this. A home to call his own, something he could rely upon and depend upon.
"Home is where your family are," Monroe said in a rough voice, reaching out to place a hand on Saint's shoulder and surprising me as he clearly understood how hard this must have been for our brother too. "And as soon as we catch up to Tatum and Kyan, our family will be together again. All we're leaving behind is bricks and mortar. The memories come with us. The love too."
Saint actually hesitated in his movements as he got the gate unlocked and the three of us shared a look that spoke of our bond.
"Come on then, brothers," he growled. "Let's go hunt down the rest of our tribe before these assholes do."
I nodded firmly, casting one last, wistful look at the mountain of toilet paper we'd stockpiled as we slipped through the gate and Saint locked it again. In years to come, people would look back on this virus as a time when toilet paper became the nation's treasure. It was sought after like the rarest of gems, hoarded more greedily than gold and in the end, when humanity returned to normal, would anyone ever truly forget the thrill of wiping your ass when you knew there were others who couldn't? That was the legacy this virus would really leave behind.
The gate locked with a solid click just as the sound of the men breaking down the front door reached us. Without another word, we dove into the darkness of the tunnels, the cold wrapping tightly around us and making me glad I had my coat. We ran blind until we turned the first few corners and I kept hold of Monroe's arm to help keep him on the right path as this place was less familiar to him.
Once we could be sure that we wouldn't be seen from the entrance to the tunnels, Saint allowed Monroe to illuminate the flashlight on his phone and we really picked up the pace.
About halfway into the tunnels, Saint paused beside a huge sarcophagus and shoved the lid aside, pulling out another bag which I was guessing contained Tatum's letters, her dad's ashes and no doubt a bunch of other shit we couldn't have left here without.
I couldn't help but be reminded of the night the five of us had been bonded in blood down here. All of us coming together to kill a man. It might have been a fucked up way for us to prove our devotion to our girl, but if I was the spiritual type then I'd have to say that making a sacrifice to her in this place of death seemed pretty fitting to me.
We finally reached the second gate, and my mind was a whirl of fear for Tatum and Kyan as I wondered if she'd managed to catch up to him yet, hating the fact that we were being forced to run in the opposite direction to them now while they needed us. But I had faith in her. She was strong and capable and no doubt she was in the middle of saving our brother right now. I had to believe that or I’d go out of my damn mind.
Saint unlocked the second door, and I exchanged a look with Monroe as he clearly had the murder we'd all committed here on his mind too. It felt like a whole lifetime ago that we'd bonded over a corpse’s disposal and yet it was only months in reality. Funny how your entire world could flip on the toss of a coin like that sometimes. And I was really fucking glad it had.
As we made it through the gate, the sound of men shouting in the tunnels echoed down to us and my gut plummeted as I realised they'd found the crypt and were taking chase. I didn't know how the fuck we were supposed to get across campus on foot without being spotted by these mercenaries, but I was really fucking thankful to the Justice Ninja for getting my girl safely off campus exactly when she needed to be.
We raced on and I was glad to find that most of the dizziness that had been clinging to me was passing now, leaving my mind clear to focus on the task of getting us the fuck out of here. The box of vaccines was awkward and heavy to carry and I kept having to shift my grip on it as I ran.
The wind blasted over us from an approaching storm as natural light finally made it into the tunnel ahead and I squinted at the brightness as Monroe flicked his flashlight off and we paused at the exit to the caves down on Sycamore Beach.
I had to fight the urge to hold my breath as we looked out over the sand towards the trees, hunting for any sign that the mercenaries had made it down here. But the catacombs and the connecting caves weren't publicised knowledge, so it looked like luck was on our side and they hadn't figured out where we would exit yet.
The only people in sight were Danny and Mila who were cuddled up on a blanket with a picnic laid out around them, the two of them making out so intensely that I was fairly sure we were about to get a view of them fucking if we stood here much longer.
"They have a golf cart," Monroe pointed out and I looked beyond the two of them towards the pathway where it was parked up.
"Perfect." Saint strode out of the cave, jogging across the sand and drawing Danny and Mila's attention to him as he stepped onto their picnic blanket and cleared his throat loudly. "Give me the keys to that cart," he commanded and Danny frowned.
"What?"
"It's an emergency, dude," I explained, nudging Saint to tell him to stop being a dick, but that wasn't really in his nature. "We can't really get into it, but we're kinda being chased and we need a mode of transport. As a bonus, you can take my crown as king of the school once I'm gone."
"You're leaving?" Danny asked with a frown, getting to his feet and pulling Mila up with him.
"We don't have time for this," Saint snarled, stepping forward aggressively. "We are being hunted by men who will not hesitate to do whatever is necessary to locate us, and our girl is relying on our help. Give us the keys."
"Tatum?" Mila gasped and I felt a little guilty for not letting her know that her bestie was safe once we'd rescued her, but it was a pretty big secret and we couldn’t just blindly trust people.
"Yeah," I admitted. "She needs us."
Danny took the key from his pocket and went to offer it to us, but Mila placed a hand over it to stop Saint from taking it.
"If you're being hunted then you can't be seen. You three can hide in the back and we'll drive," she insisted.
"I don't think that's a-" I began, but Saint cut over me.
"She's right. You drive us then. We need to get to the front gates and make sure you avoid the fucking Temple. Don't stop for anything or anyone," he commanded before bending down to grab the corner of their picnic blanket and knocking all of their food and shit off of it onto the beach. “We’ll use this to conceal ourselves.”
We all started running after Saint towards the cart and I kept a close eye on the trees in case any of those men appeared. Danny and Mila jumped into the front seats while me, Monroe and Saint quickly lay down in the back of it where luggage was usually loaded before throwing the blanket over us. It wasn't perfect, but at a glance no one would notice us hiding here.
My shoulders butted against both Saint and Monroe's as the cart started up and Danny drove the thing as fast as it would go as he began to journey through campus.
As I hid beneath that blanket, my heart rac
ed even faster than it had been while we ran. The light was dim and my breath warmed the space around my face as we waited. Every little noise had me on edge and every time the cart jolted against a bump in the path, I imagined some of those men driving us off the road.
But the moment never came and though my adrenaline surged like crazy, I never once needed to make use of it.
We pulled to a stop and Nash threw the blanket off of us as we found ourselves out in the parking lot beyond the gates.
Saint pulled his car key from his pocket and unlocked the mom mobile as he jumped out of the golf cart, striding away to load his bag into it and climbing into the driver's seat.
"Thanks, man," I said, turning to Danny and pulling him into a hug.
Monroe grabbed the other bag and the box of vaccines, thanking them as he jogged away to get into the car too.
"Where's Tatum?" Mila demanded as I released my friend and looked to her, her dark hair flying about her in the breeze.
"She chased that ninja prick out of here after they kidnapped Kyan. We're going after them now," I told her. "I'll send her your love, but we won’t be coming back."
"I want to see her!" she called after me, but I was already jumping into the back of the car as Saint began to pull away.
Saint hit the button to lower his window as he passed the two of them and called out, "I owe each of you a favour in a future I hope we live to see."
They didn't get a chance to reply to that as he hit the gas and we tore away, leaving them behind with their mouths open in protest and the dust from the rear wheels kicking up over them.
"Take a right. I don't recognise their location, but they're not moving anymore," Monroe instructed at the end of the long driveway and I glanced between the seats to see that he had the tracker app open on his phone. After we'd lost Tatum, Saint had insisted on all of us installing it and I was damn glad he had now.
I took my own phone from my pocket and tried to call both Kyan and Tatum, but neither of them picked up and my anxiety levels rose even higher. What if they needed us? What if we'd lost too much time while getting caught up with our escape?
My body was tight with tension as we raced up road after road, heading much further from the school than I'd expected before turning onto a dirt track. The mom mobile handled it like a pro, bouncing along while Saint's eyes sparkled with a hue of smug that made me think of the sounds my car had been making while Tatum had taken this route too. Yeah, yeah, his soccer mom wagon could get the point for being better off road, but he still looked like a middle aged woman driving it.
We pulled out onto another street then crossed over onto a dirt track again before starting up a steep hill.
"They're just up ahead," Monroe said anxiously and my fists bunched as I prepared myself for a fight just in case.
Saint stopped the car abruptly at the top of the hill and I threw myself out of my door as I spotted my beat up looking sports car parked right in front of us.
I took several running steps towards it before falling still beside Saint and Nash, folding my arms at the sight before me.
Tatum and Kyan seemed to be absolutely fucking fine. He had her pinned to the hood of my car, the two of them kissing with a desperate kind of fervour as her hands fisted in his hair and he drove his cock into her with an animalistic brutality. His pants were around his ankles and hers tossed aside while her panties hadn't even made it off of her, the fabric clearly shoved out of the way to allow for this desperate claiming.
I wanted to be angry at them for making us worry like that when they were clearly alright, but as I looked beyond them to the disturbed ground and the rope made out of seatbelts that dropped over the edge of the ravine, my irritation melted.
I took a step closer to the edge, looking down at the wreck below, my eyebrows arching as I spotted a broken body down there too.
Tatum moaned loudly as she came and Kyan cursed, thrusting into her harder and harder until he was coming too, his hand knotting in her hair as he kissed her through it, driving his tongue into her mouth. It was pretty fucking hot actually. And I couldn't help but feel my own cock stirring as I watched them.
They finally broke their kiss, the two of them sweaty and panting as Tatum turned those big blues on us sheepishly, looking the picture of innocence even while she clearly still had Kyan's dick buried inside of her.
"Looking good, princess, I guess you didn't need help from the cavalry after all," Nash commented as she bit her lip.
"Is there a point in the day when the two of you ever feel is suitable to refrain from fucking?" Saint asked, seeming more pissed over the fact that they hadn't bothered to let us know they were alright before giving in to their need to screw each other.
"Nope," Kyan replied with a grin as he slowly withdrew from her, pulling his pants up again. I noticed his shirt was split apart right down the middle and frowned as he tugged the remains of it off. "Especially not when I was just kidnapped by my stalker and molested again."
"Your stalker?" I asked in confusion.
"Deepthroat," Tatum supplied with a sneer and I moved closer to her, wanting to check for myself that she really was okay. "It was always her. She was after Kyan. The only reason I was involved was because she wanted me out of the way."
Saint's eyes flared with understanding as he grasped that idea and he turned away suddenly, throwing his fist into a tree as he began cursing himself for not seeing that sooner, the darkness in him rising to the surface at his perceived failure.
Kyan and Monroe followed, reasoning with him as I approached our girl, stroking my fingers through her golden hair and massaging her scalp gently to make up for Kyan's roughness with her.
She sighed as she reached out to trail her fingers along my jaw and my gaze fell to her parted thighs, sticky with Kyan's cum, the sight of it weirdly arousing.
"So, little old you saved the big bad mobster's grandson?" I teased and she smiled.
"Sure did. I'm not the only one who gets rescued in this story."
I kissed her sweetly, wanting so much to deepen it, but I knew there was no time for that, so I just laid my hand against her racing heart, pleased to have her close.
"We need to get out of here," Saint snapped suddenly, clearly deciding that now wasn't the time for him to lose his shit when there were armed men still hunting for us close by. "I have a safe house we can use. Nash, change the plates."
I looked around to find him tossing a set of fake plates and a screwdriver at Monroe before approaching us with a small hand towel which he'd gotten from fuck knew where.
Saint nudged me aside and I reluctantly let him so that he could clean Tatum up, the gentle, adoring way of his movements making me smile. Fucking softie. I was gonna have to buy him a teddy bear for him to cuddle at night if he kept this shit up.
Monroe explained the situation to Kyan and Tatum while I moved over to take a look at the damage Tatum had done to my baby. My one of a kind, limited edition car was well and truly fucked. There were no two ways about it. She was scratched, dented, a wing mirror was gone. The seatbelts were currently in use as a rope hanging over the cliff and Kyan had fucked Tatum so hard on the hood that he'd managed to dent that too.
"You owe me a new car, asshole," I said to Kyan, heading over to the mom mobile as the others got in and climbing into the back with him and our girl.
She sat between us, taking each of our hands in hers as Saint began to back us up and turn the car around.
"Well, I just called in a cleaner to get rid of it for you - don't want anyone thinking you had anything to do with the crash that killed Bait and Deepthroat, so let's call it even," he suggested with a smirk, though there was something in his eyes that said he'd just been through something pretty fucked up.
"Do you wanna tell us about it?" I asked him and everyone else in the car was silent as we waited for his reply. Tatum’s eyes lingered on him, her need to comfort him clear, but that wasn’t Kyan’s way.
Eventually, Kyan just shook
his head. "Naw. The bitch is dead now. But let's just say I've got a whole new level of respect for my uncle Niall and his preference for killing rapists."
"Did she-" Tatum began in horror but Kyan cut her off with a shake of his head.
"You rescued me before she could do any more than paw at me, baby. But I needed to get my dick in my girl the second I could to wipe the feeling of her hands from my skin." He laughed as he leaned down to press a kiss to her neck and though I was certain all of us could tell the light-hearted attitude was forced, we didn't push him on it.
The main thing was that Tatum had made it there in time to rescue him, we'd escaped the men Saint's father had sent after us and we were currently heading somewhere safe. Beyond that, I had no fucking idea what we'd do. But the point was that we were all together. That was what really counted.
I shed my coat as we made it back to the main road so I was just in my matching pale blue sweatpants and top, the heat of Kyan and Blake’s bodies either side of me making me extra toastie. I threaded my fingers between Kyan’s as I thought about Deepthroat and all she’d done to him. She’d died in fear and that was something. But it would have been nice to have her alone somewhere for a while before handing her over to death.
I would never forgive the scar she’d left on him, and I hoped her end would help him move past the trauma of her attempted rape. He never spoke about it, but sometimes I wished he would. Sometimes I thought I should try harder to draw the depths of his pain out of him too. Because often bleeding was the only way to heal over the past. So I decided once the dust had settled on this day, I’d try again.
“So where’s the safe house?” I asked Saint.
“It’s – fuck, what now?” Saint snarled, his eyes glaring at something in the rear view mirror.
I wheeled around in my seat to look out the back window and saw a red Mercedes tearing up behind us, flashing their lights.
“That’s Danny’s car,” Blake said in surprise as he beeped the horn and Saint accelerated harder.
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