“Blake doesn’t punish me anymore anyway,” she said softly. “And Kyan would never actually hurt me.”
“What about Saint?” I asked, my voice low and hateful. I knew that despising him on behalf of his father made no real sense, but the rotten apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree with him. He had the same haughty, superior look on his face, the same disdain for anyone not in the top one percent, like dollar bills made him better somehow. More than the rest of us.
“I have a way to handle Saint,” she replied mysteriously, biting into her full bottom lip and upping her pace as we took the paths through the centre of campus.
I pulled my phone from my pocket as we walked and quickly dialled the guard on duty at the front gate.
“You’re up late, boss,” Peter’s voice came as he answered the landline in the booth by the gate.
“I just had a report from a student about strange noises by the wall over near the girls’ dorms. Sounds like a mountain lion or a bear might have gotten close to campus, could you take the unit from the front gate around there with the dogs to frighten it off? Last thing we need is a wild animal causing havoc on top of everything else.”
“Sure thing, boss. You want me to call someone else to come and man the gate, or-”
“Just be quick and I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I replied, sighing like this conversation was boring me even though my heart was thrashing in my chest. I needed them to do as I asked without making a fuss. It would be better for all of us if no one knew we’d left. It was two am which meant we had four hours before Saint got up and at least another hour and a half on top of that before Kyan woke and went back to his room where he’d realise that Tatum had left his bed at some point in the night. But once they knew she’d escaped, they’d be on the hunt and the less they could figure out about where she’d gone, the better.
I shoved my cellphone back into my pocket and exchanged a smile with Tatum as we closed in on the gates.
She waited in the darkness of the trees as I approached them, checking to make sure that the guards were definitely gone before I beckoned her over to follow me. There were thick chains holding the gates closed and though I had a key, it was quicker for us to scale them.
I climbed up the cold iron quickly, vaulting over the top of it and landing in the gravel on the far side. Tatum landed at my side a moment later and we jogged away from the gates, crossing the wide gravel drive and slipping into the trees on the far side of it as I led the way through them to the parking lot. I’d snuck out here last night and made sure my car’s battery was charged for the journey. The school kept equipment for basic maintenance as so many cars were left idle for long periods of time during term so I’d been able to make sure it was ready.
I watched Tatum from the corner of my eye as we passed the rows of shiny sports cars owned by the students here and I led her over to my 68 Mustang. It might not have been a brand new, flashy sports model but I didn’t think those shiny things had a patch on a classic muscle car.
The expression on her face didn’t so much as flicker as she followed me to it. No sign of a bratty pout or disappointment in the fact that it wasn’t worth more than some houses. Nothing to say she had any issue with it at all. And I hoped that was the case. Because there was nothing worse than someone having all that wealth and privilege and taking it for granted. Looking down on people who actually had to work for their money just because they had less. But I was starting to really believe that Tatum wasn’t like that. She wasn’t the cardboard cutout version of the entitled brats I knew too well. And there was something really fucking alluring about what she was that she had me hooked on the idea of finding out.
I unlocked the car and we hurried to climb in. I shrugged out of my jacket and tossed it in the back, shivering as I started up the engine. But I knew that once the heating got going I’d be sweating if I stayed in it.
Tatum tossed her coat in the back too, unlacing her boots and curling her legs beneath her as she got comfortable.
“It’s a long drive,” she said, clipping her seatbelt on and biting her bottom lip as she turned to look at me. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you-”
“Don’t mention it,” I said with a smile, popping the glove box and revealing the sweets and chocolate bars I’d stuffed it with. “Let’s just get high on sugar and enjoy the feeling of getting one over on the Night Keepers.”
Tatum laughed as she dove on the snacks and I pulled out of the spot, leaving my lights off as I took the gravel drive slowly, hoping not to alert the guards to our presence. When I made it down to the road, I pulled out, flicking the headlights on and putting my foot down as we headed north at a steady pace.
The heating soon warmed the car through and we settled in for a long journey. I just had to hope
