I’d killed for her. Fought for her. And now I wanted to be free for her too.
Monroe was the only one of our group who I couldn’t entirely figure out. He certainly didn’t look to be grieving or losing his shit, or appear really present here at all. Since we’d started to let the fire burn down, he’d taken a seat in the dirt and cast his eyes out over the trees and stayed in silence as he was lost to his own thoughts.
Whatever was spinning through his mind, he didn’t seem to be happy about it. His mouth was set in a savage slash across his face and his eyes narrowed to slits. But whatever was haunting him, he clearly had no intention of voicing it.
There was that saying about secrets. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. So how were five of us supposed to keep this hidden? Me, Saint and Kyan weren’t the ones I was concerned about. But Monroe? Tatum? We were bound together in brutality and death and I supposed I could only assume that the blood on our hands was enough to keep us all silent. But we needed to keep them close, stoke the flames of our bond as much as possible. Indoctrinate them into our group so deeply that they’d never want to leave.
When Tatum had made her vow to us, we’d told her it was for life but I hadn’t given much thought to that. Now I could see that it had to be the case. She was ours forever and we were hers too. There was only one way out of this circle of five. And I didn’t relish the idea of more death.
“Go get a rowing boat, Blake,” Saint commanded. “Bring it around to the shore by the catacombs entrance.”
I stood wordlessly, glancing at Kyan as he got to his feet too, hefting the sledgehammer into his grasp with a wicked smile on his face. I wondered if anyone else could see it was a mask. Not that I thought he was panicking on the inside. More like he was never really sure what to feel about anything anyway. His emotional range was limited at best. And sometimes I wondered if he’d ever fully recover from the horrors his family had subjected him to as he grew.
Saint was ready to clean this place with sulphuric acid and bleach just as soon as Kyan was finished his part. I just hoped that the janitors didn’t notice the sudden dent in their cleaning supplies.
I strode away through the trees, taking a deep breath of the fresh, morning air as I caught sight of the sun rising over the lake between the thick boughs.
It didn’t take me long to reach the Willow Boathouse and commandeer one of the rowing boats. The lapping of the deep blue water against the oars was soothing as I began to row and I fell into the rhythm of the movements with ease.
It was peaceful out on the water and each tug and pull of the oars worked like a balm on my racing heart.
Saint had thought of everything. We’d followed his instructions to the letter. Monroe had ensured that all of the staff and students were safely locked up tight in their rooms on the far side of campus so there was no chance of witnesses. We were on the home run.
The boat bumped up onto the sandy beach as I came ashore and Kyan strode from the trees to meet me. He had a battered-looking potato sack swinging from his fist and a dark grin on his face which said that everything was still going well.
He strode straight out into the water, wading towards me before tossing the sack inside and pushing the boat back out.
“Did everything go to plan?” I asked.
“Saint and Monroe are just washing down the last embers with the bleach and acid. Once they’re sure that’s done, they’ll fill in the hole and meet us back at the dock,” Kyan replied before hopping up into the boat with me.
I rowed us out towards the centre of the lake and Kyan pulled his shirt off as he leaned back and let the sun kiss his tattooed flesh.
“My heart hasn’t stopped racing since last night,” he said with a lazy smile on his face as he closed his eyes like we were just out on some leisurely boat trip. He sounded pretty damn thrilled about that statement.
“Do you think anyone will come looking for him?” I asked. Because really, that was the one hole in our plan.
“Naw. Merl was a nasty drunk and a fearsome asshole. He lived alone in a trailer out the other side of town and didn’t have a job. There were plenty of rumours about him breaking into homes all over town and stealing from the hardworking folk to keep himself funded. Other than that, he’d show up for fight nights and either get shit faced or stay sober and fight for cash. He was a mean bastard when sober too. He’d come close to beating me in a fight once or twice. Ain’t no one gonna miss that sack of shit. My guess is they’ll assume he got a good haul from us here and took off with it. It could even be worth starting a rumour that a wedge of cash went missing so that the townsfolk assume he stole it and split. Either way, they won’t mourn him. Good riddance to bad rubbish and all that.” Kyan draped a hand over the side of the boat and let his fingers skim along in the water, looking so fucking relaxed it was untrue.
The
