Page 11 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

"I may have something," Hunter said.

I pulled the watch off my guy’s wrist and used the light to illuminate the ring full of keys in Hunter's hand.

"I have to admit, that looks promising." I crawled over on my knees and held out my wrists while he teased one key out from the others. After three or four different keys, one finally clicked and the handcuffs fell away from my wrists.

"I've never been so happy to get handcuffs off in my life." I shook out my wrists for a minute before taking the key and unlocking his.

"Yeah, thatdoesfeel better." He shook out his own wrists. "I think I might be cured of ever wanting handcuffs on me again. Unless they're covered in pink velvet or feathers.”

I laughed softly. "Everything is better with velvet or feathers." Almost everything anyway.

"Let's go. Nice of them to leave us a ride." I nodded towards the car.

"We need to take care of them first," Hunter said. Always the voice of fucking reason. He was right though. Two dead bodies within view of the gate wouldn't go unnoticed if anyone came looking for them. They would, there was no doubt of that. Whatever was going on here was bigger than Hunter or me. That was saying something, because we're pretty big.

I brushed dust off my jeans and grabbed the legs of the closest asshole. He was heavy, but I managed to pull him into the bush and dump him there.

I lifted the watch to look at the faces of both assholes. "Anyone we know?"

"Nope," Hunter replied lightly. "I've never seen either of them before. Which is ironic, because no one is ever going to see them again." He grinned, but the expression was strained, tired.

"Let's see if these pricks have food in the car. Or money to buy some."

We started back towards the car, but froze as another set of headlights stopped on the other side of the gate.

"Fuck," I muttered. "What now?"

The doors opened and a couple of silhouettes stepped out and moved around into the glare of the headlights.

"Fancy meeting you two here."

CHAPTER5

PARKER

I groaned.

"Asher fucking DiMarco," Hunter drawled. "What a surprise."

"Hey, Zeke." I waved at our brother through the fence. "What are you two doing here?"

It seemed like a strange place for a couple of members of the biggest rock band in the world to turn up. On the other hand, Zeke and Asher both grew up in the same world we did. Hell, Hunter and I have disposed of bodies for them and their bandmates. What else are little brothers for?

"We could ask you the same question." Zeke cocked his head at me. "Slade Lincoln got in touch with us."

"He noticed we were missing?" I pressed a hand to my chest. "I'm touched."

"He did, but he wasn't as worried about you as he is about Lila," Asher said. He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "If I had to guess, I'd say he doesn't give a shit about you. Would you agree with that, Zeke?"

Before Zeke could answer, Hunter interrupted.

"What do you mean he's worried about Lila? She should be at Brutham, with him."

"That's what he said." Zeke leaned his hip against the side of the car. "She went missing a couple of days ago. Slade had Kennedy Knight hack into the tracker on Lila's earring. Her last location was here before the tracker stopped transmitting. Asher and I happened to be closer than Slade, so he asked us to come here."

"But there's no one else—" The blood drained out of my face. "There were people here."

"That truck," Hunter growled. "It went straight past us. If she was on it…"

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