Page 23 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

"My guess is Chloe told him to say that to fuck with your head," Slade said slowly. "I'll swear on anything you want me to swear on, I amnotworking with your sister. Or with Zachary. Or Dane for that matter."

"Wise man," Asher remarked. "I wouldn't work with him either." Neither he nor Zeke did more than glance at the half-naked women in the room. They also seemed to be oblivious to how many were staring at them in clear recognition.

Slade looked intently at Lila. "You believe me, right? I was trying to help you get out of here."

"They found us in this room pretty quickly," she said, still wary.

"They followed the sound of gunshots," Hunter said. "We were right behind them." He looked around the room, then back out in the corridor. "Where the hell is Hades?"

"Knowing him, he ran at the first sign of trouble," Slade said. "If there's anything he's good at, it's saving his own ass."

"To be fair, most of us are good at doing that," I said. "In the meantime, I don't know about you all, but I think we should get out of here. They did mention reinforcements."

"Yeah." Hunter nodded. "We need the quickest way out of this building."

"That's probably the way I came," Slade said. "I found a side door and ducked in while they were delivering crates of champagne. That led into the kitchen."

His words reminded my stomach I was starving. It grumbled but I ignored it. Food would have to wait until we were clear of this place.

"Lead the way." Zeke nodded to Slade. "You and Hunter at the head. Parker, Asher and I will go last. Women in the middle."

As usual, everyone jumped to do what Zeke said. Not literally, because that would be feeding his ego.

"You should have joined the army," I told him.

"You too," he replied. "They might have taught you and Hunter some discipline."

I flipped him off.

Asher grinned but didn't say anything, instead gesturing for the women to move ahead of us. He took off his shirt and offered it to the petite blonde who almost shot me. She took it gratefully and slipped it on.

Of course then the rest of us were obligated to do the same. A few of the girls wore white shift dresses, but the ones in underwear, with damp hair, were soon wearing oversized T-shirts.

Who said chivalry was dead?

Not that long ago, I would have been disappointed at all of those women covering up.

Today, I didn't care. If they needed modesty, then fine. I hadn't known where to look anyway. I couldn't really stare anyway. Not without Lila potentially shooting me in the balls. That wouldn't work well for me or her.

We hurried down the corridor and descended another set of stairs, this one as cold and dank as the one on the other side of the building. The smell of food reached my nostrils long before we passed the kitchen. I was sorely tempted to bolt in, grab some food and bolt back out again.

The word ‘reinforcements’ kept me in line.

Caleb was going to be pissed off enough that we'd killed his people without us having to kill more of them.

Not to mention I wasalmostcertain he didn't want three of his brothers dead today.

Don't quote me on that though. Fuck only knows what goes through Caleb's mind. He liked to think he was suave and sophisticated, but without doubt, his thoughts were as firmly in the gutter as the rest of us. After all, he was trying to sell women here. Hunter and I have done some dubious things, but never anythingthatdubious.

"Here's the door," Slade was saying. He glanced back at Zeke.

Zeke nodded. "Everybody down. Open the door carefully. Parker, Asher, keep an eye out behind us."

"So bossy," I mumbled. In spite of that, I turned around and readied my gun, just in case.

Daylight and air rushed in as Slade opened the door.

I glanced over my shoulder.

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