Page 26 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

"For love of…" Jackson sighed. "Everyone put your guns down. Have your pissing matches later. Right now, we need to focus on getting these women on the bus, in the cars and away from here."

Penn grunted something under his breath. "One more smart ass remark about Abbie and I’ll break your nose again." He shoved Parker away and stalked off without even glancing back at me.

I looked at Abbie for a few long moments before we both lowered our guns. She handed hers back to Asher, but I kept hold of mine. The situation might have been deescalated for now, but the tension remained.

Parker rubbed at his throat. "You really would have killed Penn for me?"

I shrugged and stepped back into the circle of Hunter's arms. "No one gets to touch one of my guys like that."

If it was me, they wouldn't have hesitated to act either. Part of me was relieved I didn't need to kill anyone else. Yet.

Although—

"It was Penn who broke your nose?" For that, maybe I should put a bullet in his brain.

"Yeah, but it was no big deal," Parker said lightly. "Just a little misunderstanding."

"Nothing you didn't deserve," Penn said over his shoulder. He opened the door of one of the tour vans as it pulled up behind the bus, and started to wave several of the women over to climb in. A couple of them didn't seem to have a clue who he was, but most of them stared. If he noticed, he gave no sign. It was just another day in the life of a guy like him. People looked at all of them wherever they went.

The women would have a story to tell when they got home. It wasn't every day they got rescued by rock stars.

"He's such a prick," Hunter said softly, unexpected emotion in his tone.

I turned around to look at him. He wasn't quite as outspoken as Parker, but he wasn't usually gentle either.

He gave me a faint smile. "I let you down. What happened to you never should have happened."

I shook my head. "I don't even know what happened to you and Parker."

"Chloe, Zachary and Dane happened," he replied. "Your dear stepbrother had someone at the Academy slip something into our drinks. The assholes had us chained up until we managed to escape. We stumbled upon Zeke and managed to find you here."

There was clearly more to the story than that, but that was all the explanation I was getting for now. Or maybe ever. I didn't suppose the details mattered all that much.

"That same someone drugged my coffee," I said darkly. "I woke up in the back of the truck."

He locked his eyes on mine. "Did any of them touch you?"

I shook my head slowly. "Someone stripped me, but that was as far as it went."

I couldn't know what they did to me while I was out, but I preferred to assume nothing happened. If it did, I might be better off not knowing. Seeing what Brutus did to Danica was bad enough.

Hunter growled in the back of his throat. "That was more than too far. When I find out who did that, I will fucking kill them."

"I believe you." I stood on my toes and kissed his mouth. "But you may need to get in line. The next person whose head I hold a gun to may not be as lucky as Penn."

Hunter grinned. "I love it when you threaten violence. It's so fucking hot." He kissed the tip of my nose.

"All right, that's everyone but you four," Jackson was saying. "I can have the driver take you back to the Academy on the tour bus, if that's where you want to go."

"We were hoping you'd drive us," Parker told him.

"As tempting as that is," Jackson said sarcastically, "I have a tour to manage. As it is, you're lucky the guys and Abbie have a concert tomorrow night. Otherwise we wouldn't have been anywhere near here."

"I have my SUV," Slade said.

Parker grimaced. "Fuck. I was looking forward to travelling on that." He nodded towards the tour bus.

"You still can." Slade grinned.

---