Page 27 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

"No deal," Jackson said firmly. "If you have alternative transport, you can take it. I'd prefer not to have the tour bus gallivanting all over the countryside."

"Has anyone ever told you you're a spoilsport?" Parker asked him.

"Of course not," Jackson said at the same time as Asher said, "Frequently."

Jackson turned around to raise an eyebrow at Asher.

Asher stuck his hands up to either side. "I know, I know. Drum machine."

Apparently that was some kind of private joke, because the rest of the band, and Abbie, laughed.

"Can we go?" I asked. A crowd was starting to gather around and stare at us. Of all the trafficked women, I was the last one. I didn't need people to gawk at me and wonder what I was doing standing on the street with a rock band. Especially since a couple of them, and Slade, were still shirtless.

"Of course we can, sweetheart," Hunter said. He slipped the gun out of my hand and put it away in the waistband of his jeans. "For safekeeping."

I nodded. "As long as you give it back if we see Hades." I wouldn't hesitate to use it on him if he showed up. I had a feeling he was long gone by now. If I was him, I'd be in another state already. I'd keep a very, very low-profile for a while.

"Definitely," Hunter agreed. "If I don't kill him before I have a chance to give it back. I can't guarantee what my instincts will do in that situation. I also can't guarantee I won't kill Caleb the next time I see him."

"If he and Reuben agreed to stop trafficking women, he can live," I said. "He might come in useful someday." Fuck knew what for, but I couldn't afford to alienate too many people, even if their last name was Brantley and they weren't the twins.

"Agreed," Zeke said. "I knew he got up to some shady shit, but this is not okay. If he did this to Abbie, I'd rip his head off with my bare hands." He exchanged looks with the twins and something passed between them. Like, suddenly they had something in common. A shared goal.

"If anyone is interested, I'm not too happy with my brother right now either," Asher said. "I knew he'd do a lot to get power, but I didn't think he'd stoop this low." He actually gave me an apologetic look. As if he had any more control over Dane than I did.

"That makes several of us," Hunter said. "He wanted power, but what he's got was some powerful enemies."

"Including Caleb," Zeke said. "There’s no way he would have asked anyone to take Lila. He would have known it would end badly. There's a reasonable chance he had no idea until we told him. One of his subordinates was acting outside his orders. Working with Dane, Chloe and Zachary. I'll let you guess what that subordinate's chances are of living until the end of the year. Or week."

I exhaled softly. "It won't matter. Hades will pin everything on Brutus and he's dead. Anyone who could contradict Hades is probably dead too. Or they soon will be."

"Either way, Caleb prefers to use people than be usedbypeople," Zeke said. "He may not shut this operation down forever, but he’ll probably do it until he knows who was behind this. He'll want to avoid shit getting messy like this again."

"If there's anything Caleb hates, it's a mess," Hunter agreed. "But we will work on him to shut this down forever. There's plenty more shit he can get involved in."

He rubbed a weary hand over the back of his neck, reminding me he and Parker went through hell too.

"Maybe if we sit back for a little while, Caleb, Dane, Chloe and Zachary will take each other out," Parker said. He rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation of that possibility. If that was what happened, he'd be the first to suggest we bring popcorn and watch. Maybe a few beers and pizza.

"As awesome as that would be, that's too messy for Caleb," Hunter said. "He'll sit back and bide his time. Give them enough rope to hang themselves."

"Or he'll let Lila deal with them for him," Zeke said. He cocked his head at me. "Are you going back to Brutham?"

"Of course I am." I lifted my chin. "I'm not letting a little kidnapping and some human trafficking get in the way of my education." I didn't need to address the rest of what he said. We all knew I had every intention of dealing with them. I wasn't even close to broken, but by the time I was finished with them, they would be. Broken and begging for mercy.

CHAPTER11

LILA

"Holy fucking hell," Parker groaned. "This is so good." He closed his eyes and bit into his fifth slice of pizza. "Pizza is always good, but when you haven't eaten in weeks, it's even better."

"It wasn't weeks," Hunter told him. He looked no less blissed out.

"Id elt ike id," Parker said, his mouth full. He chewed and swallowed before saying, "I said, it felt like it."

"That was what we thought you said," Slade said over his shoulder. "Are you making a mess back there?"

"Not yet." Hunter grinned. "So far, we're only eating food." He grinned at me before biting into his slice.

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