Page 28 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

I smiled back and ate with only slightly less enthusiasm than the twins. It wasn't very good pizza, but it was nicer than anything Hades and Brutus fed us.

Honestly, I only ate because I had to. All that killing and misery robbed me of my appetite. Remembering Mary and the way she died made my eyes sting. She was so sweet, so innocent. And me, who was far from being either of those things, survived. Some would say that was unfair. Others would say that was life.

I didn't know which was right. Maybe both, maybe neither.

"Are you all right?" Parker asked me.

"Yeah," I lied. "Just a little tired." I bit and chewed to avoid any more questions. For the moment anyway. I knew them better than to think they'd stop asking.

"You've all been through a lot," Slade said. "I feel as though…"

"None of this is your fault," I told him. "None of us knew Chloe had someone working for her, ready to drug drinks."

He said what I was thinking. "We should have anticipated it. Or better yet, beaten her to it."

"We didn't," I said. "But we're still standing. Imagine the look on her face when we step back into the halls of Brutham Academy. She's going to be livid her plan didn't work. Assuming she was working with Zachary and Dane."

"She definitely was," Hunter said. He glanced past me to Parker. Parker nodded.

"You should know, Chloe and Zachary are fucking. Dane was in on what happened to us, but fuck knows if he knows what their relationship is."

I wrinkled my nose. The last thing I wanted to imagine was my sister and my former stepbrother screwing each other's brains out.

"If Dane doesn't know, he should be told," I said.

"That's what we think," Hunter agreed. "We don't mind being the ones to tell him."

"I hope he doesn't know." Parker grinned. "Filling him in will be fucking awesome."

"With any luck, they'll tear each other apart." Hunter finished his slice of pizza and reached for another one.

"With even more luck, they'll take Chloe with them." I finished my own slice and licked my fingers.

"That would simplify matters," Slade said. He pulled the SUV to a stop at a red light. "It confirms what we all suspected though. Chloe was in on that teddy bear stunt."

"Chloe was in it balls deep," Parker said. "The bomb was some sort of decoy. Or a backup plan if the first one didn't get Lila. Or it might have been meant for Hunter and me. Either way, it wasn't meant to kill her. Zachary seemed smitten, from what we saw. But very much eating out of her hand. If she told him to curl up and suck his own cock, he'd do it."

I snorted a laugh and narrowly avoided choking on water when I opened the bottle to take a sip.

"Did you really ask Zachary to screw you?" Hunter asked. "That was the claim he made. Which we didn't believe, of course."

I grimaced and lowered the water bottle. "I might have been slightly… Pissed off when Chloe told me she fucked him. I mean, why her and not me?"

"That doesn't say much about his taste," Parker said. "I would have chosen you and only you."

"Of course you would," I told him. I wasn't naïve enough to think they wouldn't fuck my sister if I wasn't around. Before we were together, they'd fuck anyone who let them.

"Chloe led me to believe it was something magical and romantic between them. After Zachary and I screwed, she told me they were drinking and it just happened. I wondered if Zachary told her to make it out to be something special so I'd spread my legs for him."

Which was exactly what I did. I was young and dumb back then. I wouldn't fall for shit like that now. No, now it took a fake bomb to trick me.

Never again. There were only four people in this world I trusted and we were all in this car together, right now. Everyone else, I'd treat with suspicion. No one else would get close to me. Ever.

"I'm starting to dislike this Zachary asshole more and more." The light turned green and Slade moved the car away from the traffic light and toward the highway.

"Funny, I was just about to say the same thing," Parker remarked. "I've known some snakes in my time, but this dickhead is starting to piss me off."

"Bro, you're a long way behind if he's onlystartingto piss you off," Hunter told him. "He's been doing that to me for a while now.Touch her and dieworks in retrospect, right? Because the thought of him doing anything with you, makes me… I don't know, turn into a raging beast or something."

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