Page 31 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

For now.

"I'd settle for a long hot soak in the bath, a glass of wine and a platter of cheese, crackers and grapes." She sighed.

"We can organise two of those." Slade locked the car after us. "The only thing this place is missing are bathtubs in all the bathrooms. Or any of them."

"That was remiss of them." Hunter looked around slowly before leading us across the car park toward the Academy building.

"Remiss? That was downright neglectful," I said. "The school board should be ashamed of themselves. A person can get spanked, but can't have a long soak afterwards. What the absolute fuck?" I was only half joking.

"At least a person can get spanked." Slade's gaze slid over to Lila and he smiled.

"I knew you two were having fun without us." I sniffed. "I can't believe I missed a perfectly good spanking. It was good, right?"

Lila snorted the softest laugh. "It was definitely good. Don't worry, we can recreate it. Later. I'm sure Slade wouldn't mind spanking you."

Slade regarded us both, his eyebrows slightly elevated. "Is that what you want to see?" he asked her.

Her smile widened. "It might be." She clearly wasn't sure what, if anything, there might be between Slade and me or Hunter.

Honestly, I didn't know either. Right now, I felt like we were busy staying alive. That might have to be our priority at the moment. We had plenty of time to explore possibilities when we weren't dodging spiked drinks, assholes with guns and dickheads like Hades Turner.

"Let's get inside and worry about that later," Hunter said. "I don't like being out in the open like this. We don't know what might be waiting for us. Everyone be on alert."

He didn't need to tell us that, we all were anyway. So far, everything seemed normal. Music pumped out from the vicinity of the Academy bar. Voices shouted and laughed. They probably moaned as well, but I couldn't hear any of them.

Dozens of the windows, and the side of the building were lit. Windows sat open to let in the breeze, leaving the spaces inside protected by the not-quite-bullet-proof screens outside the not-quite-bullet-proof glass.

Apparently actual bullet-proof glass was both expensive and a safety hazard for people needing to get out of the building. Personally, I thought it was a corner the school board shouldn't have cut, like having baths, but I doubted they gave a fuck what I thought. Even Reuben and Samuel Bell, who both sat on the school board.

Hunter trotted up the steps in front of us and pushed the doors open.

Nothing exploded, imploded or collapsed. No one shot at us. The building didn't catch on fire. There wasn't even a stampede of man eating chickens, or fuck knows whatever else Chloe might think up.

"Okay." Hunter gestured for us to follow him before he stepped inside and hurried over to the staircase.

A few students gave us funny looks as they passed by, but no one seemed surprised to see us. They didn't even seem surprised us three guys weren't wearing shirts. Then again, we were us. Strange behaviour was kinda our thing. Hunter liked to refer to it as keeping them guessing, but whatever.

Either way, no one took any notice of us.

We walked up the stairs like we owned the place. Nothing to see here. No one was chained up. No one was trafficked. We just went out to do some stuff and now we were back. That was the impression we tried to convey. Whether or not we pulled it off was another matter.

I mean, of course we did. Totally.

We stopped outside Lila's door.

"Fuck," Hunter said softly. When we all turned to him in alarm, he added. "I don't have a key."

Slade grinned. "Thank fuck I do then." He separated one from the others on his keyring and slipped it into the lock.

"Do I want to know how you got that?" Lila asked.

He flashed her a grin. "Probably not. The fact is, I have one and this lock is being changed in the morning. Along with some other security measures."

She raised a hand to her ear. "Including a new earring with a tracker in it."

"And a clit ring?" I asked hopefully. "And cock piercings for Hunter and me. And Slade."

"I thought you loved me." Lila stepped into her room once Slade gave her the all clear.

---