Page 37 of Cruel (Brutal Academy)

I glanced over as Chloe and Zachary settled on the couch on the other side of the room. She crossed her knees and leaned against the arm like she owned the place.

I wanted to scratch her eyes out.

"We should ask them to join our next Kink or Drink," Parker remarked. "Them and Dane. It would be fun to see the expression on their faces when one of them paddles Chloe while the other has to watch."

Hunter chuckled. "That would be fun, but this is going to be more fun." He rubbed his hands together and smiled like a cartoon villain.

"And we have front row seats," Parker added.

I turned back to my sister and former stepbrother as his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and scowled the screen before pressing the device to his ear.

Whatever the person on the other end said, it quickly had him agitated. He gestured with his other hand while he spoke and listened.

Chloe put a hand on his arm and looked concerned. He shook his head and hung up the call. He said something to her as he tucked his phone back into the pocket of his jeans. She didn't look happy about it, but she lowered her hand and sat back.

Zachary leaned over to kiss her cheek, then rose and hurried out of the bar.

I frowned. "Is that what we're waiting for?"

"Nope, it gets better," Hunter said. "Keep watching, but don't look too much like you're watching. We don't want her to think we’re up to something."

"Weareup to something," Parker said.

"Of course we are, but we don't want her to know that." Hunter downed a gulp of beer.

"Right, play it cool." Slade sipped his own beer and draped an arm over the back of the couch behind me. "We're here to enjoy the fact we're all still alive. Nothing more."

"That is something to celebrate." My mind kept returning to Mary. She filled my dreams. Her and Brutus. Him trying to force himself on a dying woman… I woke with the urge to throw up. And to punch my sister and Zachary for having any part in that. They'd clearly taken women who looked like me in the hope of making it harder to find me. Hunting down one brown eyed brunette amongst several would have been difficult. Mary was dead because she looked like me. Not for any other reason.

"Here we go," Hunter muttered.

Chloe blinked hard and shook her head. Her head flopped to one side, then the other. Her eyes rolled back and she slumped onto the couch.

"She's—" I started to stand, but Slade pressed a hand to my shoulder, keeping me down.

"Not dead," he said. "She's not fully unconscious either. Just…incapacitated."

My eyes widened as a couple of fellow students, second years like the twins, approached Chloe, smiles on their faces.

Her eyes were still open. They widened. Fear. Understanding. Terror.

A chill passed right through me.

"They're not going to…"

"It's what she arranged for you to go through," Hunter said, his tone dark with simmering rage. Every drop directed at Chloe.

"She organised for you to be sold to someone who would force themselves on you. She wanted you broken. We're returning the favour." He smiled and gulped the last of his beer.

The two guys hooked their shoulders under Chloe's arms and pulled her to her feet. One held her upright before the other scooped her into his arms.

I must have imagined hearing her whimper, because the music in the bar was too loud for that. She was virtually paralysed. Completely unable to fight back against what they'd do to her. It wouldn't just be the two of them either. They would use her and use her until—

I shot up out of my seat so fast I spilled vodka all over my hand. I barely noticed.

"We can't let them do that to her. I know what she would have done to me, but… I just can't. Please. Make it stop."

"Of course—" Before Hunter could finish his sentence, Dane stalked into the room.

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