Chapter 12: Keane

My eyes roamed over Sadie’s body, taking her in, relishing in the way she cringed beneath my gaze, trembling like a lost child as we stared each other down.
“Beau told me what you did,” I said. She looked terrified, standing in front of me like a frightened little girl. I almost felt bad.
Almost.
“I was just putting her in her place,” Sadie pleaded, eyes welling up with tears. “If she thinks she can come in here and just replace me like that, then she’s wrong.”
I laughed humorlessly, and Sadie flinched. “Since when do you make the rules, girl?”
“I—I don’t,” she said softly. “I just, well, I want to be with you guys. I’m devoted to you. I always have been. Please believe that.”
I looked over at Teague, who rolled his eyes and shook his head before leaning back in his chair, taking a cigarette from the pack sitting on the end table, and lighting it. He took a long drag and tilted his head as he scoped Sadie out.
“You were a nice fuck,” he said. “But there’s a new girl in town, and she seems like an even better fuck.” He leaned forward, clasping his hands together, and blew out a breath of smoke from between his lips.
A tear slipped down Sadie’s face, but I found it difficult to find any sympathy for her. Instead, I got up and crossed the room, reaching out to touch her face, wiping the tear away.
“We explicitly told everyone here not to touch her,” I said, wrapping my index finger around a strand of blond hair and tugging gently. “So what did you do? You attacked her.”
“I—I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“Obviously,” said Beau, who was leaning up against the far wall with his arms crossed. Sadie sniffed again.
“Please forgive me.”
“You should know better,” I whispered, tightening my grip on her hair until she flinched. “We’re not big on forgiveness.”
Sadie dropped to her knees in devastation, and I took a step back, shaking my head at her. Pathetic. “Get out,” I said as she scrambled back to her feet. “Get out, Sadie.” As she turned to leave, sobbing, Teague bolted from his chair and stopped her at the door. The snarl on his face was terrifying, and Sadie cowered.
“If you lay a hand on her again, your disappearance will be the next exciting thing to happen at this academy,” he whispered, blowing a trail of smoke in her face. Sadie nodded, just barely, before hurrying out the door, her shoulders trembling.
“Good riddance,” Beau said, pushing himself off the wall. “She was getting to be far too clingy.”
“It was nice while it lasted,” said Teague, shutting the door behind her. “Gotta give her that.”
I shrugged, rolling my neck to the side to pop out the kinks. “She was alright,” I said. “But Evelina—she’s just …different. And I like different.”
“She is quite interesting, isn’t she?” mused Beau. “Even I’m smitten with the girl.”
“She’s a firecracker,” Teague agreed. “And the more she fights us, the more I want her.”
I said nothing to this but silently agreed. Evelina Bloom was a force to be reckoned with, and I loved that. As Teague said, the more she resisted us and the more she hated us, made me want her even more. She wasn’t afraid like the others. We intimidated her, sure, but she didn’t tremble in our wake, didn’t cower when we told her to. She was defiant and sassy, and that made the game so much more fun.
“Speaking of Eve,” Teague said, butting the cigarette out in the palm of his hand like a fucking psychopath. “When are we going to take her? I’m getting tired of the game. I want her pretty lips around my cock, Keane.”
I chuckled. Teague had never been one for patience.
“When she wants it,” I told him steadily. “We won’t force her.”
“How will we know she ever wants it?” Beau demanded. He ran a hand through his short ebony hair and shook his head in frustration. “She seems like she’d die before submitting to us.”
“I don’t get that impression at all.” I sat down at the edge of my bed, pulling out a joint from the nightstand and lighting it up before inhaling deeply. “She wants us, boys. She wants us to fuck her. She wants us to make her scream. She just can’t admit it yet. She’s got too much pride.”
“Yeah, well, I’m tired of waiting.” Teague began to pace, his fingers tapping anxiously to a beat only he could hear. “If we don’t do this soon, I’m just going to fuck her myself.”
I bolted from the bed without thinking, my mind a sudden haze of rage as I shoved Teague back against the wall with one hand, seething.
“What the fuck, man?” he yelped, fear on his face as I tightened my hand around his throat.
“Keane,” Beau warned, taking a step towards us, but I ignored him.
“You’re not going to fuck her yourself,” I snarled, my hand tightening until Teague grimaced in pain, his body pressed against the wall. “And you’re not going to fuck her without my permission. When it happens, it happens for all of us, and not until it’s time. Do you fucking understand me?”
Teague glowered at me, his lip curling in a sneer, but he managed to nod. Anger pulsated through me, and all I could see was red fury in my vision as Beau’s hand grabbed onto my shoulder, squeezing it gently.
“Back off,” he said softly. “We’re brothers, man. Reel it in.”
A moment passed before the anger began to subside, and my hand loosened from his neck. Teague fell to the floor as I backed away, clutching his neck and coughing as he glared at me.
“Fuck,” he growled, rubbing the red marks around his throat. “You need to get your meds adjusted, asshole.”
“Fuck you,” I seethed. “I’m tired of hearing it. You know the fucking rules. Nobody touches Eve until I say so. Got it?”
“Yeah, man,” Beau said, offering a hand to Teague. “We’ve got it. Now relax.”
I put my hands in the air and stepped back, trying to get a hold of myself. Sometimes, my temper got the best of me. No one was safe, not even my best friends.
“Sorry,” I muttered, butting out the joint I still held in my free hand. “Sorry, man.”
“Yeah, fuck you,” said Teague, and I laughed.
“Yeah, fuck me.”
“Both of you knock it off,” Beau warned. “Without each other, we’re nothing. Without each other, the whole system falls. Keep that in mind, will ya?”
“He’s right,” I said to Teague, rolling the tension from my shoulders. “We can’t get this worked up over a girl. It’s not like we haven’t been through this before. We’ve always had them, always shared.”
“Yeah, well, we all know it’s different this time,” said Teague. “Eve isn’t like the other girls. She’s not just some easy fuck. She’s got us wrapped around her fucking finger, and we have no idea how or why. But we can’t let that fuck with us, okay? Nothing is worth that, not even this chick.”
“She’s more than just some chick,” I said, running a hand through my hair in frustration. “I can’t fucking stop thinking about her. The way she moves, the way she speaks. That sassy fucking mouth that I want to have wrapped around my cock.”
“She’s a fucking goddess,” added Teague, and I nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, she is. It’s making me God damn crazy.”
“You mean crazier,” said Beau. “You’re already crazy, man.”
“Aren’t we all,” I muttered.