She's My Everything (Crave and Claimed Book 1) Page 8

  The girls were all fawning over him. Me, I stayed perfectly still, used to keeping to myself. It was the only way to survive in hell.

  ****

  Caleb

  “Dude, Bucati is a pussy. You remember what happened to him on the first day of school?” River asked. He bent down, grabbed a stone, and launched it across the parking lot toward the English teacher.

  I smirked. There was nothing else to do.

  Watching Bucati wander the school halls as if he was better than all of us pissed me off. It got on all of our nerves. Mr. English could keep his dick in his pants, but I’d been present when my father finally decided to pay a visit, and it hadn’t been pretty. Bucati pissed himself. Begged for his life. Then actually got down on his hands and knees and offered his body for personal use. Anything. My father had turned to me and told me this was what weak looked like.

  I’d never forget it.

  Since then, Bucati was paid, not well. The other teachers made sure they got a good deal out of it. Every now and then, he’d turn up at my father’s house to do what needed to be done. If it was a deal that needed to be sealed with a nice fuck, Bucati was there.

  I didn’t like him.

  Bucati acted the part of authority, like he was above all of us, but I saw the way he looked at some of the girls who came to this school. While my father believed he had Bucati made, I knew men like him would use an opportunity to screw up a bigger deal. Virginal girls were still a huge prize in our world. Unlike the exclusive, keep-it-in-the-family mafia, who didn’t frequent this school, our girls were still expected to act the part most of the time.

  Some of the girls who went here were just pawns in their fathers’ lives. They had no chance of going up in the world, just down.

  Getting laid was easy. There were many willing females. Some students, even teachers. I think Gael was the one to prove that a married civilian woman’s love meant nothing. A sweet little scientist had come to the school a few months ago, flashing her ring, again, looking rather smug. All it had taken were a few choice words from Gael, and she’d been bent over her desk, begging for his cock to be driven into her ass. For added proof and I was guessing pleasure, Gael had filmed the entire thing. Once he was done with her, he’d made her lick his cock squeaky clean and then smile at the camera.

  It was what Gael liked to do. If there was ever a job that required toying with someone, he was always the first one in line.

  “I’m not interested in throwing stones at people.” I jumped off the wall and headed to my car. Another gift from my father for a job well done. Where most of the people who went to Crude Hill High were still trying to prove themselves to their respective families, to earn their part, I had my place. I had the ink making me part of the Monsters’ Crew. All four of us had earned our spot.

  At eighteen years old, I already had a body count of over ten. I had no feelings when it came to people.

  My father liked to test me. Had even gotten me to kill a woman who had betrayed the crew. It was what we did. We owned cities, people, and we made sure everyone knew who they were dealing with.

  Apart, we were all deadly, but bringing us together, we were the worst fucking enemy, and what was also rare, all of us were in high school at the same time. Our fathers had knocked up our mothers, and they’d all been pregnant at the same time. It was why our bond was so strong. From the time we were first born, all four of us had been pushed together. Without a doubt, I knew the only people I could trust were right in this room, and that was all I needed. There was no reason to rely on anyone else.

  The only people I needed were right here and now.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

  Emily Crane walked out of the school gates. Like all the times before, her gaze was focused around her. She was the only person in the entire school who didn’t have a whole host of friends swarming around her. Fitting in clearly didn’t appeal to her. She wasn’t part of any clique. She made no friends.

  With her arms weighed down by books, she headed toward a blackened-out car. A large man, a security guard, got out and held the door open for her. He tried to take the books but she dodged him, climbing into the car without another look at him.

  Shaking my head, I smiled.

  This school was never boring, with all this entertainment.

  Crane was a well-respected man. Even my father talked about him highly. He was known for getting shit done and killing anyone who failed him. For anyone to get respect from my dad, it meant bad things happened a lot.

  “I always think she’s a bit strange,” River said, climbing into the car, holding a knife in his hand. No matter where we went or what we did, he always held a knife. Today, he’d gone for a little pocketknife.

  I knew him well. It would be one of the sharpest. School or not, he carried a weapon. Not that Crude Hill High was a safe place. Nope. People died. Enemies’ kids were sent there. It was a breeding ground for pain and violence. I liked it.

  I didn’t have to hide away if I was there, and I never backed down from a fight. Even if there was one I knew I wasn’t going to win. Being a Monster didn’t mean I was invincible.

  We’d all lost a fight. The difference between us and everyone else was we didn’t cower or hide. We came back for more. We may lose once, but the next time, our opponent would end up dead.

  As I turned over the ignition, my beauty purred to life, and I pulled out of the parking lot. All the fancy houses were nothing more than a cover. Employees and staff lived here. There were a few civilians, but for the most part, every person who lived in Crude Hill knew what was coming to them. The police department was a joke.

  If someone called for an emergency, there was no cop to come and help. They had two lines. The line to the outside world, and a constant call to whoever had the deepest pocket. This town was our own personal playground, and what was more, every single family here could make sure no press ever made it close to the school or to the town. Some kids thought they had it rough. They didn’t know anything. Not here.

  “I want to get my dick sucked. You think Meg’s is open?” Gael asked.

  Meg’s was a massage parlor. It was run by one of the southern crime lord’s mistresses. So far, Meg wasn’t up for sale, but it would only be a matter of time before her pussy went on the market.

  Mistresses were crème de la crème. A lot of men tended to open up about shit once they’d come, and mistresses were great stress relievers. Of course, in most cases, said mistress was kept away from the wife.

  I smiled, remembering when my dad actually brought his mistress home. He’d wanted her to become a nanny, even though there were no young kids. My mom went completely crazy. The mistress didn’t last the night. In our world, our women, unless they were trained properly, they were just as violent as the men. My dad liked my mom crazy. He liked her drawing blood, fighting for him. Sometimes, I didn’t even believe he fucked around on her, he just liked to use her to get his kicks.

  Strong women were rare. For as many who had a backbone and could shoot their husband down, I’d also witnessed those who slowly succumbed to the numbness of pills and drink. This wasn’t an easy life for anyone. It was hard, painful, and not in the least bit fun.

  “It’s Vadik’s turn to say what we’re doing,” I said, looking toward the back.

  Vadik smirked. No one ever liked what he wanted to do. Where all of us embraced our life, Vadik made sure we had some time where we were actually eighteen-year-olds. He wasn’t weak. No, to cross him got you killed. I’d seen how he fought, and his loyalty was to us four. Not to his father, or our combined fathers, but to us. One day, all four of us would take over, and it would be us running things. Until then, he kept us balanced.

  Which was why, an hour later, with burgers and fries, we sat in the movie theater, watching some action film.

  Gael would be pissed, but he liked to just relax as well.

  River always took the opportunity to sleep. Watching a movie,
with the three of us guarding his back, it was roughly the only time he relaxed. The Block family had a lot of enemies. River hadn’t been the same since he was taken for three days when he was sixteen years old. Mistakes had been made, and River paid the price. Half of the scars on his body were from that time. Three days could kill a person. It had messed River up and it meant he spent a great deal of time training. He got cut up really bad, and it was what had created his fascination with knives.

  No one would ever be able to get the drop on him. For hours, we’d sit around a junkyard as River threw blade after blade at a target. Not once would he stop until every single knife he threw hit its target.

  This made him feel safe.

  Vadik nudged my shoulder. “Word is out that some pimps got through security and are patrolling the grounds, waiting for the opportunity to strike. My dad gave me the warning. It’s an immediate kill. Don’t ask questions.” He held up his cell phone, and I looked at the men.

  I nodded. When River woke up, he’d be given the update. Gael waved his hand, letting us know he heard.

  Taking a bite of my burger, I leaned back, but it wasn’t the movie I watched. No, for some strange reason, I thought about Emily Crane.

  My dad had told me to watch my back, to keep an eye out. He wanted to know of any proposed marriages to her, or if she gave even a hint of what her father was like. So far, nothing. I’d known her since kindergarten. Always kept to herself. Like most of us, she had bruises on rare occasions.

  There was no reason for us to question where they came from. It was like how one of us could come in with a broken bone. Everyone would know why, but nothing would be done.

  To many, we were the scum of civilization. But the truth was we were the fucking kings of the underground. The monsters people were afraid of, and everyone had offspring, even those that people wished just faded into nothing. My father was responsible for a lot of pain and suffering. His name came with a sneer attached, and what was more, he embraced it. As he’d told me, fear is power, and if I didn’t learn to harness it, I was worth nothing to him. What I had to do was prove myself.

  All of us had proven what we were capable of.

  Each of us had a nickname. I was known as the bogeyman. I had no feelings and I struck where it hurt the most.

  I liked my nickname, and I intended to live up to every single letter of it.

  End of sample chapter

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