“Are you ready for a coffee, Miss Andrews?” he asks as the students begin to file out of the room and he powers down his computer for break.
“So ready.”
“Monday is chocolate biscuit day if we’re fast enough.”
With a smile playing on my lips, I follow Mr. Atworth out of the room and then the English building.
The second I step out into the burning sun, the sixth form building fills my vision.
Students and teachers are moving around everywhere. It should be impossible to make out a single person in the sea of bodies.
But it isn’t.
My steps falter the second my eyes land on his.
He’s stopped dead in the middle of the main entrance to the building, forcing the other sixth formers to move around him.
His face is hard, his jaw set and his eyes dark. His Knight’s Ridge uniform fits him like a second skin. No school uniform should look that good on anyone. It should be fucking illegal.
The deep, rumbling voice of Mr. Atworth hits my ears, but I don’t register his words or know if he’s even talking to me as my attention is swallowed up by the enigma of a man before me. Even if I didn’t know who he was, what his future holds, it would be impossible to miss the danger, the power that emanates from him. The only thing more terrifying would be if Theo were to step up beside him.
A shudder rips down my spine as a second later, that exact thing happens. And it’s not just Theo, but all of them.
I swear, as the five of them stand there holding court over the school, a wave of unease, of fear, goes through every other single person out here.
It’s bizarre. It’s… a serious eye-opener.
Obviously, I knew they had power, were respected, but I’m not sure I ever could have prepared myself for the true level of it.
Even the staff seem to be slightly terrified by the boys staring out over their land.
His eyes continue to hold mine captive as a sneer pulls at his lips that has dread flooding my veins.
You’re not scared of him, Brianna. He’s just trying to mess with your head.
Unlike everyone else, I don’t cower, I don’t avoid their gazes, I don’t run. Instead, I rip my eyes from Nico’s and stare each of them dead in the eyes. Alex and Seb are the only ones who look at all shocked to see me.
“Brianna?” a hesitant voice says from a few feet away, and when I finally drag my eyes from the baby mafia standing before me, I find Mr. Atworth looking between me and them with concern in his eyes. “Are you coming?”
“Yes, of course,” I say confidently, offering him a sure smile. My actions are totally at odds with how I’m really feeling, but I can’t start my first week at Knight’s Ridge outwardly showing everyone who so much as glances my way that I spent both Thursday and Friday nights with one of their most high profile students between my thighs.
Christ. I’m so fucked.
When he starts moving again, I follow behind as Nico’s glare continues burning into my back.
“I assume you know who they are?” Mr. Atworth asks once we’re in the safety of the building that holds not only the staff room but all the admin offices.
“I’m aware, yes.”
“Okay, so you don’t really need me to tell you that you’d be best to avoid them at all costs?”
“Not really, no.” But something tells me it’s not going to be a possibility.
“Thankfully, they’ll be leaving soon.”
“There must be others though?” I ask. I might know more than any teacher needs to about those five boys and the girls who belong by their sides, but I’ve never really been party to any talk about younger members of the Family. Rhea aside, of course.
“Of course, there are members of the Family in most year groups. But I think it will be a few years yet until we have a year group which is quite as formidable as those five.”