“Sorry,” I said just as she blurted, “Thank you.”
She smirked at me and I pushed my tongue into my cheek.
“I didn’t find anyone in the gym,” I said.
“There’s no one here, either,” she added.
“So…we’re alone in here?” I asked, realising that I was still holding her up and I quickly let go. “For two days?”
“Unless you want to get arrested,” she teased, her hands slipping from my arms slowly, her fingertips skimming along my flesh. I shouldn’t have liked the way that felt. And I didn’t. I refused to.
“Not again,” I joked and she looked at me like she wanted to know whether or not I meant that. I didn’t. I’d gotten into a bit of trouble with the cops in my teenage years, but I couldn’t afford to get a criminal record or I wouldn’t have been able to take this job. And ever since Saint’s family ruined mine, revenge had been pretty much all I’d worked for.
“Six feet back, remember, sir,” Tatum said as she started backing up and I rolled my eyes at her, though I really should have been the one to remember that.
“I wouldn’t want you any closer than six feet anyway, Rivers.”
Her smile slipped a little as I used my teacher tone and I ignored the twinge in my gut that said I felt bad about that before turning away from her.
“We might as well grab showers and get out of these sweaty clothes,” I said as I headed for the men’s locker rooms. “And into some clean ones,” I added hastily, glancing over my shoulder at her.
Tatum’s expression tightened at the mention of clean clothes like there was some issue with that, but she didn’t say anything about it before heading off into the women’s locker room.
On my way, I quickly sent admin a text to let them know that we were out here, wondering how long it would take them to organise supplies and deliver some food to us.
I made quick work of showering and pulled on a fresh pair of grey shorts and a black tank. My hair was wet, but I didn’t have anything to style it with so I just tucked it behind my ears and left it at that.
I headed to locker twelve in the corner of the room and pressed my thumb to the lock on it to open the door. I often stayed late here to work out after my training sessions with students so I had a healthy supply of snacks stashed.
I grabbed my gym bag and tossed in the protein bars, nuts, seeds, dried apricots, protein shake mix, raisins, rice cakes and a jar of peanut butter I kept there.
Dammit, this is a boring fucking bag of food to offer her.
I normally just took the punishment of my healthy eating habits without complaint during the week so that I could focus on my workout goals and then I just had cheat days on the weekend to help keep my sanity. But right now, I was looking at the most boring fucker of a feast I’d ever seen and taking it to a girl whose eating habits were already being ruined by those douchebags who claimed they owned her.
She was getting two days of freedom from those assholes and I wanted to offer her better than sugar free peanut butter on rice cakes.
My gaze fell on the bottle of Jack Daniels Kyan had turned up here with the night of the initiation party. He’d barely had a mouthful of it and had stumbled out of here without it after I’d kicked his ass around the boxing ring enough times to satisfy his demons. I’d tossed it in here with the vague intention to throw it out, but maybe we could make use of it now.
Not that I was about to offer a student alcohol.
I shook my head to dismiss the idea, closed the locker and took a step away from it. Then I remembered the fact that I was going to be stuck here with Tatum Rivers for two whole days on our own and we’d have to figure out how to make the time pass somehow. And it would sure go a lot quicker with a shot or two to help it speed by. I turned back to the locker, yanked it open and tossed the bottle of Jack into the bag. I didn’t drink as often as I used to anyway. I deserved a night off from being a teacher.
The corridors were dark and I glanced out the front of the building towards the sky which was falling into shadow.
It was already closing in on nine so all I had to do was make it through a few hours with her and we could go to sleep. And with our plans for the Night Keepers to occupy us, that should be easy enough.
“Tatum?” I called out, wondering where she’d be.
She didn’t reply, but the blue night lighting in the pool room caught my eye through the frosted glass doors so I decided to try there first.
As I pushed the door open, Tatum’s voice caught my attention and I looked up to see her sitting on the far side of the pool with her feet in the water. She was wearing a red skater dress with a halter neck and a plunging neckline and the effect of it paired with the spill of her honey blonde hair made my breath catch.
“I don’t know what you want me to do about it, if I try and sneak back and get caught, they’ll ship me off to juvie – though maybe that’s a better option at this point,” she growled and it didn’t take a genius to guess who she was on the phone to. I strode around the pool towards her and she didn’t seem to notice me coming as she spoke again. “No, I’m not alone, I’m here with-”
I snatched the phone out of her hand and glanced at the caller ID to see King of the Fuckwits displayed on the screen.
“Who is this?” I barked even though I already knew.
“Saint Memphis. Is that you, coach?”
“Bingo. Are you hassling Miss Rivers into leaving the safety of her designated quarantine area?” I asked in a dark tone.
“No, sir,” he said, but I could smell the bullshit on his breath from here. “Me and the boys are just worried about her being alone up there.”
“Well, she’s not. She’s with me. I’ll ensure she stays far away from anything and anyone, and if all goes well you can have a nice long chat about it over dinner in two days.”
Saint hesitated for a long moment before releasing a sigh. “What will it take for you to bring her to us?” he asked with that I’ve-got-enough-money-to-buy-the-world tone of his.
“A cure to the Hades Virus would be great,” I replied. “Failing that, we’ve got shit to do and you’re wasting battery life.”
I cut the call and it felt so fucking good to shit on that asshole’s plans that I barked a laugh.
Tatum gaped at me as she realised what I’d done, but a huge smile took over her face a moment later.
“He’ll be losing the fucking plot right now,” she laughed and I grinned as I dropped down to take a seat beside her, letting my feet hang into the water like hers.
Her phone started ringing again as the King of the Fuckwits called back and Tatum bit her lip nervously. I held the phone between us, looked right into her big blue eyes and switched the fucking thing off.
A moan escaped her that I swear was actually sexual as her eyes lit with a wild energy.
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
“Yeah, I’m a real bad boy,” I teased her. “Hanging up on people and switching phones off like a fucking gang mobster with a death wish.”
Her laughter rang out again and I found myself wanting to hear more of it.
“Is that a sleepover bag?” she asked, her eyes falling on my gym bag.
“Better…assuming you like post workout, high protein and healthy carb type snacks.” Which no one did, but it was better than going hungry.