Page 44 of Breaking Sanity (Hell’s Asylum #1)

Eagle

High School

The Fallen consists of Gunner, Baron, Nikolas, and Vaughn. No one gives a fuck about Carson. He is still super young and will probably be dead in the next few years. Too weak for this life.

Those four are the reason I am going to this fucking high school.

I hate being here, but Wolf said we need to keep an eye on them at all times.

They are up to something. Which brings me to why I am here sitting with the two love interests of a fucking maniac.

Lucky me, I got assigned to Gunner. I hate the son of a bitch but can never say no to orders.

Though he makes it relatively easy to watch.

Gunner is a Master stalker, and he has been following these two for well over three months, so wherever they are he is within ten feet of them.

Even though I am sent here to watch him, I like to think of myself as their protection from him.

Mackenzie and Emily are oblivious to the kind of threat they are up against.

Her laugh is contagious, and I can’t help but smile at her stupid joke.

Emily sits across from me with Makenzie, while we finish our lunch.

We have been hanging out a lot since Emily has pulled Mak from Gunner.

I am not sure exactly what their relationship is now that they are juniors, but everything in my gut tells me that it’s probably not good.

From what I understand, Makenzie and Gunner have been together since the beginning of middle school, and somewhere down the line, Emily got added into that.

Last year, after homecoming, she ended it with Gunner and begged Mak to do so as well, but she refuses because she wants to get Gunner and Carson away from Melinda. Mackenzie has a kind heart but trying to save them is a lost cause.

I’m pretty sure their change of heart has a lot to do with what they saw during The Reaping.

They were not supposed to be there, but they both got drunk and wanted to sneak in to see Gunner.

My dumbass was trying to see if my mom was being hunted and we ran into each other.

I was able to pull them out but didn’t see my mom.

After that, Emily and I became close, spending almost every day together, while Mak still tried to help Gunner.

“Hello,” Emily laughs, waving a hand in my face.

“Sorry, Em, what did you say,” I ask, still watching Gunner scowl at the girls from two tables down.

“Did you want to go with us to that party tonight?”

Emily is all giddy since she and Mak were invited. It’s supposed to be a big bash for one of Shadow’s baseball buddies but can’t say I am too interested.

“Em, do we have to?” Mak whines. “If Gunner shows up, he’ll raise hell.”

“Yes, we have to.” Emily pulls Mak to her feet. “Fuck Gunner and his psycho ass family.”

Emily says that loudly while pushing Mak towards the exit. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him stand, twirling his pocketknife in his hand. Wish he would fucking try honestly, but before he can charge at us Carson comes to his side, and he sits back down.

“Okay, bye, I’ll see you tonight babe,” Emily blows a kiss as Makenzie leaves, then turns to me.

“What,” I ask, getting in her space.

“We have four hours until Mak comes over to get ready.” She wiggles her eyebrows.

Am I fucking the girl? Absolutely. Should I be? Probably not, but here we are. There is something about her that I can’t stop myself from wanting. Whether that is to be around her or inside of her depends on the situation, but nine times out of ten, it ends up being both.

“I’ll need every minute of them.” I push her bangs out of her face and place a kiss on her cheek. It drives her crazy when I do that because I have never fully kissed her, and she knows it will stay that way. But like the typical basic girl she is, she holds out hope.

“You know,” a voice says from behind us. “Speaking ill of my family, Em, never ends well.”

“Go away,” Emily snaps, looking behind me.

“Leo.” Gunner eyes me when I turn around.

“Gunner.” I nod. He is probably a half foot taller than me, so I have to tilt my head a little up. The fucker smirks and my fist itches to be put through his face.

“Did you know Emily here was my first,” he asks, putting his hands in his pockets.

“Do I care?”

“Gunner stop,” Em barks.

“All I am saying is watch out for this one. She stabbed her best friend in the back just to know what my cock tastes and feels like. Wouldn’t put it past her to do the same to you. Never satisfied by just one dick, are you Em?”

Gunner doesn’t even give her a chance to defend herself as he walks past us with his little brother hot on his heels.

“What did he mean by that,” I ask.

“Nothing. Let’s get going, we only have four hours before Mak comes over,” she giggles.

Present- 3 months later

The more time I spend here, the more it makes me think of Emily.

She was a busy body and considered a bitch.

One on one, she would talk to you and have in-depth conversations.

I think that is where I really started to fall for her, plus the girl truly knew what she was doing when it came to sex.

Taught me a lot, but that abruptly ended two months after the day at the food court.

It takes me a lot to stay in the present after that, especially with women.

I kept with the no kissing rule, and it took me only a shower to get over any girl I slept with.

Well until Alley, she took me by surprise.

She is feisty and playful, but she is not afraid to show her vulnerability, unlike Emily who never showed it.

They were vastly different, which is a turn-on I didn’t think existed.

Alley has this spunk to her that really showed through when we chased her, then locking Shadow out of the room, and when we danced in that kitchen.

Alley was full of life and laughter even when her life was a complete mess.

That came crashing on the day of the funeral.

I watched her finally break and let it all out.

Going from never hearing someone’s heart split into pieces, except for my own, to listening to Alley’s shatter revived something in me that I thought died a long time ago.

As terrible as it sounds, being there with her and watching her unravel was the best. She let me in those three days, and I was fucked afterwards.

Did I want her to be here? No, when I saw those contracts, I wanted to burn them.

This whole new approach I knew was probably going to end up in a fucking dumpster fire.

But like I was taught, I pushed that to the side and went along with it.

The Underground assignments always come first. Hence how I ended up in the military with Shadow and now here.

Handler and enforcer till the end type deal.

I am not complaining about being paired with Shadow since we were in diapers.

He is the best, except when he brought Alley into my life.

She flipped it upside down and backwards, so getting away from her was the best option.

Or at least that is what I convinced myself when I left that night after she was asleep.

I thought I could handle seeing her again, because much like Shadow, I thought those feelings would be long gone.

We both were being fucking idiots. You don’t just let go of a girl like Alley.

She never went anywhere, instead she is engraved into every molecule of our being.

There is no way to get her out besides death, but even then I think I would still be tethered to her.

The craziest thing is she doesn’t even know it.

Alley will never understand the hold she has on all of us.

I keep my position by Gunner’s door as I watch him stare at Alley’s sleeping form, though I would rather drive my knife through him repeatedly.

He shouldn’t be able to be anywhere near her, not after what happened with Emily.

In all honesty, he should be in the ground next to the bag of bones I had to bury.

Maybe then, Alley would’ve had a chance to escape The Fallen.

Gunner pushes her hair onto the pillow that was covering her face, and I feel my whole body hit its boiling point. I want to rip him away from her like I should’ve done the last time I saw Emily. I need to be able to save Alley, before it’s too late.

Shadow must hear my thoughts or feel the hostility rolling off me because he clears his throat.

Like the fucker is clearly warning me to stay put.

I would like to believe that it’s more of a warning to himself to stay put and not kill the bastard.

Almost like he wanted to kill Caine when he repeatedly fucked Alley in the car.

“Good morning, Little Devil,” he whispers, tenderly kissing her temple before getting off the bed.

“Sir,” Shadow nods as Gunner comes up to us. I keep my mouth shut as much as possible around Gunner, so he doesn’t figure out who I am.

“Take Alley to the day room after she gets ready,” he orders while still looking at her. “Keep an eye on her in Baron’s office. Today Annie’s contract is up, so Annie and her will be having a group session.”

They are a new level of assholes. Baron talks about treading lightly with her from what Shadow said yet they are going to kill her roommate in front of her? Yeah, because that fucking makes sense.

Gunner softly closes the door behind him and I just keep my position watching her.

I honestly don’t really have anything to say to Shadow.

He stayed while I went on my two weeks leave and the fucker wouldn’t even answer my texts about how she was doing.

Wolf told me to leave it be and Killer agreed, but I couldn’t.