Page 58 of The Lies We Steal

I scoot my chair back, the wood beneath it screeching noisily. Grabbing my things, slipping my pencil behind my ear before looking him in the eye. If he’s involved, I hope everything in my gaze is telling him,

I’m coming for you.

My jaw tightens as I stand to my full height, taller than him by more than a few inches,

“Allow me.” I murmur, not really giving a fuck if he kicked me out or not. I was leaving anyway.

I was going to leave without another word, walk to my car, drive all the way home and then take my frustration out on a punching bag or a wall. I knew his karma was coming and knowing I could make him pay tenfold later on was what kept me from doing anything reckless in the moment.

That was until I felt his hand on my chest.

His fucking hand.

On my chest.

My blood is nearing a physical boiling point as I drop my head to look down at his slender fingers plastered to the front of my white shirt. My mind zones out for a few seconds, just spinning around the endless possibilities of how to break every bone in his body.

Each one crunching beneath my fist, underneath my shoe as I step down onto his windpipe crushing it slowly. I wanted to rip him to pieces and use the left-over shreds as chew toys for Silas’s dog, Samson.

My mouth watered with hunger for a food that didn’t exist.

For pain. For broken bones. For cries of mercy.

“Your parents may be on the board, Alistair, but that does not make you untouchable. We all answer to someone.” He says quietly, near my ear.

I raise my eyes leisurely, taking a deep breath, I feel my nostrils flare with the aggressive air passing through them.

“Get your hand off me.” I grunt, suddenly losing every excuse in my head for why I don’t collide my fist into every bone in his face. My control is slipping further and further away.

“Are you going to hit a teacher, Mr. Caldwell? That’s grounds for expulsion no matter what your last name is.”

What is it with this family and testing my fucking patience? First his niece, who isn’t going to know her ass from her head when I’m done with her and then this fucking tool. Both of them, outsiders to this place, to how this works.

Thinking they are above the never-ending pedigree.

Dots of red begin to cloud my vision, the beast I don’t bother locking away growls inside my chest, ready to gorge on my intended target.

Reaching my hand out to snake around his wrist, I grip him too tightly to be comfortable.

“There are not many limitations to what I can do,Professor Reid.” My tongue spits his name out like rotten meat. For a split second, a firework of worry bursts in the center of his pupil before it dulls out.

I release his wrist, pushing past him with my shoulder a bit for good measure and turn to look at him, the look on his face daring me to say anything that he could use to get me in trouble, “You should be careful, Professor Reid. People going missing and all.”

It was irresponsible to say in front of people, but I thought that was slightly better than killing him with my bare hands in this classroom. Throwing the door open, I stalk down the hallway, thankful it’s empty and there is no one to shove out of the way as I make my way to the parking lot.

I doubted I would make it home before my fist slammed into something or someone. The urge to call Rook and tell him to meet me at the house for sparring was tempting. In the ways Thatcher and I butted heads, Rook and I seemed to mesh.

He needed to get hit sometimes and I needed to hit.

I guess there was something about being in control of who hit him that made it different. All I know is he needed it sometimes, he needed the pain and I could give it to him.

And we would do anything for each other. No matter the favor. Even if it meant beating the shit out of one another.

Anger is pouring out of every single pore, my hands shaking as I click the unlock button my key fob, my hand curling around the door and yanking it open.

I needed a second to catch my breath. I needed a moment to calm down.

What I didn’t need was to open the door to my car just to find millions of bugs crawling around the inside. Hundreds of the flat oval bodies scattering along my dash and burrowing into my seats.