The Rogues of Blackwood Book 1: Keane
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Amber Kuhlman
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37
Chapter 1
EVE
This is it…this is where I’m going to die.
Dense, eerie fog rolled over the top of the water, haunting the air with a brisk chill that wouldn’t seem to fade. I pulled my jacket tighter around my neck and shivered, the cold seeping deep into my bones, sticking to me like glue…or blood.
Water lapped against the boat, heavy and daunting, threatening.
“Oh, this must be it,” my mother said next to me, popping up on her tiptoes as the small ferry boat pulled up to the port, horn blaring.
In the sky, thunder cracked, promising an imminent storm. I shivered, clutching the single duffel bag I’d been allowed to pack close to my body.
Back home, my stepfather was probably burning the rest of my belongings in a barrel. Everything. My whole life, and my memory with it.
A shock of fear slithered up my spine, and I took a single step back, all the hidden emotions I’d been shoving down rising to the surface.
Three large, burly men stepped off the dock and onto the deck, spotting us a second before heading in our direction.
“Evelina Bloom?” the largest of the three men asked.
Mother nodded, tilting her head at me.
“Let’s go,” the second guy said to me. “They’re expecting you.”
I turned to Mother, hoping I’d see something other than distaste on her face. But it was there. Still.
Ever since The Incident, she’d looked at me like I was nothing more than scum on her shoe. Sometimes, though, it was even worse—as though she were afraid of me.
“I want to go home,” I insisted, avoiding the intense gazes of the men in front of us. “You know I don’t need to go. I—I’m not a freak, and I’m not sick. I don’t belong at Blackwood Academy.”
“Jack says it’s a wonderful school,” Mother said haughtily. “An excellent substitute for a state college.”
“Then let me go to a real college, Mom. I don’t belong here. Jack is wrong.”
“Enough chit-chat.” One man reached out. His large, calloused hand felt like a metal vice around my arm, and I winced, pulling back, but he didn’t loosen his grip.
“Don’t make me go,” I begged as the second guy grabbed my duffel bag. “I’ll apologize to Jack and Grant both. I’m sorry, Mom. I’m so sorry.”
The chiseled frown on my mother’s face only tightened as she shot daggers at me with her eyes.
“Maybe this place will teach you not to cry wolf so often,” she said. “Maybe it will teach you some respect.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks as I relented, falling limp as the asshole pulled me toward land. I didn’t feel like a student or even a patient.
I felt like a prisoner.
“You’re hurting me,” I said. I tried to wrench my arm out of the man’s grasp as he squeezed harder, pulling me after him off the boat.
It rocked beneath the waves, and I stumbled just as the man’s hand released my arm, falling hard onto the wooden dock with a yelp. Before I could get myself up, the guard yanked me to my feet and half-dragged me up a narrow, wooded trail.
Ignoring the stony stare of eyes on my back, I stepped through the academy doors. We entered a lobby-looking room, and the guard pointed for me to sit in a chair while he went to speak to the woman behind the desk.
I strained to hear what they were saying but couldn’t quite make it out. The woman glanced at me over the guard’s shoulder, nodded at him, and then stood from behind the desk.
“Evelina,” she said, and I sat up straighter. “He’s waiting for you.”
I didn’t know who He was or why he was waiting for me, but I complied, glad to be out of the vicious grip of the douchebag in front of me.
Stepping into the doorway, I caught sight at once of the man sitting behind a large oak desk. He smiled warmly when I came in, waving his hand to the empty chair across from his desk.
“Evelina Bloom,” he said, offering his hand. “My name is Doctor John Carter.”
“Hi,” I said awkwardly. A large, vibrantly decorated fish tank glowed from one side of the room, and certificates and awards hung up and down the walls.
It was professional, yet homey. This had to be the principal.
“Do you run this place?” I asked, and John laughed.
“Yes and no. We all run this place together. None of us could do it on our own.”
I focused on one of the colorful fish in the tank, my eyes following as it darted back and forth in front of the glass.
“Evelina,” John said, clasping his hands together as he sat up straighter, “why do you think you’re here?”
“At this school for weirdos?” I asked.
After a moment, he nodded just once.
“For lack of a better term, yes.”
“I’m here because my stepfather hates me,” I said bluntly. “And he’s trained my mom to do the same.”
“What makes you think that?”
I shrugged, glancing down at my hands in my lap and nervously picking at my cuticles.
“I think you know why.” I nodded toward the folder resting in his hands on the desk.
“I see.” John didn’t seem angry or even annoyed. He appeared to be, if anything, amused.
“I know,” I said. “Everyone here thinks they don’t belong, right? You probably get that a hundred times a day. Do I look crazy to you?”
“No one said you were crazy.” He hummed quietly as he flipped through the folder, then shut it abruptly and pinned his gaze on me. “We’ve assigned you a dorm with a roommate. Classes start in the early a.m., at seven sharp. Don’t be late.”
“What about my clothes and belongings?” I asked.
“Your luggage will be delivered to your room. Otherwise, everything you need will be provided for you. Breakfast is at six, lunch is at noon, and dinner is at seven.”
“When can I call my mother?” I asked, only partially listening to his instructions.
John sighed and removed the glasses from the bridge of his nose, pinching it before smiling.
“We require our students to be here for a week before allowing phone calls.”
“A week? I can’t wait a week. She needs to know the truth. I don’t belong here. I need to get out.”
“If you didn’t belong here, Evelina, then you wouldn’t be here,” John said, and for the first time since our little chat, I wanted to bloody his nose.
“It’s Eve,” I said stiffly. “Only my parents call me Evelina.”
“Very well, Eve. Now, do you have any other questions?”
I scowled.
John’s smile only grew. “Very well.” He stood and crossed around the desk to open the door, poking his head into the hallway. “Kasey,” he said to someone, “she’s finished up in here. Show her to your room, will you?”
A moment later, a new face appeared in the doorway. She was a woman about my age, with deep brown skin, auburn hair, and eyes so intense I almost squirmed in my seat.
“I’m Kasey.” She reached both hands up to tighten the messy bun on top of her head. “Come on then.” She started down the hallway, giving me no choice but to follow her.
“So,” Kasey said, sticking her thumb in her mouth to nibble on the nail, “what are you in for?”
I laughed. “In for? I didn’t commit murder or anything.”
“What did you do?”
“I told my parents something they didn’t believe. They think I’m lying and delusional.”
“That’s it?” Kasey asked. “You lied to somebody about something?”
“Yes. I mean, no. I wasn’t lying. They just think I’m lying.”
“Do you think you’re lying?” she asked.
“I don’t—I’m not sick like the rest of you,” I told her, and Kasey frowned.
“I’m not sick, either. Just because we have some troubled people here doesn’t mean we’re sick. We’re just normal people—”
“Who can’t function in society,” I finished. “Got it.”
“You’re kind of being a bitch,” Kasey said, catching me off guard as she stopped walking and whirled on me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean…” I trailed off, unsure of how I could put it so that I wouldn’t offend her. “I don’t have a disorder or anything. I accused someone of something, and my stepfather covered it up. They’ll know I’m not crazy within the first few days. Then I’ll get to go home.”
Kasey laughed as though I’d just told her a corny joke. “Whatever helps the denial. Anyway, this is our room.”
As she reached for the handle to open the door, someone came up behind me suddenly, breath hot on my neck. I recoiled, pulling into myself like a frightened animal as the man touched my shoulder.
“Hi, angel girl,” he whispered, brushing his lips against my ear suggestively.
I froze on the spot, too terrified to move or even breathe. In front of me, even Kasey seemed to be holding her breath.
“Who’s your friend, Kasey?” the man asked, taking a step back so he could rake his eyes over my body.
I squirmed under his gaze, terrified yet stupidly attracted to this asshole in front of me. He was tall and built, with brushed-back chestnut hair, a five o’clock shadow, and a gaze so intense I wanted to drop to my knees and beg him for mercy.
“My name is Evelina,” I said steadily. “Eve.”
The man’s eyes narrowed briefly, a smirk rising to his lips. “Evelina,” he purred, rolling my name around on his tongue as though he tasted it. “My name is Keane Hearne. My brothers and I run this institute.”
I looked over at Kasey, hoping for an explanation. She still seemed frozen on the spot.
“We’re the bosses here,” he said. “But don’t worry, you’ll figure that out in no time.”
Creeped out, I took a step back, putting distance between us.
“K-Keane,” Kasey said. “Carter wanted me to show her around.”
“Sure,” Keane breathed, flashing a smile at me.
As we stood facing each other, he reached into his pocket for a cigarette, slipping it between his lips before pulling out a lighter and lighting it. He took a long, hard drag and blew the smoke into my face.
“Mr. Hearne!” one of the staff members scolded him from down the hallway. “You know the rules.”
Keane turned away from me to look at the woman. “Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Tucker. I won’t tell if you don’t.”
I was shocked when the woman let out a huff and wheeled around to walk away without giving him a single glance back.
Keane’s gaze focused on me again. “I’ll see you around, kitten,” he said with a wink, then brushed past me and vanished around the corner.
“What the fuck was that?” I asked Kasey. “Or better yet, who the fuck was that?”
Kasey opened the door to our dorm and ushered me in. It certainly wasn’t anything fancy. Two twin beds against the wall, a large closet to share, and a small, tight bathroom inside the room.
“That’s your bed.”
I crossed to the one she was pointing at and sat down, noticing my single suitcase on the floor at the end of the bed. It was dingy and old here, like the place hadn’t been updated since the nineteen hundreds.
“Tell me about that asshole in the hallway. What’s up with him?”
“Well…” Kasey trailed off for a moment as if trying to find the right words. “Keane runs around with two other guys, Beau and Teague. They’re best friends, as close as brothers.”
“Are they all as hot as him?”
“They’re hot,” she said. “But they’re dangerous. They’re famous in this place because they’ve banded together and enforced the rules. So they basically get away with everything.”
“Even murder?” I joked, but still, Kasey didn’t laugh.
“Something like that,” she sighed, biting her lip. “Some people say they want to be here, just to have their run of the school. All they really do is pick on people and fuck the girls.”
“Fuck the girls? Like…rape them?”
“Nah, I think it’s all consensual.” Kasey shrugged. “It’s an honor to be picked as the Blackwood Rogues’ whore of the month.”
“Blackwood Rogues?”
“That’s what they call themselves.”
“Whore of the month?”
“Any girl they decide to fixate on becomes theirs.” Kasey lowered her voice. “Nobody has ever denied their request. If you could even call it that.”
“What do you mean?”
“They don’t rape the girls,” she said. “But they don’t like taking no for an answer, either.”
“They sound like a bag of dicks,” I muttered.
“Don’t ever say that out loud,” she warned. “They could hurt you for it.”
I sighed and shook my head, kicking back on the bed. It didn’t matter how sinfully sexy he was on the outside.
I wasn’t about to fall for a douchebag like that.
“Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
