Page 123 of Depraved Boys

“But—”

“Those three will be stuck with Miss Claymore for ages trying to explain that they weren’t the ringleaders in the victimization of another girl.”

A group of triumphant, male hoots sounded from the other side of the building and reignited my fury. Sending the kings a silent apology for leaving them to the wrath of Miss Claymore, I continued toward the sound.

Cormac and I rounded the corner and tried the side doors. They were locked.

I snarled. “How—”

“It’s a one-way fire door.” Cormac continued around the building. “The knights must have gotten a younger student to keep it open for them in case they needed to make a getaway.”

“They must have planned it.” I balled my fists and picked up my pace.

“Tonight’s a faculty meeting,” Connor shouted over his shoulder. “The staff common room faces the front of the building.” He pushed open a side-door, which led to a set of stairs.

I followed after him. “Where do you think they’ve taken her? East wing?”

“Let’s start with the top floor,” said Cormac.

We ran up the stairs and walked along the fourth floor of the boys’ wing, looking for signs of a group of boys terrorizing a girl. Cormac showed me the rooms of each of the boys he had recognized from earlier, but no sounds came through their doors.

My heart galloped a steady beat as my mind processed what I had seen. I’d always thought that the pull-a-pig game culminated in Geraldine and Bianca making catty comments backed up with pictures and other scraps of evidence to humiliate the victim.

But what they had done to Ashley—bile surged to the back of my throat, and I gagged.

“Are you alright?” asked Cormac.

“What if they moved her to another location to continue?” There was no name for what those boys had done to her. Each of them deserved to be behind bars.

“Then we’ll find them.” Cormac opened the door to a stairwell. “Let’s see if any noise is coming from the younger students’ rooms.”

We searched all the likely hideouts, such as empty classrooms, the basement, and the stairwells. We even walked out of the building and went to the gym block to see if they had taken Ashley there, but we saw no signs of a group of rowdy boys.

The stress and the effort from running around the campus kept us warm. However, by the time Cormac and I had exhausted all our options, the cold filled my lungs and seeped into my bones.

My fingers closed around the freezing, metal door handle leading back into the building. “L-let’s go to the common rooms and see if anyone knows something.”

“G-good idea,” Cormac said through chattering teeth.

If the cold hadn’t reduced me to a numb, shuffling wreck, I would have been sick with panic. Right now, even a hot bath sounded like too much effort. I walked alongside Cormac through the hallways on legs I could no longer feel.

We trudged back up the stairs to the attic level and headed toward the sixth-form common room. The usual chatter filled the hallway, along with male laughter.

Cormac pushed the door open and stepped inside. All the windows were closed, restoring the warmth. A group of boys crowded around one of the vending machines at the back of the room.

Bruce Wilmington stood in the middle, beaming at his audience.

A fresh bout of anger thawed my heart. I rushed forward, but Cormac held me back. “Stay calm, and don’t start a fight. We’re outnumbered.”

I gave him a sharp nod. Miss Claymore must have detained the kings, thinking that they had been the cause of the noisy altercation.

The group of boys snickered, and one of them said, “How the fuck did you get her into that outfit?”

“I knew from the start she was a no-limit whore,” Bruce drawled.

“Where is she?” I snapped.

The group of boys spun to leer at me.