“Just hope Victor doesn’t find out about this until after he comes to his senses,” I grumble, picking my top up and resisting the urge to groan when the pert, pink points of my nipples brush against the fabric. Hael ties the strings behind my back and at the base of my neck, tickling his fingers down my spine before I find the courage to move away.
If we keep touching each other, I won’t be able to hold back.
“He won’t find out,” Hael reassures me, still smiling. I notice he doesn’t make any move to put his shirt back on. “Now, let’s start this lesson before I decide there are other things I’d rather teach you.”
“Ass,” I murmur, but I’m smiling now, too. “You sure I’m not going to kill us both by crashing into the sea?” Hael laughs at me and shakes his head, sitting up in his seat.
“Listen, just take it easy. You can't exactly fuck this up, you know, since we're stripping the car for parts. It doesn't matter. Relax and let the Ferrari speak to you. We’ll leave it in sport mode and just get you used to being behind the wheel.” I press my foot down on the brake as Hael reaches over to push the button that starts the engine, releasing the parking brake at the same time. “I want you to press the gas down slowly and turn the wheel toward the road; there’s a bit of multitasking involved but I bet you can handle it. It's just like when you're going down on a guy, and you grab his dick in one hand and suck the tip with your pretty red mouth.”
I give him a look that could freeze the Sahara Desert.
“Hael Harbin, what do you know about sucking dick?” I ask, and he winks at me.
“I've gotten mine sucked enough to know all I need to know. Now focus.” He gestures with his chin in the direction of the wheel. “Grab on, Blackbird, and let's do this. Once you get a taste of the open road, I think you'll like it. Driving is like, the ultimate freedom. You can go anywhere; you can do anything.”
I look back out the windshield; we're parked in the little half-circle parking lot in just such a way that I don't need to back up to get out. A little gas, a turn of the wheel. You've got this, Bernie, I tell myself, releasing the clutch when Hael tells me to. The car thrusts forward, and then shoots off onto the road with a screech.
I scream, but Hael just lets out his usual howling laugh.
“Ah, little bird, if you could only see the look on your face. Oscar would probably pay to have that expression framed.”
“I'd flip you off if I could,” I grumble, trying and failing to keep a consistent speed.
“You're lucky: this car has an adaptive suspension and a smooth-shifting dual-clutch, so it's basically an automatic transmission. The Eldorado might be a bit trickier for ya.” He nods like that's that. “Now tell me: what song will set you free, Blackbird? Drive me to the saltwater taffy shop in Newport, and I'll play it for you.”
It only takes me a split-second to make a decision.
“Trouble,” I say, and my heart seizes. “By Valerie Broussard. That's the right song. It's what I need to hear right now.”
We buried my past when we buried the Thing; I'm starting to actually look toward a possible future.
“You got it,” Hael says, selecting the song and pressing play. The music comes thumping out of the speakers as I brake too hard and we fly around a bit in our seats. But Hael is most definitely right about one thing: there is nothing so electrifying as the feeling of being free. “You got this, Blackbird,” Hael says again and then—and the wind almost steals this last bit away from me—“And I got you. Don’t be scared, little bird.”
I bite back tears, exhaling sharply as Valerie sings about boys that are like poisonous thorns.
Those are my Havoc Boys, that's for fucking sure.
The Ferrari whips around the curves, the mountain on our left, the beach on our right, the world stretched endlessly out in front of us.
“Do not make me regret leaving you alive,” Victor warns the Vincents on Sunday morning, after the girls have finished their cereal and been tucked safely away inside of Aaron's Bronco. The leader of the Havoc Boys crouches down in front of our bald captives as Leigh's brown eyes dart around her ruined living room with a look of such sheer devastation that I feel a little warmth bloom inside of me.
To me, a ruined house is nothing. It's just a place. It's just things. Penelope was a soul, a spirit, a heart, a fucking person. This means shit all to me. But to Leigh and her husband, Marcus, their material possessions are the most important thing, and we've just fucked those up royally.
“Are you listening?” Callum asks, his voice low and dangerous. “Because if you're not, we can make other arrangements.”
“We're listening,” Marcus groans, shaking and holding his still-broken hand to his chest as he looks around at what's left of their house.
“You will clean up, you will tell your doctor some bullshit story about your hand, about an accident with a ladder or a hammer or a giant motherfucking dildo, I don't care. And then you will await my instructions.” Victor turns to Leigh, tears and snot streaming down her face as she stares at her ruined house with a deep-set frown. “You will find a way to place Alyssa with the Peters; they're a foster family already, so they should be in the system. We will drop the girl off tonight. After that, you will keep your head down and report anymore requests for children directly to me.”
“You're going to send us spiraling into bankruptcy,” Leigh says, as if Victor or any of the rest of us cares. Aaron actually laughs, shaking his head and then storming out of the room like he can't fucking stand to listen to this anymore. I don't blame him. The Vincents are delusional. “You are the very epitome of a monster.”
This time, it's my turn to laugh like a crazy person. Wow. Just … wow.
“If you don't do what I say, when I say it, you will be the very epitome of dead. Do you understand me now?” Victor rises to his feet and looms over the couple the way he always does. “Get your shit together and figure out a way to help me nail Ophelia to the cross. If you do, I'll give you a cut of my inheritance, enough that you'll never have to sell another girl again.”
Leigh looks askance at Victor, like she doesn't believe him for shit. She shouldn't, considering that he's lying his ass off, but she's also greedy enough to consider it as a possibility. Whatever works.
“Let's go,” Vic says, nodding at Hael, Cal, and Oscar. Me, he grabs around the waist, pulling me out the door and leading us toward his Harley as he digs a pack of cigarettes out with his left hand. “Jesus, these people are stupid as fuck. I give them until the New Year to piss me off to the point of murder.” He takes a drag and passes the smoke to me.
“I give them until Christmas,” I reply and Vic chuckles, taking the cigarette back and pulling in another drag before he flicks it to the ground and crushes it out with his boot.
“See you at home,” Aaron calls out, climbing into the driver's seat of the Bronco and waving his arm at me. There's something cozy about the way he says that word. Home. I don't feel like I've ever had a real home before. The thought excites me as I climb on the back of the Harley behind Vic, wrapping my arms around him and burying my face against his back.
Callum and Oscar hop into the Camaro with Hael, and off we go.
Our Havoc honeymoon is over.
It was very … appropriate, I felt. Kidnapping. Threats. Destruction.
Sex.
Lots and lots and lots of sex.
I feel like Victor has branded himself on my skin.
And yet, I'm looking forward to spending the night in that king-size bed with him.
Victor and I head straight home while the other boys veer off to deal with Alyssa.
“Who are the Peters?” I ask when Victor lets us into Aaron's house and slides a pistol from his waistband. He checks the house like he's part of a SWAT team while I follow along behind him. He waits until the house is clear before he turns and looks down at me.
“The Peters are Oscar's foster family,” he tells me, and I swear, my jaw nearly comes unhinged.
“How did I not know that he lives with a foster family?” I ask, wondering if that's the real reason why Victor sent Oscar with me to check out the Kushners' house, if that's why he let Oscar do the actual killing.
“A good one though,” Vic assures me, pausing as the front door opens and the other boys—sans Oscar—come in, the girls preceding them with tired yawns. It's only mid-day, but they most definitely took advantage of the trip, staying up all night and bingeing on candy and Netflix.
I watch as they slink up the stairs and disappear into Kara and Ashley's room.
“A good what?” Aaron asks, pausing beside us. He looks relieved to be home, but there's a different sort of tension in his eyes. He levels his gold-green gaze on Victor and waits to hear what we're talking about.
“Oscar's foster family,” Vic murmurs, looking Aaron up and down briefly before he locks eyes with him. “She wants to know about the Peters.”
Aaron glances over at me with a sympathetic sort of expression on his face.
“Maybe if you knew more about Oscar's family, you'd understand him better,” he says, and then he pauses for a long moment. “Doesn't excuse fucking any of his behavior, but it might help you figure out a way to accept him for what he is—a complete and total asshole.”
“Where is that complete and total asshole anyway?” I ask, my eyes drifting over to the slight pinkish stain on the couch. I almost cringe but manage to hold it together. No need to show all my emotional cards, right?
“At home, with the Peters,” Victor says with a frown as he checks his phone. “Speaking of, I have to go in a few myself.”
“What?” I ask, blinking stupidly at him. “You're leaving?”
The grin that stretches across that man's lips makes me want to stab him with the blade that's tucked into my boot. Fucker. He looks so damn pleased with himself as he scoops me into his arms and Aaron rolls his eyes.