Home > Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #4)(10)

Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #4)(10)
Author: C.M. Stunich

Victor crouches low and I copy him, letting him drag me through the maze of cars. We weave between luxury vehicles, minivans, and clunkers, the stark socioeconomic difference between the vehicles noticeable, even in such a high-octane situation. Traditionally, on Snow Day, the Oak Valley Prep kids leave their keys in their cars. Prescott students can take them for a joyride provided they’re back by sunrise. If they’re not … well, Oak Valley brats don’t give a shit anyway. Mommy and Daddy will just buy them a new Lambo, right?

“Here.” Vic opens the door to a black Aston Martin. It’s a keyless start—of course it is—so he doesn’t bother handing the keys to me, but he does check the cup holder to make sure they’re inside the car. “Get in and drive back to town.”

I look at him like he’s just grown horns.

“Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not going anywhere until I figure out where Aaron is. You saw Kali tonight. She is done with the Charter Crew, done with Prescott. After tonight, we might never see her again.”

Vic growls at me. Like, literally bares his teeth and snarls.

“Bernadette, I’m not speaking to you like a lover. I’m telling you as your boss to get your tight, little ass in this car and drive.”

I glare back at him, my hands clenching into fists. The air is tense, but the mood is strange. Music is still booming, kids are still laughing, and there aren’t exactly gunshots peppering the night air, but the danger is still very, very real. I swipe some blood from my face and flick it at Vic, spattering him with red.

“What about fucking Kali?” I snap back. Mostly because of Aaron. Yes, I want to cunt-punt the thieving, little bitch, but mostly I need to find my man. That’s the driving force here. Only Aaron matters. Revenge, vengeance … that’s all secondary. My heart stutters as the realization finally comes to.

I … didn’t go to Havoc for revenge, did I? Not really.

It’s secondary. Secondary. Always secondary.

“You’re just begging for another spanking, aren’t you?” Vic asks, standing up. I follow suit, and then he grabs me by the arm, shoving me into the car and slamming the door, holding it closed when I try to open it. “Your head is okay?” he clarifies through the glass, and I swear to god, I almost decide to run him over with the goddamn Aston Martin that I’m bleeding all the fuck over. “You’re good to drive?”

“Fuck off, Victor Channing,” I murmur, starting the car and wondering how Hael would describe the purr of the engine. It’s nice, even to a car-noob like myself.

“Call me and leave the line open, just in case,” Vic tells me, tapping the roof and then stepping back as I roll the window down. A second later, the passenger side door opens and Hael slips in. “Make sure she gets back to the house safely.”

“A babysitter, how exciting,” I growl out, furious that I’m being sent away like a child.

“A partner,” Hael corrects, kicking one boot up on the dash. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive? I mean, considering you’ve had all of one lesson in your life.” I ignore him and put the vehicle in reverse before someone else pulls up behind me and blocks us in. “I’ll take that as a no.”

“Didn’t know you could sing,” I murmur, to keep my mind off the situation at hand. Kali is a world-class liar. I bet she doesn’t even know where Aaron is. My throat closes up as I lean back in the seat, turning the car around in the narrow road and heading back toward town.

It isn’t so hard to drive an automatic, now is it?

“Yeah, well,” Hael starts, shrugging his shoulders loosely, his eyes on my bloodied head. “Just a back-pocket talent I pull out every now and again.”

“Back-pocket talent?” I ask, trying not to think too hard about the fact that we’ve just left three of our boys behind at the party. Or about nearly getting my brains blown out. Or … Aaron.

“Something you keep hidden until you have a use for it,” Hael explains, shrugging and wetting his lower lip. He’s still staring at me though. I see now that the boys and I have entered a new phase, breaking out of our tenuous love-hate sort of tension and into … whatever this is. All of them trying to take care of me. How exciting. “You sure you’re alright? And I don’t just mean physically.”

I narrow my eyes as the headlights cut through the darkness. Am I? Not really. But what else can I do? We’re in the middle of a situation here.

A flash of gold catches my attention in the trees, and I slam the brakes on.

“What the fuck?” Hael growls, but I’m already throwing open my door and taking off after the shimmer I just saw. Kali’s purse. What else would shine gold in the woods like that? Of course, more than likely it’s just a teenage couple, wandered too far from the party to fuck.

“Bernadette!” Hael shouts, catching up to me at the edge of the trees. His fingers wrap my bicep and yank me back.

“Hael, stop!” I shout at him, something breaking inside of me. I wrench my arm from his grip, and he lets me. If he hadn’t, I doubt I’d have gotten anywhere. There must be something in my voice though, some shard, as sharp as glass and ready to cut.

“Vic’s orders were pretty clear, babe,” he tells me, looking defeated but resigned. “Please get back in the car.”

“That was Kali’s purse,” I hiss at him, pointing my finger into the darkness of the woods. The way he looks at me, I wonder if I’m not starting to lose it. “She says she knows where Aaron is. She says she …” I can’t make my lips form the words, so I don’t bother. “If she’s here, I need to find her.”

“Bernie, don’t make me pick you up and carry you back to the car,” Hael warns me, but then his gaze sharpens and lifts up to look over my shoulder. When he grabs me and yanks me against his chest, turning and slamming his back into the trunk of a tree, I don’t resist. Clearly, he sees something I don’t.

The dirt in front of us explodes, like a shot’s been fired, but the sound is muffled and strange. A silencer, with subsonic ammo. That’s what makes it real quiet, according to the guys. I’m learning all sorts of fun things, being a part of Havoc.

“Motherfucker,” Hael grumbles, scooting me to the side so he can bend down and retrieve his own gun from his ankle holster. “Bernie, Vic is going to turn your ass red for this.”

Hael stands up and waits, counting breaths before turning around the side of the tree trunk and taking a single shot. It’s loud, like a car backfiring, but I don’t bother plugging my ears. Instead, I join Hael, putting my shoulder up against his as he takes another shot. There’s a man on the ground about three yards away. It’s hard to make out much detail in the dark, but one of his boots is caught in the headlights of the Aston Martin.

Pulling out his phone, Hael turns the flashlight on and walks over to the man, kicking at him with his own boot.

The guy doesn’t move.

“Jesus Christ,” he grumbles as my phone vibrates, and I realize I’ve forgotten to call Vic.

Yep, most definitely getting my ass beat for this later.

“Do you have an allergy to following orders?” he snaps at me when I answer, but then I hear a rustling in the darkness that has my heart thumping like crazy. “Where are you?” I hand the phone to Hael and he takes it with a grim expression on his face.

“We’re in the woods,” he says, and that’s when I see my chance. The Havoc Boys are so fucking good at what they do, it can be annoying sometimes. I take off into the trees with the pistol in my hands as Hael shouts at me, cursing as he follows along behind me. He’s fast too, probably faster than I am, but then I’m ducking low and scrambling under a hole in the chain-link fence, the one that denotes the logging company’s property line. “Bernadette!” Hael snarls at me, starting to climb the fence.

The flashlight of his phone bobs around, illuminating the darkness, but I don’t need it.

Instead, I find myself in a dark playground filled with old, wooden play equipment. It looks nothing at all like a modern playground. In fact, if I didn’t know that was what it was supposed to be, I may have never even guessed.

I might be barking up the wrong tree here. Maybe Kali isn’t in the woods at all, and the gold flash I saw had something to do with the guy Hael just killed. Or even if I did see her, maybe she’s on the other side of the fence still. Regardless, I keep going, creeping underneath a massive slide held up by four rustic posts. Well, really, they’re pretty much just tree trunks, cut and stuck here for long-ago children to play on.

“Kali,” I call out as I hear Hael cursing behind me. If he catches me, I’m in trouble. He’ll throw me over his shoulder as promised, and I’ll end up in the passenger seat of the borrowed Aston Martin. “I know you’re out here.”

I creep forward, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness. There’s a sound not too far off, and I decide to follow it, jogging lightly across the packed dirt area toward a short fence made of river rocks and mortar. There’s a break in the solid stone structure, likely where a gate once stood, that I use to slip past. On the other side is a pioneer cemetery. Pretty fucking creepy, to put a playground right next to a graveyard.

Just seeing the old headstones triggers me a bit, and my pulse begins to race against my will, remembering the Thing, chasing me while I stumbled around Penelope’s final resting place in handcuffs.

Still, it would be poetic justice if I got Kali here, wouldn’t it?

“Bernadette!” Hael shouts, using his phone’s flashlight to illuminate the darkness. It only lasts a second and then it’s gone. My heart races, knowing that he won’t leave me out here. Not a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.

Almost immediately, an arm wraps around my neck and Hael’s hot hand flattens across my lips, keeping my gasp of surprise from escaping.

“Not a word,” he growls, dragging me backward and underneath the rickety platform that holds the metal slide. It’s much higher than a modern-day slide; just the sight of it would give most parents the chills nowadays. “We’re being hunted,” he huffs, and then, after a moment, “and you’re an asshole.”

   
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