Page 56 of Havoc at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 1)
“What did Kali pay you to get her dirty work done?” I whisper loud enough that only Aaron can hear, standing on my right side with his teeth gritted, and his hands curled into fists at his sides. He barely slides those gold-green eyes of his over to me, the angry scowl on his face twisting down into a frown.
“She betrayed every person she knows to us, including her cousin who was fucking a well-known local judge.” Aaron exhales and closes his eyes for a moment. He acts like I’ve just taken a sledgehammer to his skull. “Kali’s cousin was pissed off at us for a turf war we got into with her brother at Fuller High, and sicced the court system on me. I barely managed to keep the girls from ending up in foster care.”
My brows go up, and I feel this sharp ache inside my chest as I turn back toward the scene in front of me.
“Do you think this is a game?” Vic asks as I let my eyes wander the front of the school, searching for any of the on-campus cops. There are none in sight. So somebody paid them to look the other way. Could’ve been Havoc, or maybe their newfound enemies. “Your girl cut mine up with a knife.”
Mine.
That word does all sorts of strange things to me. Rage fills me in this unstoppable inferno, and I find myself stepping toward Callum. I haven’t forgotten that he keeps a knife in his pocket. He stiffens up slightly when my hand dips into the front pocket of his hoodie, but he doesn’t stop me as I draw it out, sidling up beside Vic.
His dark gaze briefly flicks to mine, but he quickly returns his attention to Mitch.
“What’s your point? And why are you suddenly so protective of Bernadette Blackbird.” Mitch scoffs my name like I’m worth less than dog shit. “Didn’t you torture the shit out of her during sophomore year? Is that your thing, Bernadette, to fuck the people that treat you like crap? Must be why you like your pedo stepdaddy so much.”
Without thinking, I find myself darting forward, the knife slipping from inside my palm. Nobody expects me to move, so I find little resistance when I bounce up the steps. Swear to god, there’s nothing going on inside my head when I slam the blade into Kali’s shoulder. She lets out a scream as the metal sinks in, and blood blooms bright on her pale skin.
In a split-second, the world erupts into chaos. Kyler comes at me, Callum skirts around the side and tackles him. Billie grabs Kali as she collapses back, but I’m already retreating, stumbling down the steps as the two groups clash.
It only lasts a minute or two, but by then there are crowds of students watching from the first and second floor windows of the school, cheering on one side or the other. The entire campus security staff as well as our personal pair of cops appear and a few, brave teachers approach, tearing the two sides apart.
“Oh, honey,” Ms. Keating says as she kneels down beside Kali and pulls out her phone, dialing up 911. Me, I’m just standing there as the rain starts to come down on top of us in thick sheets.
“Who did this?” Principal Vaughn roars as the boys walk off the fight on opposite sides of the brick walkway. He’s pointing at Kali who’s moaning and milking the moment for all it’s worth. She’s no more injured than I am, but I have a feeling that things are not going to go as well for me as they did for her. She is not above tossing me to the administration for punishment.
I open my mouth to admit to it before Kali can get the satisfaction, when I hear Hael’s voice.
“I did—” he starts, but Aaron’s own words drown him out.
“It was me,” he announces, and our eyes meet across the rainy courtyard. “It’s my knife.”
The cops cuff him quick and take him away in the back of a squad car while the rest of us are shuffled into Mr. Vaughn’s office.
With one student on their way to juvie, one on the way to the hospital, and eleven more crowded inside the narrow space, our corrupt asshole of a principal doesn’t have much choice but to assign us all two days of suspension starting tomorrow, followed by two weeks detention, and then cut us loose.
Prescott High cannot afford to expel thirteen students and lose all that state funding.
Besides, I know Principal Vaughn is still actively recruiting girls for his little side project.
And I’m willing to bet that he’s not forgotten how much I know about that.The last two classes of the day are a serious drag. I can feel all the eyes on me, the wandering gazes that take in Vic’s gym shorts, that linger too long on my face. They’re all wondering why I’m shacking up with the boys that everyone is afraid of, wondering why I let a man I hate put his cock in me, wondering why I love it.
