Page 21 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
“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.”
