Page 99 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
I know that, but I can’t stop myself. I move through the crowd like I’m possessed, and people move the fuck out of my way. Maybe it’s the white-blond hair dipped in red? Maybe it’s the spirit board dress and the swinging metal planchet hanging in front of my chest? Or maybe they can just smell the violence making my hands itch and burn, making my fingers twitch like they’re the fingers of the devil?
My hand slides up Victor’s back and over his shoulder. He turns to look at me before his brain even registers why he’s doing it. He’s drawn to me like he’s spelled.
“Bernadette,” he says, the word half warning and half desperate heady whisper. He moves away from Trinity like he’s forgotten she even exists. I know he wants me to go away, and I probably should, but I can’t help myself. My fingers tangle together behind his neck, and I pull him into the salsa-inspired rap that’s playing on a fairly low volume. This isn’t the type of place or party where you blast the biggest fucking speakers you can, until your eardrums bleed and you know you might go deaf, but you don’t care. It’s not a good sort of party, is what I’m saying.
“Victor,” I reply, and then I let go of him, so I can dance better. My body moves of its own accord, twining to the music, inviting Victor to sin. He watches me for a moment, going completely still. He’s not even dancing anymore, just watching me.
He closes his eyes for a brief second, opening them on me with a shine that says he’s about to snap. The king of self-control has a weakness, and if I’m not careful, I’m going to show every single person in that room exactly what that is.
But I can’t stop.
Victor grabs me by the hips and pulls me in close. This time, when we start dancing, our bodies are grinding together like we’re fucking.
“Oh!” someone calls out, and an audience forms around us like a ring. “Trinity, girl, you’ve got some competition.”
One of Vic’s legs is between my own, his palm splayed open on my back, our bodies swaying with the music. I can’t look away from his gaze, from the tightness of his jaw, from the tension in his neck.
Competition? She has no competition because she isn’t in the running.
Victor takes me by the hand all of a sudden and starts moving back. The crowd parts for him as he pulls me out of the room and slams me into the wall. Someone turns the music up, but I can still hear mean laughter underneath it all.
“You’re fucking this up for both of us,” he growls at me, his cock so hard and desperate for me that when I put my hand over it, it burns. “I cannot do this with you tonight.”
“You said you’d never cut us off from each other to punish me,” I tell him, but he’s already shaking his head. My fingers dig into his purple-dark hair, and he shudders like he’s been slapped. Vic’s eyes are closed now, so I can’t see what he’s thinking. I can’t read a damn thing.
“That’s not what I’m doing,” he assures me, and then he opens his eyes, and I can see even less than nothing. He’s trying so hard to control himself that he’s gone completely dark. “This plan makes sense, and you know it. If they think we might comply, they might not try to assassinate you. This buys us time.”
“I almost killed James Barrasso,” I tell Vic, and he goes very still. “I took out a knife, but Cal stopped me. Just so you know, the guy’s pissed. He’s out for blood now.” I wait a split-second before I decide to add, “Unlike you, I have trouble pretending to be attracted to someone else.”
“Mm,” Vic murmurs, nodding like he’s got me all figured out. He even has the audacity to chuckle. “You still haven’t quite learned to control your temper. That’s why you’re struggling.”
I give him a look, because the all-knowing leader persona is the last part of Victor I feel like talking to right now.
“Tell me the angle, Vic, or I’ll walk right in there and beat the shit out of Trinity Jade.”
“Hah,” he says, stepping away from me and holding his hands up, palms out. “You don’t have the balls.” Victor turns and takes off down the hallway, heading back into the lounge area as I fume behind him. I’m not so stupid that I can’t see when I’m being played.
You want me to beat Trinity up? I think, smirking. Fucking fine. Wish granted, you dick.
I follow after Victor and find that Trinity’s already dragged him into the middle of the room for another dance. There’s some old Daddy Yankee song on now, something from forever ago that still sounds current—in a bad way, that is. God, this song sucks.
