Page 13 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
“Usually,” he agrees, and then he bends down next to the girls. “We’re going to let the two of you go back to the party,” he tells them, his long, inked fingers tapping against the glass of his iPad. “But if you say one word, if you make one misstep, I will be there waiting for you in the dark. Do you understand?”
“We understand,” the blonde whispers, pulling the other girl close. “I grew up in the southside.”
Oscar seems to think that’s explanation enough, rising to his feet.
Hael hooks a thumb in the direction of the doors at the end of the hall, where the two Havoc Crew girls are waiting outside.
“Skedaddle, ladies,” he says casually, and Logan’s girls scramble to their feet, heels loud against the floor as they run as fast as their stilettos will carry them. The doors open, close. Logan makes some awful, awful gurgling sounds.
And then it’s all over.
“Help me with the body,” Vic says after a few seconds. He stands up, and Cal and Hael move forward to assist him. Me, I’m wearing a pink party dress and stilettos. Silly me. When I picked this outfit out, I thought I’d be snorting cocaine with five Havoc Boys, not murdering one Charter boy. What a dumb mistake to make.
I approach the body anyway, bending low to grab one of Logan’s limbs. Vic stops me with a hand on my shoulder and shakes his head, leaving Cal and Hael to do the rest of the dirty work. He slips a cigarette from his pocket and lights up.
“Not you, beautiful girl,” he says around the cigarette. “You owe me a dance.”
My mouth drops open as Vic moves over to the side doors to the gym, the ones blocked with a piece of metal pipe. He waits for Cal and Hael to clear the doors heading outside, Oscar following just behind them, and then removes the blockade.
Victor opens the doors wide, nodding at several members of Havoc that are watching it from the inside, and then reaches back for my wrist.
Despite the fact that I just saw him kill a man with his bare hands, I take those inked fingers and curl my own around them.
“I want Aaron back,” I tell him as he drags me into the middle of the room, spinning me around to face him and putting one big hand on the curve of my waist. With the other, he clutches my hand so tightly it almost hurts. Yet, I do nothing to break that grip; it’s comforting, rather than frightening.
“We’ll get him back, I promise,” he tells me, turning me in time with the music and leaving me with a perfect view of Kali Rose-Kennedy and Sara Young, heading for the exit on the opposite side of the room. “I promise, wife,” he repeats.
And then Vic draws me in close and kisses the last of the breath from my lungs.Aaron FadlerThe woods around the cabin make the perfect cover. The trees grow close together, and the canopy above me is thick and dense. Here and there, I stumble into patches of silver moonlight, but there’s not much else to help me navigate.
Sticking close to the road is both my best bet and my greatest risk. If somebody finds the cabin on fire and decides to come after me, this is the first place they’ll look.
“Motherfucker,” I groan, putting my back against the trunk of a tree. My leg is starting to go numb from the pain, and my right arm is a mess of fire. It hurts to even curl my fingers into a fist. When I lean my head back, I can see a glimpse of the silver-edged moon through the trees.
I wish I had some idea of where, exactly, I am. Even just a general sense of direction would be nice. Instead, I push up off the tree and continue to navigate half-blind and dragging my right leg through the foliage.
Dew-dotted ferns soak my jeans and leave me shivering as I continue to trace the winding dirt road down the hill. The terrain is rough. It’d be a challenge on a good day. And today, well, let’s just say today is not a very good day for me.
Not thirty minutes into this mess, I hear a car on the road and let out a string of curses that’d make even Bernadette blush. The thought makes me smile, but it’s a grim one. As soon as the people in that car discover the house, I’m in deep shit.
Run, Aaron. Forget the pain and just go.
I start to move as fast as I can, pushing my adrenaline reserves to the limit. If I fall and hurt myself any further, it could be a death wish. Chances are if I break a leg, I’m not dragging myself out of these woods alive. Besides the very obvious threat of humanity, there are coyotes, cougars, and bears out here.
