Page 98 of Anarchy at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys 4)
Callum just keeps on smiling in that enigmatic way of his, and I see a visible shudder ripple through Jimmy.
“No, she wasn’t,” he says, just like that, nice and simple. Cal bends down and puts his hands on his thighs, his tone patronizing. “Now, keep going before I decide to end this party early by revealing just who the murderer actually is.”
Jimmy scowls, storming down the hallway but then startling when he runs into Oscar. Not sure he even saw him through the shadows; the hallway lights above us are bright but there are no lights on in the entryway. It gives this optical illusion that there’s nothing beyond the end of the hallway but the depthless dark.
Oscar shifts out of the way as Cal and I move down the hall toward him.
“I had a knife in my hand. I think I was going to kill him,” I admit, but the reason I sound so sorry isn’t because of that douchebag kid that thinks his father’s gang makes him hot shit. It’s because of Kali, and they both know it. I feel like I’ve let them down, like I’m not as much of a Havoc girl as I thought.
“I wonder if we should?” Oscar asks, but Cal is already shaking his head.
“There are men all over this property,” he says, lighting a cigarette in the dark. “We shouldn’t kill anyone.” Cal pauses, breathes deeply, smiles again. “Here, I mean. We shouldn’t kill anyone here.”
I remember how terrified he looked on Halloween night, when he killed Danny Ensbrook with a baseball bat studded with nails. Callum is a careful monster. He’d never leave blood on the floor of a too-white art gallery.
“I can’t stand seeing Victor with that girl,” I tell them, glancing over and finding them both staring at me. Oscar’s head is tilted down just slightly, and I know he can see me above his glasses, a blurred figure with bloodred tips for hair. “My jealousy of his pretend seduction sort of ruined my own pretend seduction.” I sigh and reach up to ruffle my hair. Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath. “Though, based on my limited interactions with the creep, I don’t think he knows much.”
I open my eyes.
“Just a spoiled prince,” Oscar muses and Cal nods, like he’d already had that thought about James Barrasso.
“Pathetic,” he agrees, reaching down to take my hand. I love the way he does that, reaches for me like he can’t believe he’s allowed to touch me. His palm is hot, violence brimming in the center like a ball of dark magic summoned to the surface of his skin. “There’s nothing here worth anything. No people, no information.”
“Except for whatever Vic can get out of Trinity,” Oscar says, and there’s something about the way he says it that makes me sick.
“Where is Victor?” I choke, wondering all of a sudden if I’ve misjudged everything. If I don’t know Vic Channing at all. How far would he go to execute a plan? Would he … he’d never fuck an awful bitch just to prove a point, right?
I take off before Oscar can answer, finding Hael in the kitchen area, sweet-talking some girl who won’t remember which direction is up and which is down when he’s done with her. Our eyes meet as I slow down and he gives me this long, exaggerated sort of wink. I feel momentarily breathless.
How can I keep hold of so many men? I wonder, hating that that’s the way I think, how I was raised and brought up. How do I keep them? instead of how do I make sure they know what I’m worth and how lucky they are?
I keep walking, finding Aaron in the same place I left him, leaning against the wall and nursing a drink that someone must’ve fetched for him. He looks at me, his eyes making me feel dizzy and off-kilter.
“He’s in the other room,” Aaron tells me, like he’s pissed off on my behalf. I move down the steps into the sunken lounge, across the plush rugs piled on the old hardwood floor, and then up the steps on the other side. There’s a sunroom where people are dancing, surrounded by bright green plants that shouldn’t look so fucking happy in the dead of winter.
Vic is dancing with Trinity in the center of the room.
I watch them for a minute, but I can’t see Vic’s face, just his back. His shoulders are tense, but his body seems to be moving just fine. I know it’s all a game. I know that. Just like I let James follow me around and mix me a drink. I’m sure Victor’s giving Trinity that intense, obsidian stare of his and making her feel like the only woman in the world while simultaneously imagining ways to get rid of her.
