Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #5) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,12

out. It occurs to me that if Prescott High—a very public place that was actively being watched by cops—is a target for the GMP then Aaron’s house is no longer safe.

We’re going to have to move.

Shit.

“Would you mind walking me in?” I ask, raising a brow as I lean down and stare at her across the interior of the maroon-colored Subaru she’s driving. No way in hell this is her real car. It’s gotta be a rental. “I’d rather not get ganked by a member of the GMP.”

I shut the door before she can respond, but I’m not surprised when she follows me. As I glance over my shoulder, I see Detective Constantine in a car just down the block. He’s watching us which is unsurprising.

Everything I do from now on is going to be carefully observed and recorded.

I move up the walk and unlock the front door, bringing Sara with me. I’m sure if she doesn’t have a search warrant for this place yet, she’ll get one soon enough. Her eyes are brimming with curiosity as the door swings open, and I turn on the lamp near the sofa.

“Not quite the gangbanging shithole you expected, huh?” I ask, turning around and watching as she takes in the simple living room, the dining table with a spray of fresh flowers in the vase, the Christmas tree in the corner we have yet to take down.

“It’s a nice house,” Sara says, waiting near the front door until Detective Constantine and both uniformed officers join her. They begin a sweep of the house, starting with the downstairs. The weed is in a locked cabinet in the converted garage area, and the whole back corner of the house reeks of it. But it is technically legal in Oregon, even if it’s still illegal federally. What a joke, making a medicinal plant a schedule one narcotic. But I’m too stressed out about my boys to go on one of my usual political rants.

I go for the stairs next, ignoring Sara when she calls out for me to wait.

When I get halfway up, I can hear it: the shower’s running.

I sprint up the last few steps as fast as I can, taking advantage of the broken lock on the door to fling it open. It smashes into the wall and I see Victor Channing under a stream of hot water, one hand on the wall, his eyes closed. He glances up at me, his dark gaze slicing through me like a knife. I want to bleed for him. I want to belong to him. More than anything, I want to be his queen.

“Bernadette,” he breathes, looking past me to where Sara is now standing. I glance back at her and see her face flush as she curses and turns away. Heh. Guess even hardened FBI agents are red-blooded women underneath it all. Vic might be eighteen, but he’s a man in every way that matters.

“Would you mind putting some clothes on?” Sara asks after she turns her back on us. What trust she has, to turn her back on the queen and king of Havoc.

“I’d rather not, thanks,” Vic says, giving me a smirking half-smile. That’s a good sign, right? If he’s smiling like that? The other boys must be okay. They just have to be, right? Because my story is incomplete without them. Then again, I know better than anyone that real life makes zero narrative sense.

Not everything can be tied up in a beautiful bow.

Sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes really bad things happen.

“Are you the only one here?” Sara asks as Vic grudgingly pulls the shower curtain closed.

“Just me,” he says which reignites some of that awful sinking feeling inside of me. It’s like … all those butterflies that broke from their cocoons and took off in flight because of the boys, they’re dying. Fragile wings are broken. The beautiful dust of their scales flaking off and stolen away by the wind.

“Do you know the whereabouts of Callum Park?”

Sara’s next question gives me pause.

“What do you mean by that?” I ask, alarm pitching my voice an octave higher than it should be. My dark avenger, my broken fairy-tale prince with a crown made of bones. Why the fuck is she asking about him specifically?

“He was at school today, was he not?” Sara asks, turning back around to look at me. “He’s the only one of your … crew, is it? Anyway, he’s the only one we haven’t been able to locate.”

I just stare