Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #5) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,180

life that I have to invite to today’s ceremony is the Vice Principal of my old school should have me feeling bereft in some way. Like, I have no parents, no siblings but for Heather who will be participating in today’s festivities with her own class.

The thing is, it’s impossible to feel bereft when you have the Havoc Boys.

“Alright, ladies, it’s time to get up,” Aaron tells the girls, nestled together on an air mattress in what’s essentially Oscar’s office. And by office, I mean he has the desk, the chair, and the bookcase that came with the apartment and nothing else in there. None of us thought to decorate for such a short stay.

And after this …

Well, the plan for tonight is to stay here one last time. Tomorrow, we’ll move our things back to Aaron’s place to stay with Marie who still refuses to get on a plane to Louisiana. Whether that’s because she loves her son too much to be parted from him or something else, I’m not sure. All I know is that Hael has spent every single day on the phone with her since we moved her out of their house in Four Corners.

She even came up to the school once, last week, for a parents’ luncheon thing. Callum allowed his grandmother to come, and it was the first time I’d ever seen the woman with my own eyes. Unfortunately, Ophelia also showed up and so Victor was left at a table with her and Trinity and Samuel Jade while the rest of us orphans crowded at our own table.

Anyway, Victor’s grandmother’s house is now ours officially—although I’m pretty sure it was ours from the moment we had a bloodletting orgy inside of it—but the construction on that is going to take a while. Also, it can’t start until we have the inheritance money.

Just five more months to go, I remind myself, but it still feels like a hell of a long time when everything about Ophelia and Maxwell and the GMP is so uncertain.

The raid today has to go off as planned or I don’t know what the fuck else we’re going to do.

“I’m tired,” Heather whines as she storms past me with nine-year-old attitude that puts my seventeen-year-old one to shame. The bathroom door opens and slams shut, and then I hear the shower running.

Ashley ends up crawling onto the couch and laying her head in Oscar’s lap.

He goes completely still for a moment, like he might bolt, like he might throw his coffee cup at the wall and take off running and never look back. Instead, he forces himself to calm down and rests his palm on the top of her head.

Aaron actually stumbles when he passes by the couch and sees what’s going on. Oscar lifts his eyes up to his friend’s and then holds out his coffee cup.

“If you wouldn’t mind pouring me another,” he says mildly, but there’s a certain quality to his voice that promises this scene isn’t as easy as it appears. Still, he plays the part admirably, remaining still until Ashley finally gets bored and sits up, leaving room for Kara to take the end spot on the same sofa.

Victor is the next one awake, pausing in the kitchen for a little brandy-laced coffee before stopping in front of the wall of windows and staring out at the campus the way he likes to do sometimes, usually when he thinks we’re all asleep. More than once, I’ve caught him doing that, gazing contemplatively at a distant sky. Sometimes, I leave him alone to his thoughts, but other times, I come up and slide my arms around his waist. Occasionally, we even fuck against the glass.

“Anything new to report?” Vic asks after Hael and Callum drag their asses from the bedroom to join us.

“Nothing on my end,” Hael yawns as he digs through the fridge looking for a snack. There’s a formal breakfast in the cafeteria this morning with, like, student awards and speeches and shit, but none of us cares to attend that. Pomp and circumstance just isn’t our thing. “Eggs okay?” he asks, and there’s a scattered chorus of affirmative grunts.

“The VGTF are mobilizing vehicles. Our crew says the city is absolutely crawling with cops. It’s happening today. They’ve even got the helicopters on standby.” Oscar exchanges his coffee for his iPad as Ashley and Kara squabble over some online game they’re playing together. They hardly pay attention to us when we talk business.

“Good,” Vic