Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #5) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,35

and then turned. In that case, you have to hit for the groin, palm strike to the ear, then kick him directly in the dick.” Cal smiles again, but his eyes darken with remembered violence. “Piece of shit. The only reason that I kicked his ass is because I’m in love.”

I flush all over and give him a look, one that he returns with a steady, even stare.

“It’s true. I have a reason to win.” Cal turns back to the spray as Victor snorts and I glance back to find Oscar frowning slightly.

“There’s no way James Barrasso managed to get his father’s second to take part in some half-assed plan. Ophelia and Trinity are bullshitting us for sure. They knew this was coming.” Oscar tucks his iPad back under his arm. “Maxwell knew about this.”

“They were after Stacey’s crew,” I say, because I haven’t even had a chance to tell Vic how the whole thing started. I bite my thumbnail and look up at Oscar. “She had a slip for Principal Vaughn’s office; I saw her in the hall just before she got shot.”

“And you were in the hall why?” Oscar purrs at me, and though I try my best to smirk, the expression just won’t form the way it’s supposed to. I’m too nervous, I think.

“I told Mr. Darkwood I was going to write a paper about the patriarchal influence on women’s opinions of pubic hair.” I shrug my shoulders as Oscar cocks a sharp brow at me and Hael howls with laughter from behind him. “Anyway, Vaughn must’ve called Stacey to his office. Either Mr. Darkwood was in on it, and sending me to Vaughn’s office was part of the master plan, or else I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be.”

Jesus. How many fucking times can a girl get ganked during her senior year?

“If it weren’t for your text, Blackbird,” Hael begins, stepping up between Oscar and Vic. “I’d probably be dead. First shooter appeared about twenty seconds later; I barely made it out of the classroom.”

“Well then, you should thank Stacey; she saved all our lives.” I pause as I think about Mr. Darkwood. Him, too. I have no idea if he’s dead or not, but I hope not. I’ll let the guy dock a few points off my next assignment for the word ebon. I don’t mind. “Actually, never mind. You can thank me, too. In dick.” I gesture at him with the joint, and he snorts. But then I catch sight of Aaron’s face behind him and I just know that I can’t keep my new secret for long.

No lies, no secrets, right? That’s Havoc policy.

My stomach churns with nerves. Two guys down, three to go … Only, I’m pretty sure these three are going to make a way bigger deal out of it than necessary. Vic with his possessive desire to impregnant me (fucking gross), Oscar with his emotional intimacy issues, and Hael with all his previous baby mama drama.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

I take another drag on the joint and attempt to avoid staring at Cal’s tight ass.

“Oh, don’t worry about asking for dick, princess. You’ll get plenty of it.” Vic lights up a cigarette and smirks at me. “If I were you, I’d be asking for get out of jail free cards instead.”

I flip him off, but my mind is already spinning with possibilities.

Ophelia made a deal with Trinity—likely by blackmailing her about being a brother-fucker—to marry Vic. This would, if she could pull it off, effectively give her a portion of the inheritance. She clearly has some connection with the GMP as well, likely also in regard to her mother’s money. So why send goons after us if they were already winning?

“They weren’t there to hurt Vic,” I muse, thinking on it for a moment as I taste the bitter tang of marijuana smoke on my tongue. The THC tingles as I pull in another hit, savoring the fruity flavor of it. Swear to fuck, whatever the strain of weed is, be it Pineapple Express or Pink Cookies or what the hell ever, it tastes exactly the way it’s named. “The GMP, I mean. I bet they were going to leave Victor alive.”

“You think they just wanted to clean house?” Vic clarifies, and I nod, struggling to find all the pieces and put them together in some kind of order that makes sense. In order to fight an enemy that’s stronger than you, you have to understand them. Subterfuge over brute strength.

And this, this