Victory at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #5) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,49

in half. “It wasn’t for assaulting me, was it? And it wasn’t for Neil’s murder either.”

There’s a long pause before Sara sighs, like she’s had a long debate with herself on what she might tell me if I should ask. But she still thinks she can build trust with me, that she can get me to confide in her.

“Bernadette … I had your mother arrested on multiple counts. Namely, I’m focused on her connection to Neil and the GMP.” There’s a long, dangerous pause here. I barely recognize the sound of my own breathing. “But I think what you’re asking is, was she arrested on suspicion of murdering your sister?”

Frankly, I’m not sure how to respond to that.

“I left you one page in the box,” Sara tells me, and I feel that strange twisting inside my chest. Like with Ms. Keating. The part of me that still wants to believe is intrigued. The rest of me thinks we should bury Police Girl six feet deep. “You come to your own conclusions, but you’ll hear more once the case progresses. For now, unless she posts bail, your mother is in the jail at the county courthouse.”

I hang up before Sara can say anything else.

Glancing down at the page in my hand, I wonder why I didn’t just tell the Havoc Boys to put Pam into the coffin with Neil.

“You alright, Mrs. Channing?” Vic asks, coming up behind me and putting his hot hands on my upper arms. As soon as he touches me, my numbness shatters to glass. It hits the floor with a sound like bells as I turn my head back to look at him.

“Sara Young offered me a plea deal,” I say, and Vic’s hands tighten almost imperceptibly.

“Yeah? What were the terms?”

I turn back around toward him.

“I don’t give a fuck what the terms were. I don’t work for the cops. I only work for Havoc.” I stare back at my husband, the head of heads when it comes to this five-headed hydra beast that is Havoc. He stares right back at me, and that magnetic pull that both pushes us together and launches us leagues apart, I can feel it and it almost hurts. “Pretty sure she wants me to testify against my mother.”

“For?” Vic asks, glancing over at Oscar. He’s wearing one of his suits again, as polished and perfect as always. He gave me everything and then he panicked. But I was there, and I felt his heart beating against my back. He most certainly has a strong one. I’ll let him act the lead part in his personal plays all he wants when we’re around other people. But alone, I want to see that skeleton masked ripped clean off.

“Murdering my sister for one,” I say, and then I lift up the page from Penelope’s notebook. I release it into Victor’s hand. Our fingers, when they brush, create sparks. He stares at the page for a minute and then looks up at me. I’m so fucking numb without you, Vic. “She … how …” I pause, and my mind strays back to that night where Penelope stared Pam straight in the eye and told her about the dress. “I took it, and I sold it.”

And then the image of her, lying on her bed, wrapped up in blankets … Pamela’s pills on her nightstand.

Pamela’s pills …

Pamela’s …

Victor reaches out and uses two fingers to lift the chain from inside of my shirt, the one with his grandmother’s ring hanging from it. I don’t move; I don’t speak. I just stare into his ebon eyes and let myself fall. He’ll catch me. That much, I know for sure.

He spins the chain around so that he can access the clasp, unhooking it and then taking the ring off. Victor slides it back down my ring finger.

“Pamela and not Neil,” he says, like even he’s surprised by this one. He looks down at the water bottle sticking out of my pants. It’s just an old glass bottle with the label removed, something one of the boys probably dug out of the recycling. But, heat it up under the tap to make sure the glass doesn’t break when you pour in the boiling water, and you’re golden. His eyes lift up to my face. “What do you want us to do?”

Pamela is at the county jail.

On suspicion of murdering my sister.

But the VGTF is investigating the Grand Murder Party.

Neil was involved with the GMP; Pamela likely was, too. She