sign that says Coffee. It used to be a bakery, but everything else they served was crap, so they scrapped that part of the business and now just sell cups of coffee for a dollar out an old drive-thru window.
I take it, eyeing Sara warily as she stands there with her blond hair in a bun, her face cool and composed as it usually is. I’m aware that I’m balancing on the fine edge of a knife, caught somewhere between victim and perpetrator in the black-and-white depths of her mind.
“Your nails look amazing,” she offers as I lift the cup to my lips, the little ring on the end of my pointer finger catching a stray shaft of early morning sunlight. It’s Friday now, February seventh. It should be a normal school day, but there’s nothing normal after a school shooting, is there? Just a shaken and altered reality that makes you question everything you know about the world at large.
“Can’t take credit,” I say with a shrug of one shoulder. “One of Stacey’s girl’s aunts did it for me. Also, we draw heavily on black culture here in Prescott, so I kind of need to acknowledge that, too.”
Sara just stares back at me and blinks her doe-like eyes. Constantine stands about ten steps behind her, scowling and flicking his eyes around like he’s preparing to be mugged or shot at any moment. To be fair, he’d probably deserve it. I’m not certain that anyone in this neighborhood has had a positive experience with a cop.
Victor appears behind me, a six-foot-five monster of a man that I’m happy to take on as a personal shadow. He frowns down at police girl, shirtless and clearly annoyed at her intrusion. We all slept in, gathered together in one room for protection. Or so the boys say. Personally, I’d keep them with me every night, all the time, if I were to have my way.
“QUEEN OF THE FREAKS” by AViVA is playing on my new phone, left on the coffee table and turned up as loud as it can go. It makes me smile at Police Girl as she looks between Vic and me. This is my motherfucking personal anthem.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of your visit?” Vic says, letting the words roll off his tongue like a threat. Constantine moves a few steps forward but is at least intelligent enough not to provoke Victor. “Here to give us back our phones?”
Sara smiles. It’s a pleasant smile but no less dangerous than the wickedness etched into Victor’s face. It’s a threat, a challenge.
“We found the bodies in the apartment buildings, thanks to your boyfriend’s tip,” Sara says, and again, I have to give her credit for referring to Callum as my boyfriend when my husband is standing right behind. Vic just blinks at her as I glance up at him, returning my attention to Police Girl and smiling.
“And?” I query, wondering why she’s here when she could have easily called my new phone. I gave her the number when we left Aaron’s house. My chest tightens. Already, I miss our little refuge in the middle of suburbia. There was a certain sense of coziness in those walls that is most definitely missing from the safe house. Partially, I know I owe that coziness to Heather, Kara, and Ashley. My heart spasms slightly, and I exhale. Vic brought up the idea of Oak Valley again yesterday, but even though the thought of attending some snooty ass prep school makes me want to upchuck all over Sara Young’s sensible sneakers, I can’t shake the idea that he’s right.
We need a school and Prescott is shut indefinitely. They district has suggested online schooling for the rest of the year, the way they did back in the days of the ‘rona virus. Lord knows that if they manage to implement that, it’ll be a joke. Most of the kids that attend Prescott don’t have a safe place to study, a device to study on, or a reliable internet connection. In short, they’re about to get butt-rammed by the heavy hand of society. While Oak Valley Prep students enjoy university level education in their palace on the hill, the poor suffer and flail in the dregs.
“And one of the bodies we recovered was Russ Bauer, one of the enforcers for the Grand Murder Party. I’d love to pick Callum’s brain and figure out how a high school student managed to take down a man that we’ve