our plans slightly,” he says, looking at his tablet. “Our friends have arrived almost two hours early.”
“Friends?” I echo, glancing down the beach at the dune buggy rental place. It's nearly dead today; I don't hear any ATVs or buggies at all. “What friends?”
“Other half of your wedding present,” Hael says, sitting up suddenly and snapping his fingers at me. He bites his lip, honeyed eyes flicking in the direction of the girls. “We'll have to bail early though, or we'll miss our chance.”
“Our chance?” I ask, and Vic grunts.
“Alright, Bernie, go tell Aaron we're leaving.” Victor checks his phone briefly and then looks up at me. “He knows to keep the girls occupied until we’re ready for him to join us at the house.”
“What house?” I ask, trying to blink through my confusion. I love the idea of the guys getting me gifts, but last time they did this, I received my stepfather in a coffin in a very deep hole. A chance to emotionally prepare would be nice. Please just … don't let it be my mother that they've got in their wicked claws. Not yet.
“The Vincents’,” Victor tells me, flashing that signature wicked smile of his. He leans down to kiss me on the cheek, and goose bumps chase across my skin.
Shit.
Did not expect that.
The gentle kiss, I mean.
I totally expected the intrigue.
We're called Havoc for a reason, right?
#
The girls are all too short to legally ride in the dune buggies—not that legality is like, a big concern for us—but Aaron and I both figure that the height requirement is there for a reason. A bit of fun in the sand dunes isn't worth any potential risk to them. Hell, even a broken leg would require a hospital visit which could lead to questions of custody which could lead to Aaron losing his sister and cousin.
“I hate having the last birthday of us all,” he grumbles, sweeping his hair back from his face as he watches the girls make a sandcastle. Technically, he doesn't have the last birthday in Havoc: I do. But guess what? Getting married in Oregon makes you a legally emancipated motherfucking minor.
As is usually the case with Havoc, my marriage to Victor has served two purposes.
These boys do nothing without vicious intent.
“Don't stress,” I say, pausing beside him as Heather glares at me from her spot in the sand. The deal was that we would hang out together on the beach for an hour or two before we rented the dune buggies. But the Vincents have arrived early, and this plan that the boys have come up with relies on us being on the dunes at the same time as them. “We'll get you there.”
“I know,” Aaron says, exhaling and glancing my way with gold-green eyes. Does he know I feel like a charlatan saying that? The guys have fought for years to keep Aaron, Kara, and Ashley together. I'm just now joining in the fight, a fight that maybe I should've been in all along.
They may not have wanted me in Havoc, but I also wasn't strong back then. I'm not sure I could've handled any of this. Maybe the blame isn't so one-sided here, huh?
“We need to go,” Oscar says, annoying the fuck out of me. He's lucky I don't have any weapons on me right now. “If we're late, there's no point in this.”
Gritting my teeth, I give Aaron's arm one, last squeeze, hating myself for not having spoken to him about Oscar yet. It feels like cheating, and I don't like that. I mean, I know it's not, and we've just been busy as shit lately, but that doesn't make me feel any less bad about it.
“Period dick,” I snap at Oscar as I walk by him, flipping my hair into his face. Either I just can't hear his reaction over the waves or else he knows better than to talk back to me after just being scolded by Victor.
“Your ass, those shorts, holy motherfucker,” Hael murmurs, and when I glance back at him, I see him sucking on his lower lip. I give him a coy smile, ignoring Vic’s dark glare, and turn back around, making sure to toss and ruffle my hair with my fingers. My cheeks are most definitely hanging out of these shorts; my top is most definitely riding up to expose just a hint of my belly button. I learned a long time ago that monsters will hunt you and eat you, whether you