was thinking we start off by paying your stepfather’s partner a visit.”
My head perks up at that, and I turn to stare at Vic like he’s just suggested he perform his own circumcision.
“You’re kidding me? You want to go talk to a cop about another cop? Do you have a death wish? Or perhaps just a dream of incarceration?”
Victor ignores me to glance Oscar’s way.
“You really think she can be of use to us?” Vic asks, and Oscar nods.
“Neil Pence’s partner, Sara Young, is one of those save the world types. She thought she could make a difference by becoming a cop.” Oscar chuckles, like that’s one of the most ridiculous things he’s ever heard. “She wants to save the world. I figure, either I’m right about her and she’ll want to seek justice or, she’s as dirty as he is, in which case, she dies, too.”
Dies.
There’s that word again.
It’d be pretty easy to think the Havoc Boys might just go down my list and start executing people. But killing folks has a tendency to draw attention. They like to inflict damage without leaving permanent marks, just like they did to me. Like they did to Donald. Or Principal Vaughn.
But if anyone were going to die, they had to know it was going to be him.
“You want to tell her about Neil and … what? Wait for her to go vigilante? To report him through official means?” I look up from my eggs and find that Hael’s fallen asleep again. Oscar glances his way, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Guess even that heartless asswipe figures the other boys need their sleep after a night of unburying, and then re-burying, bodies.
“You’re not going to tell her anything just yet. You’re just going to talk to her.” Oscar leans back into the couch, watching me with empty gray eyes and giving me the chills. He’s gearing up to something; I just have no idea what, exactly, that is. “Confide in her, make her your friend. You can handle that, can’t you, Bernie?” Oscar asks, but then, he doesn’t get to hear my answer because Victor’s phone rings. He glances at the screen, still casually slumped into the old sofa.
“Mitch,” he purrs, and I wish I could truly describe the way Vic smiles then. There are demons there, twisting up the edges of his lips. It isn’t a natural or normal smile and yet, my blood pressure spikes as soon as I see that malicious expression spread across his handsome face. It’s pure … I don’t want to say evil, because Victor is far from evil. Real evil, I’ve seen that, in the Thing’s face, in Eric’s bleeding scowl, in Kali’s pink painted sneers. But it’s something dark and wicked, something that glitters like the edge of a bloodstained blade. By the time he answers with a curt “Yeah”, I’m soaking wet.
“You sociopathic nightmare!” Mitch screams, now on speakerphone. Hael startles awake, his hand snaking underneath the cushion, likely to grab a weapon of some sort. He cracks one brown eye to watch Vic set the phone down on the coffee table. Victor leans forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasping his hands together in front of him. “We’ve been fucking with you until now. You’ve just opened the floodgates, motherfucker.”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Victor asks, completely deadpan. His entire stance though, that speaks to violence. I take a bite of my eggs to hide the involuntary shiver that passes through me.
“You think I wouldn’t notice the goddamn corpse you put in my trunk? Are you nuts? You’re lucky I’ve got Kyler and Timmy on a short leash or you’d already be dead, motherfucker.”
“Try a different word. You’ve used motherfucker twice,” Vic says, and I hear the crash of something on the other end of the line. Mitch is clearly in a mood. Maybe he should’ve thought about what could happen when he decided to challenge Havoc? “And slow down. A corpse? What corpse? Should I notify the police?”
“You are going to bleed for this. I’m going to hold your girl down and fuck her until she begs me to end her life. You hear me, Victor?” Mitch is panting and cursing; I hear voices in the background but they’re too faint to make out.
Vic’s eyes narrow, and his face darkens into something truly terrifying. I hear Mitch’s words, but they pass over me like a light breeze. How many times have men threatened to rape me?