to swallow me up and drown me. But his attention keeps flicking to Aaron. He’s worried, and so am I. My ex-boyfriend doesn’t look so hot right about now. “I’m going to count down from sixty.”
“You don’t want to know why I’m here?” Neil teases, eyes narrowing as his thin lips curl into a smirk. “What Scott’s doing here? He came to me, you know, after you trashed his cabin and made him do all those nasty things on the Internet.”
“Sixty.” Vic nods, and both Callum and Hael step forward to flank him. Nobody’s smiling tonight. Nobody’s reveling in this moment, not like they did before when we went after Don. “Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.”
“Let’s just go, please,” Vaughn says, shaking, his gaze latching on me like I’m the sole party responsible for this mess. “This was a bad idea in the first place. You didn’t tell me they had a video.”
“Fifty-seven.” Vic barely looks like he’s breathing, he’s standing so damn still. Callum’s hood is pulled up over his blond hair, his face bathed in shadows. He probably needs me as much as Aaron does right now, just in a different way. Did you hear yourself, Bernadette? He needs you? Havoc doesn’t fucking need you. And you don’t owe them your emotional energy or support.
And yet here I am, wanting to give it.
My hand curls around Aaron’s arm as he pants beside me, fighting to maintain at least some semblance of power and control.
“We’re at a crossroads here. You move on me, I bury you,” Neil growls out, never taking his eyes off of Vic. “And leave Kali out of it.”
“What about me?” Principal Vaughn bursts out, putting one hand on the mantle to steady himself. “You said you’d help me out of this mess! I helped you when you asked for it.”
“That confession of yours is gone,” Neil says, sniffling and backing up a few feet. My blood chills because I know my stepfather; he’s only telling us what he wants us to hear. See how powerful I am? See what I can do? Don’t you ever forget that I have fingers in many pies. Kali clings to his arm and then turns a poisonous glare on me, dropping her poor-me act for once. There’s no audience around to lap it up, so she doesn’t bother. “That’s all I’ve got. Scott, you’re on your own now.”
Neil turns and takes off for the front door with Kali in tow. Principal Vaughn scrambles after him, and the boys let them go. I realize then that maybe we’re stretched too thin. I did this. I called Havoc, and I started this mess.
I grit my teeth.
The shittiest part about all of this? I actually feel bad about it, like I’m inconveniencing the Havoc Boys. They ruined my life sophomore year. Does it matter what their twisted reasons were, what price Kali paid? They did it, and I suffered, and now here I am praying to what little good is left in the universe that Aaron Fadler doesn’t fucking die on me.
“They’ve all gotten into the cruiser; it’s pulling out of the driveway,” Oscar says, looking out from between the sheer curtains that line the front window. “Off they go down the street.”
“Fuck,” Aaron says, and then he falls. Hard. So hard that I can’t keep him up even though I try. Hael is there in a split-second, grabbing onto his friend’s arm and helping me push him back onto the couch. I climb onto the cushion next to him and start to undo his sweater, helping Hael remove his clothes so we can assess the damage.
“He’s still bleeding,” I murmur as the other boys move in around us. “The bullet’s still in his arm.” My fingers just lightly skim the bruise on his chest, but it’s nowhere near as important as the wound in his left bicep. Or the dead kid we left at the Halloween party. Damn you, Danny Ensbrook, you piece of shit. He just had to do it, huh? Aim that gun at me … “He needs a hospital.”
“Mm,” Vic says, rubbing at his chin, a sign that he’s deep in thought. “Hospitals are full of mandated reporters. A minor with a gunshot wound is bad news for us. It brings inquiries and questions and police reports.”
My head snaps around to level a glare on Havoc’s boss; I must look pretty scary, too, because he raises his eyebrows at me in mock surprise.