dead front lawn of some trash heap in South Prescott. There's a sea of rusted-out vehicles, a mobile home with rotten siding, and some bitchy dark-haired girl I'm pretty sure I beat the snot out of last year. What's her name, some guy's name turned girlish by adding an ie at the end. Billie?
Vic chuckles, and the sound rumbles through me in the best possible way, taking over every part of my body and delving inside. Vic's laugh owns my blood, my bones. What the hell is gonna happen when we fuck for the first time?
“What did you expect? Bloomingdale's?” He snorts as he climbs off the bike, and I follow after him.
I’m not about to dignify that response with an answer, so I stay on his heels as Hael peels into the lot and damn near runs me over with that stupidly beautiful car of his. I go to slam my fist on the hood as we pass, and Vic grabs me by the wrist.
His dark eyes are deadly serious when I look up into them.
“Don’t ever touch Hael’s ride without his permission,” he warns, pulling me along after him as Billie rises to her feet and stretches, popping her ass out like a cat in heat.
“Well, hello there, Victor Channing,” she purrs, sauntering over to him and flipping her dark hair, so that I can see the teal color underneath. Her brown eyes slide from him to me, and she frowns. “What can I help you with?”
“We need a dress for my fiancée,” he says, just like that, matter-of-fact and without a single shred of emotion. The stare he levels on Billie is intense, so much so that I almost take a step back. Almost. But then, I’m not scared of the Havoc Boys, not anymore.
“Your fiancée?” she asks, blinking stupidly at first me, then him. “Seriously?”
“Did I fucking stutter?” Vic says, his voice sharp enough to cut. Billie takes a step back as the other boys come up the rickety stairs behind us. “Let us in.”
Billie turns and scrambles to unlock the door, holding it wide and waiting until all six of us have moved inside before she shuts and locks it. She glares at me as she passes, and I flip her off, tattooed hand held high. Vic stiffens, but I guess he accepts that I can handle my business and doesn’t intervene.
“Right this way,” she says, leading me through what’s actually a surprisingly nice interior and into a side room that’s filled with clothing in garment bags, metal racks with hanging poles on all four walls. “What are you looking for, exactly?”
“We’ll take a look and let you know,” Vic says, moving confidently into the room. Somewhere further back in the house, a baby cries, and Billie hesitates.
“That means leave, and we’ll pay you on the way out,” Callum says, towering over her in his hoodie and shorts. Billie’s face registers a true moment of fear before she scampers off. Pretty sure her kid is like, a year and a half old. She had him sophomore year with some guy who’s in prison now.
At least I managed to avoid that particular fate.
My eyes slide to Aaron’s, and he looks away, green eyes dark, like maybe he had the same thought I did. We were never careful, hardly used birth control. It’s a miracle I didn’t end up like Billie Charter.
She shuts the door behind us as Oscar starts flipping through dresses.
“Boss,” he says, after systematically discarding a good two dozen dresses before he pulls one off the rack. The other guys make themselves comfortable, like they could care less what I wear, but are determined to be here regardless.
That’s Havoc for you, blood in, blood out.
Oscar unzips the plastic, flashing a white dress with long sleeves, but a low-cut back. I’ve got ink all down my arms, a little on my breasts and neck, but none on my back just yet. He knows my body too well; it’s almost scary. That is, if I were capable of being afraid of anything anymore.
“This'll do,” Vic confirms, taking the dress from Oscar's inked hand and studying it carefully. “My mother's a sucker for money, and this screams loaded.” He tosses it at me and nods with his chin. “Put it on.”
There's a challenge in Vic's dark eyes that I meet head-on. He thinks I'm going to shy away from something as stupid as this?
I've been stripped bare in my heart and soul, had my emotions torn off