Havoc at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #1) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,58
ended up with Billie on one side and Kali on the other, seven of their minions crowded in next to the sinks. Kali taunted me for a bit, and then Billie whipped out a knife. Not much else to tell.”
“Taunted you how?” Vic asks, pushing my sweatshirt sleeve up my arm and smearing blood everywhere. He examines the wound for a moment, curses, and then gets to work with some antiseptic wipes. They sting so goddamn bad that I have to bite my lip to keep quiet.
I'm not letting Victor Channing know how much it hurts, no way.
“Kali claims you made her a similar deal to the one you gave me: her body for your cooperation in turning my entire shitty life inside out.” My voice quavers a bit as Vic pinches the edges of the wound, trying to get a read on how deep it is. He scoffs at me as he tosses the wipes aside, snatching up a curved needle and some thread.
My brows go up, but I'm determined not to show how afraid I suddenly am. Stitches? I've had stitches before, after the Thing punched me as hard as he could in the side of my face. There's a scar, just beneath my hairline. I was so young that the memory's blurred around the edges, but I remember it hurt like a bitch. And that was with numbing agents.
“Here,” Vic says, pulling a flask from the back pocket of his pants and passing it over to me. “Take a swig of whiskey and get ready to hurt.”
He kneels down beside me as I unscrew the flask, taking it in my left hand as I turn my gaze away and throw back a burning swig. The alcohol sears my throat going down at the same moment Vic shoves the needle into my skin.
“Fuck.” The word manages to slip past my carefully sealed lips as my eyes close against the pain. In and out, Vic pierces my skin over and over again, sealing me up, and cutting off the flow of blood. The flask is empty by the time he finishes, cutting off the end of the thread and tying a tight knot.
“We'll need to take these out in a week or two,” he says, his voice dark, his thoughts far away. I watch as he rises to his feet and heads into the kitchen to wash my blood from his hands.
“Are you going to tell me about Kali or not?” I ask, because I can't take the dark little demons inside my head. They know that Kali Rose is a liar. But yet, I can't get them to stop.
“Now isn't the time,” Vic says, and the deep, authoritative way that he speaks just infuriates me. He doesn't just get to decide the fate of the whole world like that. “I'm taking you back to school.”
“Not until you tell me about Kali,” I say, just as the skies open up and rain begins to pour from the clouds. Slowly, Vic glances over his shoulder at me, carefully drying his hands with a dishtowel. He tosses it into the sink, and then turns toward me, moving slowly across the ugly carpet.
“If I tell you that now isn't the time, then it isn't.” Vic's face is hard as he stares me down. “I thought we'd moved past this bullshit: what I say goes in Havoc. It's how we function, how we succeed. It's how we stay alive.”
“I can only take so much,” I whisper, my voice darkening as I swipe a hand over my stitches and cringe at the sudden rush of pain. It'll scar, that mark. I'm going to fucking destroy those bitches. But then it occurs to me that the boys will probably destroy them first. “How can I go back to class with Kali's voice echoing in my head, her fucking taunting …” I turn away for a moment, painfully aware that Vic and I are alone again. Last time, he kissed me and told me we needed each other. What'll happen this time? “Did you really ask to fuck her in exchange for torturing me?”
Vic snorts and when I glance back, he's shaking his head at me, raking his fingers through his dark hair.
“Jesus Christ, Bernadette,” he says, turning and heading for the front door without answering me. I lunge forward and grab onto his arm, digging my nails into the inked muscles as he stops and stiffens up.