Havoc at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #1) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,88

we can't swing by the drive-in? If you ask, I'm sure he'll say yes.” Cal chuckles again, and I frown.

“I'm not following the joke,” I say, but Callum just laughs and neither of the other guys offer up an explanation. Instead, we head straight to Aaron's, even as Callum bitches incessantly about being hungry. Vic is already waiting for us in one of the chairs on the lawn, smoking a cigarette and frowning so deeply I wonder if the expression might end up etched into that pretty face of his.

“Boss, let's order food,” Callum says, and Vic carefully lifts his dark gaze from me to his friend. Cal puts his hands in a prayer position and waits until his leader casually sighs and nods once. “Pizza, I think. Yeah, I'm feeling pizza.”

I study Callum as he slips his hood off. He's always wearing baggy tops, but his legs are muscular and trim under his black shorts, and he's got a much leaner build than most of the other guys. A series of deep scars mars his legs, the wounds old, the flesh shiny and healed over, but a clear sign of past trauma. I wonder what happened to him?

“He eats like a horse and still has a dancer's body,” I grumble as Callum disappears into the house, and I notice that Vic stiffens up slightly beside me, glancing my direction. “I'm a little envious.”

“How so?” Vic asks, his voice dark, sharp, dangerous. A hot thrill chases up my spine as he rakes that ebony gaze over me. “You're in perfect shape. Don't you think so, Hael?”

Hael pauses next to us as Oscar sighs and slips in the front door, leaving the three of us alone on the lawn. “I mean, you got a good look yesterday, didn't you? And again today?”

Hael's honey-colored eyes shift my direction and he licks his lower lip, flexing his tattooed fist around his car keys.

“She has a perfect body,” he agrees, looking from me to Vic, like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Victor just scoffs, flicks his cigarette into the grass, and stands up, heading into the house and leaving the two of us behind. “Fuck,” Hael murmurs, gritting his teeth. “We're in trouble; he's pissed.”

“Why?” I ask, and Hael looks at me like I'm a crazy person. He opens his mouth like he's about to answer me when Aaron pulls into the driveway, and Kara spills out the back door of the van with her cousin in tow.

“Movie night and popcorn!” she yells, pausing next to me and grinning. “Our favorite babysitter is coming over tonight.”

“So I hear,” I say, pretending that I don't feel her brother's eyes on me, taking me in, judging me. I stroke Kara's hair back, the same, wavy silken texture as Aaron's. “Do you mind if Heather joins you guys?” Kara's grin lights up her face as she glances back at Ashley, shyly clinging to Aaron's pant leg.

“She can join. You, too, if you want.”

“I appreciate that,” I say as Aaron picks Ashley up and carries her past me, tearing his gaze away and acting like he doesn't see me standing there. Whatever.

“Ladies first,” Hael mimics, repeating his words from earlier. I turn to find him with his arm out, gesturing for me to head inside. I do, and the normalcy of Aaron's house falls over me like a curtain. There's no tension in these walls, no hate, no ragged screams broken up only by dry wall. No Thing.

“Where are we off to tonight?” I ask Oscar, pausing in the living room as Callum slumps on the couch and orders pizza on his phone app, Aaron disappears upstairs with the girls, and Hael gets himself a beer from the fridge.

“We have too many open business transactions,” he says, looking at me through his black-framed glasses and smiling. Someone with glasses shouldn't look so scary, but Oscar Montauk, well, he manages to pull it off just fine. “We're going to start cleaning things up.”

“I thought you guys preferred to be direct. Isn't that what you said to me on day one? Don't beat around the bush. We really don't like it.”

Oscar lifts a finely curved brow and then reaches up tatted fingers to touch his equally inked up neck.

“Good point. We're going to follow Principal Vaughn and see if Hael's gift has stirred him to action.” Oscar pauses to listen to the girls' giggling upstairs, and then turns to look at me, a smirk curving over his