Havoc at Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #1) - C.M. Stunich Page 0,92
mother's texted me again, but I don't think my nerves can handle her bullshit on top of everything else.
“Where is this cabin anyway?” I ask, and Vic glances my way, his face dark and unreadable in the shadows of the minivan. Nobody's talking much, the tension palpable. I just can't decide if it's because we're hunting our pervert of a principal, or if it's something more … me related.
“Middle of butt-fuck-nowhere,” Vic supplies finally, tapping tattooed knuckles against the window as he stares me down. I meet his gaze unflinching. I'm not afraid of you, I say with my eyes, but maybe that's a lie? “There's a turn-off just after McKenzie Bridge.”
I bite my lower lip and turn toward the window. On either side of us, there's nothing but trees and pure, obliterating blackness. That night the boys dropped me off on the side of the road, I think it was out this way somewhere.
A ripple of anxiety washes over me as I realize that I'm in a minivan full of strong, ruthless men. Out here, there'd quite literally be no one to hear me scream. They could do whatever they wanted with me.
“What's the plan?” I hear myself asking instead, feeling like my voice is somehow detached from the rest of me. Numbness. I gather it around me like a blanket, and make sure to stay well away from Victor Channing.
“Assuming Vaughn is there,” Vic begins, and Oscar interrupts.
“He's there.” His words are absolute, like he truly believes he's never made a mistake in his entire life. “But the real question is if he's alone or not, if he brought the nurse, or if he's got a new girl.”
“What about the nurse?” I ask, trying to remember her name. Whitney, was it? Whitney … something. The whole Prescott student body calls her the Nurse of Yes-Scott High, which, if you know that Principal Vaughn's first name is Scott, is actually a pretty clever saying. There's not a damn kid on campus who hasn't overheard yes, Scott, yes! coming from the nurse's office on occasion.
“What about her?” Vic asks, still not looking at me. In fact, I'm pretty sure he's glaring at the back of Hael's head.
“If she is there, then what?” I press. “Does she get hers, too?”
“She wasn't on your list,” Oscar says matter-of-factly, “and we have too much on our plates to take on charity work. If the nurse is there, we'll knock her out and tie her to a tree until we're finished with Principal Vaughn.”
I purse my lips, because they all know that Nurse Whtiney is just as culpable in all this shit as Vaughn is. She recruits girls, too, vulnerable girls who come to her to ask questions about birth control, or STDs, or finger-shaped bruises she should be reporting. Instead, she picks out the weak ones and coerces them into the cam business to make porn for her and her boss. She drives a Lexus, by the way. Should've had Hael blow that one up, too.
“And if there's a girl?” I continue, turning to look at Oscar. Vic might be the boss, but Oscar's the logistics of the Havoc operation. He pushes his glasses up his nose with a tattooed middle finger and smirks at me.
“We give her the keys to the Kia Sportage and send her on her way. You don't think we'd hurt an innocent girl, do you?” he taunts, and my hands curl into fists. “I mean, not unless we were hired to do it.”
“Fuck you,” I growl back, and Oscar laughs, this genteel laugh that's so at odds with his tattoos. “Now what's the plan with Vaughn? Be direct, remember?”
Oscar leans forward, his raven-black hair sliding across his forehead, gray eyes catching the light from the dash up front.
“We're going to put him in his underwear and degrade his ancient ass on a live feed.” My brows go up, but I have to admit there's a certain sense of poetic justice in Vaughn's sentence. “After that, if he's lucky, we release him into the woods with no phone, no pants, and no shoes. We'll set the cabin on fire, and then send his signed confession to the cops.”
“How are you going to get him to confess?” I ask, and Oscar doesn't hesitate before pulling his revolver out of his jacket. He smiles at me as he slides his thumb along the barrel, but it's not a very nice smile, not at all.