“You learned this all last night?” Vic asks, and Hael turns away. Clearly, he’s been holding onto this information for the last ten days. There’s hurt pride in his face that makes me wonder if he ever really cared for Brittany. If she’s truly carrying his child, are they going to make a go of it? I could see that happening, based on Hael’s white-knight complex.
The thought infuriates me, but I hold it back.
“Let’s send some of the boys to deal with Rich,” Aaron suggests, and Vic nods. Beating the shit out of some guy Brittany slept with doesn’t warrant the actual use of Havoc’s leaders. A use for peons, as Cal might say. “Did she say why she thought he might be the dad?”
Hael frowns as Cal sidles up beside us, Oscar close behind him. He looks right at me, but I give him nothing in return. I want him to keep wondering if I might spill the beans to Vic about his proposal. That’d make him feel vindicated, I bet, like I’m truly the loose-lipped snitch that he seemingly wants me to be.
“Brittany slipped out of the cabin and fucked this Rich guy at the lake’s clubhouse,” Hael says, nostrils flared. “She says he used a condom, too, and that it was only once. My neck is on the chopping block, guys.” Hael glances my way, almost apologetically. “I was hoping that with you a part of Havoc, things could be different. I’m sorry, Bernie.” I open my mouth to respond when I hear Mitch’s laugh from the end of the hallway.
He’s standing there with his brother, Logan, as well as Danny’s brothers, Timmy and Kyler. They’re all watching us carefully, but it’s only Mitch who’s smirking. Timmy and Kyler have murder in their eyes. Likely, they think they’ve gotten away with fire-bombing Aaron’s van. Guess they don’t know Havoc as well as I do. Ever heard the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Havoc is the tortoise. A super fucked-up tortoise with a shell of pain and fury, but there you go.
“Why does she want us to beat him up?” Aaron asks, and I glance back at Hael.
“He won’t talk to her. Blocked her on social media. Started spreading rumors that Brittany’s been screwing the entire football team. I mean, she’s trying her best, but she’s only managed to nail two so far.” Hael scowls again and rakes his fingers through his red hair. His face has got a full five o’ clock shadow going on now, but I don’t dislike it. My hands itch to touch him, just to see how he feels against my fingertips.
“What a prick,” I say, and all five boys turn to look at me. “What? Brittany cheating on you is fucked, and honestly, I’m praying to the darkest gods I know that she isn’t having your baby. But also, this other guy, Rich, he needs to accept that he might have some responsibility in this. He deserves to have his ass kicked.”
“Our little feminist in residence,” Vic says with a sideways smirk. I give him a look and cross my arms over my chest with the creak of leather.
“You’re not a feminist? Because if you aren’t, we have a problem.” Victor whistles in response to my question and then pauses when he sees Detective Constantine walk by, watching us. He’s been at the school every goddamn day this week. I know the boys said they’ve killed before, but to be honest, the anxiety about the whole thing is starting to get to me. It feels like the guillotine is slowly sliding toward our necks. Between my list, and the Charter Crew, and the cops? How is Havoc going to survive this? I’m starting to wonder if I’ve put the final nail in their coffin.
“Oh, I’m a feminist for sure,” Vic says, but he’s not really looking at me anymore, his attention homed in on Mitch. If I were Mitch, and I saw Victor Channing look at me like that, I’d run. Fast. And I wouldn’t look back. “A third wave feminist: women are just plain better.” He grins and pats me on the head which is extremely patronizing. I can’t decide if I should be mad at him or not. “Let’s get out of here; we have shit to do.”
“Don’t we always?” I quip as I fall into step between Cal and Aaron. “A special present for Mitch, huh?” I ask, directing the question at Callum; he grins at me, sucking on the straw that’s stabbed into his usual Pepsi can.
“You’ll love this one,” he tells me with that growling voice of his. The laughter that follows gives me the chills, and I notice both Billie and Kali whipping their heads in our direction to stare. If they aren’t afraid of Callum, they should be. “We all agree that what happened with the video wasn’t acceptable. Bernadette, you have a right to know us all, as we truly are.” My eyes widen slightly, but I’m not displeased by the statement. Well, thank god, somebody in this group has brains in their skull.
“Don’t look too excited by that,” Aaron quips, frowning hard. Callum leans in toward me, a shadowed prince in a hood of darkness.
“You might not like the skeletons in our closet, but I sure do hope you stay,” he whispers, kissing me on the cheek.
Doesn’t occur to me until about two hours later that he was being literal.
“Oh, my fuck,” I gag, covering my mouth with my hands. I’m standing over a hole in the woods, six feet deep, two feet wide. There’s a body inside, wrapped up in plastic and taped up to resemble a cocoon.
Doesn’t do much to disguise the smell though.
Callum and Aaron, in gloves and rain jackets and hairnets, are at the bottom of the hole, covered in dirt and hefting the corpse of Danny Ensbrook up to Hael and Vic. Oscar stands off to the side, watching carefully and taking notes. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing, so I just stand there and try to process.
Skeletons in the closet indeed.
We’ve stolen two more cars today—a 2013 Nissan Armada and some 90s Suburban—and covered the interior of the Armada with tarps. Vic and Hael carry Danny’s rotting body over to the dirt patch where they’re parked and then chuck him unceremoniously onto the ground, like so much garbage on its way to the dump. The smell though … that’s what’s really getting to me. My head spins, and I try to reconcile those years of fantasizing about Havoc with reality.
They’re … awful. In so many ways. So, so, so, so many.
I wet my lips, but the smell gets to me, and I almost vomit again.
“Remind me of the plan,” I choke out as I watch Hael and Callum start to fill the hole in with dirt. The oddest thing about this patch of woods is how many fresh mounds of dirt there are. My skin ripples with goose bumps. “Nobody is going to find Danny out here.” We’re two hours from Springfield, and about four hours from the house where the Halloween party took place. “Why are we moving him?”
“Because Mitch pissed me off,” Vic explains, using a gloved finger to press the button on the automatic hatch of the SUV. It opens on its own with a cheerful chirp. “We’re delivering a message. This isn’t just a game of high school chess anymore; it’s real. He can either fall back and get in line, or he can play on our terms.”
Hael starts to unwrap the body. I tell myself I’m not going to look as he peels the plastic and tape away from the corpse, but I can’t stop myself. Danny died because he lifted his gun to my head; Callum killed him to save me. This isn’t something I get to stick my head in the sand over.
It’s only been a few weeks since Danny died, but holy shit if he doesn’t look like a zombie. His eyes are sunken in; there are bugs; he’s bloated as shit. I gag and turn away, choking back the bile. I don’t want to leave any sign that I was here.
“There are bodies everywhere,” I say instead, looking around and wondering what the actual fuck I’ve gotten myself into. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so keen on joining Havoc, after all?
“Not so many as it seems,” Callum says with a shrug, pausing to rest his hands on the end of his shovel. He could hit me with it, knock me into this hole and bury me alive. But for whatever stupid reason, I feel certain that he won’t. “We have other things buried out here, not just bodies.”
“Like money?” I ask, and Vic smiles, moving close to stand beside me. Meanwhile, Hael moves the body to a fresh tarp and ties it up with a bit of rope into a mummy-like shape.
“Money, weapons, drugs, you name it.” Victor shrugs and sighs, peeli
ng off his gloves so he can press a warm hand to the side of my face. I just hope he doesn’t try to kiss me; I’d probably upchuck yet again. Shit, maybe I am pregnant? I think, fear slicing through me like a knife. I can’t remember when I had my period last, but that’s nothing unusual. My period’s been irregular since I started when I was twelve. I’d go to the doctor, but we can’t really afford it, and it’s not like Pamela has health insurance for us. Fucking laughable.
“Who owns this land?” I ask, and Cal grins at me from across Danny’s empty grave.
“Vic’s mother’s boyfriend,” he says, and I lift both brows.
“It’s a timber investment property,” Victor explains, scowling. “But he’ll never sell it. Not the trees, either. Not even if he’s destitute.”
“Why do you say that?” I ask, and Vic gives me a look.
“Because he killed his best friend and buried him here,” he explains, and I have serious trouble keeping my feelings to myself.
“He … what?” I manage to choke out and Vic frowns.
“My mother cheated on him with his best friend. Tom killed him and buried him out here. I know because I saw the whole thing and followed him. The guy is buried about a quarter mile north of here, close enough that even if Tom were to break the land into parcels and sell it, this area should be safe.”
“But far enough away that we shouldn’t run into him,” Callum adds as Hael mutters curses under his breath and deadlifts the body into the back of the Armada. Impressive. “Tom has enough connections that it’d be hard to nail him with the murder anyway, so we figured we’d rather use it to our advantage.”
“The dead guy was a total prick anyway,” Vic explains, lighting up a cigarette, like this is business as usual for him. Well, not like it’s usual. It is usual. Jesus. What I’ve experienced with Havoc thus far, that was like, baby bootcamp or something. His face tells me nothing, cigarette hanging from between his lips as he talks. “His death is serving the world far better than he ever did with his life. Now, when we take out the trash, we have somewhere to put it.” Vic turns to me. I should probably be scared of him. Instead, my body ripples beneath his stare, soaking up the attention. Be very, very careful, Bern, I tell myself. If I’ve figured out that I have his balls in a vise, it’s only a matter of time before Victor realizes he holds me by the ovaries.
“And Danny …?” I start, exhaling sharply. Part of me recognizes that I’m not as tough as I thought I was. This is a lot to take in. And yet … I’m a lot happier than I should be, standing beside a teenager’s early grave.
Havoc, spilling its secrets out and into me.
Almost literally, if you consider Aaron, and Hael, and Vic …
“Mitch asked for him back, so we’re going to make a special delivery.” Vic smirks at me and winks before heading over and grabbing a pair of shovels that are leaning against a tree. He tosses one over to me and I catch it in my gloved hands. “Start digging, your majesty,” he says smiling with too much teeth around the cigarette.
Oddly enough, he doesn’t sound like he’s being mocking. Glancing over in Oscar’s direction, I see him frowning and that, that makes me smile.
Aaron looks up at me from across the grave and gives a smile of his own, but his is tinged at the edges with melancholy. It says, I’m sorry, Bernie, I told you, and I was right.
“Nantucket,” I murmur, swallowing and pushing the end of the shovel into the pile of dirt. “I know, I know.”
Mitch has been driving a new car the last few weeks, another restored classic that makes Hael whistle like he’s just spotted a hot piece of ass out the window of the Armada. It’s currently parked outside of Kali’s place, this boring ass ranch home that her grandparents probably picked out of a Sears catalog. It used to be an okay house before they died, and her parents inherited it. They’ve trashed the place.
“Oscar, the cameras?” Vic asks, and Oscar nods. He passes the iPad forward, releasing it into my hands with reluctance.
“Try not to break this one,” he oozes, and I have to resist the urge to rabbit punch him. I yank it from his fingers, glancing down to find a graphic video of Mitch and Kali fucking. My brows go up.
“Well?” Vic asks, looking over his shoulder at me from the driver’s seat of the second stolen SUV we pinched today. This one’s a Suburban though, a bit newer but filled with children’s’ toys. Makes me feel a little guilty. Hael is driving the Armada with the body in it. That must suck serious ass—even with a mask on his face. Makes me remember the shitty coronavirus pandemic some years back, and I shiver. “Are they otherwise occupied?”
“Oh, they’re occupied alright,” I say, feeling my mouth twist into a smile. “Kali has small, shriveled looking tits from all her bulimic episodes, and Mitch’s dick is short in length and lacking in girth. Plus, his balls are weird as hell.” I pass the iPad forward again as Victor grins at me.
“Aren’t balls always weird?” Callum asks, leaning an elbow on the edge of the door. I shake my head.
“Not like these balls, Cal. Not like these.”
“Focus, please,” Oscar purrs as Aaron smiles at me with much less melancholy than he did at the gravesite. “We have a few minutes to get this done, at best.”
“You’re being optimistic,” Cal chuckles, laughter coloring his voice. “Bet Mitch blows his wad before we’re done.”
“Not taking that bet, the odds suck,” Aaron murmurs as Hael reverses the Armada so that it’s ass-to-ass with the blue two-seater car. Vic parks beside him and rolls down the driver’s side window so they can talk to each other.
“A ’69 Corvette Stingray?” Hael says, choking and coughing. I can smell the body from here. No wonder he’s got tears in his eyes; the stench is almost unbearable. “Where the fuck is Mitch getting the money for this shit?”
“Slinging coke, that’s how. Get out.” Vic climbs out of the SUV, and the rest of us follow. I’m given the iPad to monitor as the boys don fresh gloves and unwrap the body. The smell makes me gag, even from all the way over here.
We use the Suburban as a shield for our activities. Luckily, we’re on a corner lot across the street from a rundown elementary school. There are no cameras here, no cops, and the next neighbor over is hidden behind an eight-foot tall fence.
Perfect.
Callum picks the lock on the old trunk, then together, the five of them heft the body out. They shove Danny into Mitch’s trunk and then slam it shut. I glance back at the Armada and see a few stray maggots. My stomach churns, and I glance down at the iPad.
Mitch’s orgasm face is right there, front and center. My lip curls in disgust, and I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes.
“He’s done,” I say, lifting the iPad up.
“Told ya,” Aaron says as Cal flips off the trunk of the car.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Vic says, opening the driver’s side door of the Suburban. “Let’s stop at our favorite McDonald’s and clean that shit out before we return it.” Hael nods and exhales, cracking his knuckles before he switches out his gloves yet again, shoving the old ones into a trash bag that he tucks on the passenger seat of the Armada. He puts on a fresh set of gloves as I climb back in Vic’s borrowed SUV with the others.
“I feel like we weren’t as careful as we could be,” I muse, thinking about the few stray maggots.
“Forensics are good, but they can’t get you if they don’t know where to look. The owner of the Armada is out of town for two weeks on business; he’ll never even know his car was missing. How can the police search it for trace evidence if they never knew we were in it?” Vic asks, starting the engine.
“And this one?” I ask, watching as Hael pulls out behind us and we start down the road.
“The owner of this car just had surgery and won’t be out of the hospital for days. Her children are with their grandmother; the father is dead.” Oscar tells me this in a total deadpan, like it isn’t completely creepy that he knows all of that shit.
“How
do you figure?” I ask, turning around to look at him. He stares right back at me and smiles. Chills trace over my arms and I shudder.
“Because that’s my job, Bernadette, to know things.”
What a fucking non-answer if I’ve ever heard one.
I don’t ask how they got the camera in Kali’s room. It’d be pretty easy to break in there, if one were so inclined.
“Your favorite McDonald’s?” I query, and Callum smiles cheerily, like he didn’t just chuck a dead guy’s body into a teenager’s trunk.
“South Prescott, no cameras, a lot of illegal activity to work under.” His smile gets a bit wider. “Plus, they never give out cold fries.”
Dark humor. But it works. I give Callum a look that he returns with a private one of his own. We have shit to work through, but it’s been—pardon the pun—buried underneath everything else. But I haven’t forgotten. I hope he can tell by my expression.
I turn back to the front and lean into my seat.
We just dropped a corpse off to the leader of the Charter Crew.
Talk about a clapback.
We order pizza and smoke weed together, and I start to realize that what I first witnessed when I joined Havoc—that day we chilled and watch South Park together—was like a … calming ritual of sorts, a bonding exercise. Adrenaline was high after the, uh, body heist, and it’s calmed down a whole hell of a lot with some community smoking.
“I can’t believe you put a dead rat in that guy’s Armada,” I say with a snort. The smell Danny left in the SUV, it was impossible to miss. Hael cracked the front window, sent one of their Havoc lackeys to find us a rodent and … voila, an easy way to explain the stench of rot.
“This job’s all about innovation,” Hael says with a grin, glancing down as his phone buzzes. His lips turn down at the corners, and I have to take a guess on whether it’s his mother … or Brittany. “Shit, I’m late,” he growls, shoving his fingers through his hair. “Time to talk to Britt’s dad.”
Chaos at Prescott High Page 23