Mayhem At Prescott High (The Havoc Boys #3)(109)

“Ophelia can use you as a pawn to get Victor to do whatever she wants. I think she’s planning on asking him to commit a crime in plain sight, like so he can be charged for it and lose out on the trust that way.” Kali glances back at me, tucking green and black hair behind one of her ears. Her diamond-studded hoop earring sways with the motion. I’ve seen her wear those particular earrings before, but I just always assumed they were fake. Now I’m starting to wonder if they weren’t a gift from Ophelia. “Personally, I think we should just kill Bernadette.”

My jaw clenches, but I resist the urge to freak out on her. That’s not going to get me what I want. Instead, I wonder if I can’t play to her eccentricities? I mean, she clearly likes me; she wants to be a part of Havoc. I can see all of that written into her face. There must be some way to manipulate her into letting me go.

“Why kill her? If Ophelia can get Victor to do what you said, then there’s no point. She’ll get her money the easy way, no murder necessary, no loose ends to worry about.” Of course, neither Ophelia nor Kali know Vic very well. He’s not an idiot; he would know that complying with his mother’s demands would do nothing to actually guarantee that I’d be set free at any point. Likely, she’d kill me as soon as he did what she asked.

There aren’t a lot of ways for me to win in this game.

Kali looks back at me with a tight smile on her pink painted lips.

“Afterward, I want Ophelia to give you to me,” she says, and I have to seriously use every ounce of willpower I have to keep from making a face. Give me to you? I’ve only ever belonged to Bernadette; Ophelia has no power to gift me to you in any way. “I don’t know if she will though. We’ll see, I guess.”

Kali stops talking as the sound of a door opening and closing echoes through the house. There’s the heavy sound of footsteps and then Mitch Charter is standing in the doorway to the bedroom, dark hair shaved close to his skull, jaw working in frustration. As soon as he sees me, his eyes bulge out of his fucking head.

“What the hell?” he asks, storming over to stand beside Kali. “Where the fuck did he come from?”

“I found him in the woods after he tried to escape,” Kali purrs, and my body ripples with goose bumps. Mitch is looking down at me like he’d every much enjoy skinning me alive.

“You cocksucking piece of shit,” he growls, looking me up and down like he’s trying to decide what to cut first. “That blond psychopath of yours killed four of my boys and blew Timmy to kingdom motherfucking come. Not to mention, my car is trashed. Nice try though. You fuckers messed up.” Mitch starts to smile as he takes a step closer to me, ignoring the way Kali’s body tenses up.

He pauses at the sound of more footsteps, and Ophelia and Tom enter the room next. The former doesn’t look pleased to see Mitch here.

“Mitch Charter,” she says, opening a sparkly handbag that matches her blue dress.

“Yeah?” he asks, turning around to look at Victor’s mother. Guess we were right when we figured Ophelia was responsible for all of the shit with the Charter Crew.

“I’m sorry to say, but I’m going to have to let you go.” Ophelia rummages around in her bag as Mitch gapes at her.

“The fuck? I’ve been working my ass off for—” He doesn’t get to finish that sentence because Ophelia pulls a small caliber handgun fitted with a silencer from her bag and shoots Mitch in the forehead. Nobody in that room seems surprised as blood flecks Ophelia’s pale face, and Mitch’s body slumps to the floor.

There’s no exit wound since the bullet is so small. Some people think that makes a weapon less effective. Not necessarily true. If the bullet is small enough, it just bounces around inside of you and fucks you up good. Looks like that’s what just happened to Mitch.

Kali doesn’t seem at all bothered to see her boyfriend lying dead on the floor at her feet. Even Tom looks bored by the situation.

“Get this cleaned up,” Ophelia orders, putting the gun away, and then gesturing at Mitch’s body with her purse. There isn’t a ton of blood, but it is leaking from his head to stain the rustic wood floor planks. “I have a dinner party tonight, so I won’t be here. I assume you’re staying?” She removes a white handkerchief from her bag and then dabs at the blood on her face, wiping it clean.

“I’d like to attend the dance,” Kali hazards, shrugging her shoulders. “But somebody has to watch Aaron.”

“You don’t need to go to the dance,” Ophelia corrects, adjusting her attention to me. “If you’re right about Aaron, then we no longer have any use for Bernadette.” She turns to leave, as if the conversation is over, but Kali stands up, following a few steps before Ophelia glances back at her with an annoyed expression on her pretty face. Tom just follows along like the pet dog he so very clearly is.

“We can still kill her,” Kali argues, gesturing with her pink acrylics. “Double down, make sure you get the money.” Ophelia doesn’t seem convinced, nor does she look like she wants to have an argument with someone she considers an underling.

“My darling, listen up. When you get older, you’ll understand that the quickest route between two points is a straight line. I don’t need to kill that girl and have my son start hunting me in the dark. I’ll do it, if I have to, but I like your idea of using Aaron instead. Let’s stick with the plan, shall we?” She turns away, ignoring Kali’s protests, and I hear the creaking of stairs shortly after, followed by the front door. Somewhere outside, an engine turns over and the sound of tires on gravel drifts up and over to me.