“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.”

Britt.

The sound of the familiar nickname rolling off Hael’s tongue annoys me.

“Keep us updated,” Victor warns as Hael grabs the keys to his Camaro. He looks like … well, I was going to say death warmed over. But really, I could just say he looks like Danny Ensbrook. “And don’t lose your temper.”

Hael licks the corner of his lip in an annoyed gesture.

“I won’t, boss.” He opens the door, and I stand up from the couch, following him out. Aaron and Vic watch me go, Oscar doesn’t act like he gives a shit, and it’s damn near impossible to figure out what Cal’s up to when he hides inside his hood like that.

“You called her Britt,” I say as I pause on the path that connects to the driveway, watching as Hael unlocks the driver’s side door and turns to look at me. He seems surprised somehow, like he didn’t figure I’d care.

“You okay, Blackbird?” he asks, standing up and turning back to me.

I move a little closer, so there’s only about a foot of space between us.

“You know, I keep thinking that if this is your baby, that things are over between us,” I say, and Hael whistles, letting his body slump back against the Camaro. Seems a little weird, to talk about shit like this after what we did today, but then again, what wouldn’t seem weird right now? My whole existence is weird.

“I didn’t think you thought we even had a thing,” he says, giving me a shit-eating little smirk that makes my blood boil. I narrow my eyes on him. Is this the point where I get another lesson in reality? The Havoc Boys have been like fairy-tale boys to me until now. But is Hael really just a cocky prick who likes to screw and run? Am I going to get a dose of his special breed of asshole? “What does Vic think?”

“Not everything is about Victor,” I snap back, gritting my teeth. Hael smiles and then nods, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Yeah, I know.” He opens those pretty honey-brown eyes of his back up. He had to shower three separate times when he got back, and then cover himself in body spray and cologne. When I lean in toward him, all I can smell is the coconut oil he rubbed into his hands. “But you saw how he acted the other day. I had two choices in there, Bernie: kick his ass or leave. And he’s a good leader, even if he is a dick sometimes. I’d follow him into the pits of Hell.” I nod, because I’ve always known it. You could see, looking at Hael and Vic at age eight, that they were destined to share their lives together in one fashion or another. “What does he think about Aaron?” he asks, nodding his chin slightly and then grinning when my eyes widen in surprise.

“You know about that?” I ask, and Hael shrugs.

“I see you two looking at each other differently now. I figured it’d happened.” Hael doesn’t stop smiling, reaching out a hand and running his knuckles down my bare arm. I shiver, but not because I don’t like it. Quite the opposite actually.

“He hates it,” I admit, but our conversation didn’t exactly go any further than me fucking his possessive attitude into the bathroom wall. That’s all we’ve got, as far as a conversation on the matter. “But I guess I’m still marrying him, so he can’t be all that bothered.”

“You guess?” Hael laughs, checking his phone for the time again. He sighs, like he’s already exhausted. I don’t blame him. After what we did today, I think a nap’s in order. “You’re definitely getting hitched, Bernie.” He leans in toward me, smirking slightly. “And on Vic’s birthday, no less.”

“His birthday?” I ask, frowning. Vic has been insistent that we get married soon, but I didn’t realize he had an exact day in mind. His birthday … figures. The first possible day we could get married, we will. I’m sure his mother, Ophelia, will like that one.

“Yep,” Hael says, putting his mouth near my ear. “He turns eighteen just one day after me. how does that get you? That Vic’s the younger one between us.” Hael bites my ear, hard enough to startle me, but then he grabs my hips in his hands and pulls me close. “Look, if this kid really is mine … I don’t know what I’ll do. But what I can tell you is this: there’s no hope for me and Brittany. There never was.”

“Then fuck me before you go over there.” The words come out before I can question them. Hael looks surprised, but not as surprised as I am.

“Well, shit, Blackbird, how am I supposed to say no to that?” he asks, grabbing me by the hips and guiding me around to the front of the Camaro.

Hael sets me on the hood of the car, placing a hand on either side of me as he leans in, pressing his lips to the side of my neck. My entire body lights up like it’s on fire, and I suck in a sharp breath.

“Where should we go?” I ask, because this is not a good spot to have sex, on Aaron’s driveway in the middle of suburbia. Likely, we’d end up getting the cops called on us, and we all know how that’d turn out.

“Go?” Hael echoes, cocking a red brow. “We ain’t goin’ nowhere, Blackbird. I’m short on time, Vic is probably seething inside the house, and the neighbors around here always look at me like they need to protect their sisters and daughters.”

“Well, do they?” I quip back, and he just grins at me. “I’m serious, Hael. Have you been …?” The words get stuck in my throat because I know I’ll sound stupid as shit saying them. Have you been sleeping with other girls? I mean, I know I’ve been fucking Vic, and I just screwed Aaron, but hey, I’m jealous as shit at the thought of you with someone else.