“Out of our league how?” Oscar demands, immediately latching onto the situation. The iPad is in his hand as I stare at him and try to reconcile the familiar image of him, distant and unattainable, with the man that fucked me from behind while all of his friends watched. We stare at each other, and I suck harder on the straw.

“I’ve always been straight with you guys,” Stacey continues, and her voice is heavy and dark, the voice of every woman, one that we grow into whether we like it or not, at that point where we realize that life is decidedly less pleasant for our gender. I frown hard, because I really don’t like the direction this conversation is headed. “So, I’m going to do you a favor and give you a heads-up.”

“Heads-up?” Victor asks, narrowing his eyes. “The fuck are you going on about? You called us weeks ago.”

I glance over at Aaron, but he’s not looking at Stacey. Actually, he’s staring right at me with eyes that are more gold than green. He’s worried. And when he gets worried, he looks at me like I’m the only thing that matters. Pretty sure that’s one of the reasons he tried to get rid of me, to push me out of Prescott and into a different life. Kara and Ashley should matter more to him, but … we both know that our love is so selfish and so deep that we may very well choose each other if faced with an impossible choice. I’m not saying that’s okay, or that it’s not fucked-up, but it’s a definite possibility.

I refuse to even think about it.

Stacey sighs, pulling her phone from her pocket. It’s a rose gold iPhone, also stolen I’m sure. I mean, come on, this is Prescott motherfuckin’ High.

“The reason I called you …” she begins as she checks her messages and then glances back up at Vic. She’s anxious. Like with Victor and his chain-smoking, she’s playing with her phone to escape. The nervous tic gives away more than anything she could possibly say with words. Stacey Langford is scared, and that’s not something I think I’ve ever seen before. “Is that my girls robbed the wrong fucking guy.” She gives a dry laugh, one that’s gritty and feels like sand as it slithers across my skin. “Jesus fucking Christ, what a way to put it.” She exhales and tries again. “You know my crew and I are in charge of all the whores in this city.” I just stare at her; I did not know that. I never thought to ask about it. My mouth hurts all of a sudden, and I bring the straw away from my lips. I’m a dichotomy, sitting here in leather and tattoos and stolen lipstick, but I’m holding a chocolate milk carton and sitting in a cafeteria like a child.

It occurs to me in that moment, that I am forever and irreparably grown. I can never go back. I haven’t had that option for nearly a decade, but it’s just now hit me. Childhood is gone and it’s never coming back. It was never even really there to begin with which makes me even sadder.

I set the drink aside.

“We’re well aware of the permissions we’ve given you,” Victor says, standing above Stacey with his hands on his hips, his huge form casting a shadow that no other man could ever dream to replicate. It has as much form and substance as he does. “Get to the point.”

“Well, our game is to scope johns out and find the ones with money,” she says, staring at the floor instead of at Victor. It’s the first time I’ve ever really been able to definitively say that she looks less capable than he does. Usually, when she and Vic stare at each other, it’s like one alpha looking into the eyes of another. Would Stacey have killed Kali, watched her choke and shudder and vomit into her own mouth? I bet she would have. She sewed the cunt’s lips shut, didn’t she? “We send our best escorts to their place and then while they’re cock-deep in paid pussy, we rob the fuck out of them.”

“An angry john sounds like child’s play to me,” Oscar deadpans, but Stacey ignores him. It’s like, they’re a snake and a lizard, but the lizard’s evolved right alongside the snake. While the serpent’s venom might be able to kill a hundred grown-ass men with a single drop, the lizard isn’t affected at all. That’s what they are, just two wild animals who’ve evolved to deal with one another’s bullshit.

“Well, that angry john just so happens to be a member of the Grand Murder Party,” Stacey says, and alarm bells go off inside my head. My skin pebbles and the hair on the back of my neck rises as I dig my fingernails into the thighs of my leather pants. “They took two of my girls, but they only sent one back.” She looks from Victor to me, her smile even darker than my own. I think Stacey’s been privy to worse things than I have. Likely, in some scenario, at some point, she was essentially Penelope.

I feel privileged and weak all of a sudden.

My nails dig hard enough into my legs to draw blood, even through the leather of my pants.

“You called us to find your other girl?” Vic asks, but not like he really believes that. He knows as well as I do that the girl is dead; he just wants Stacey to say it.

“Oh, we found her eventually,” Stacey says with another caustic bit of laughter, looking away toward the row of windows on our right. They’ve all got bars on them, like this is a prison instead of a school. “When I called Havoc, my girls had reported being followed. That was it. But by the time Snow Day was officially over and the sun was rising on that Saturday, it was too late. I was no longer in need of your services.” She closes her eyes for a long moment, so long that I end up exchanging a look with Vic. “Not sure you could’ve protected us anyway, not from them, not for any price I could’ve possibly paid.”

Stacey opens her eyes and stands up as Victor takes a step toward her, like he’s figured out something I haven’t yet picked up on.

“The girl they sent back, what did she have to say about what happened?” he asks, and Stacey smiles a sad, desperate, terrible sort of smile.

“My girl, she was scared. And I mean, this is a chick who came home to find her mother OD’d on the sofa. She’s been through a lot, and I’ve never seen her look the way she did.” Stacey exhales and sweeps her hands over her hair again. “When they questioned her, she blurted out the first thing she could think of.” She looks up at Vic in warning which is an interesting twist. Whatever she’s about to say, she thinks he might be upset about it. But also, she isn’t apologizing. “They asked who she worked for, and the only thing she could get out was Havoc.”

“That’ll be all,” Oscar snaps, his hand tightening on the edge of his iPad in just such a way that I’m worried he won’t be able to control his temper. “Leave. Now.”

Stacey nods, her eyes passing over Hael before turning back to me.

“Be careful out there, okay? Sometimes we have to learn the hard way that we’re not as invincible as we think we are.” She takes off in the direction of the exit, and her girls rise from their table like a flock of birds, trailing after her and leaving the boy with the grabby hands behind.

“Fuck,” Oscar says and Hael snorts, lifting up an unlit cigarette in agreement.

“Really, truly. This is the fucking pits. What do you want to do about it?” he asks, but Vic’s already a hundred miles away.

“Don’t go to Tom’s property again,” he says absently, and he must notice the look on my face because he adds, “even the VGTF doesn’t have the resources to search it properly, so let’s not give them an idea of where to look.”