“No.” I look right at her when I say it. “I’m not a dog for the police.”

“That’s not why you’re here, Bernadette,” she tells me, like she’s a fucking psychologist or some shit. “You’re here because you want to make things right.”

I laugh then, and the sound is as ugly as the sneering face of Kali’s disappearing ghost, the one I summoned up with my own pain and frustration.

“Penelope is dead, so nothing will ever be right again. But keep chasing your bad guys, Sara Young.” I step back and turn around, heading down the steps and waiting to see if she’ll call out to me. She doesn’t. And that’s a good thing because it means that for now, I’ve given her everything she needs.

“I know how we’re going to handle Brittany,” Vic says, slapping a folder down on the table in Aaron’s dining room. I’m sitting there with my phone open to Oak River Elementary’s website. It’s shiny and modern and riddled with accolades … and I hate everything about it.

Even though I know that I’m being stubborn and selfish. Sending Heather to that school would change everything for her. And Aaron was right: based on the way things are rolling in Prescott, she’d be much safer.

I swallow and turn my phone off, but not before Aaron sees what I’m looking at. We exchange a quick glance before I turn back to Victor.

“Alright boss,” Hael starts, sliding his hand down his face. “Lay it out for us.”

“I think you’re going to be pleased by the idea,” Oscar deadpans, leaning back in the armchair and toying with a stress ball in the shape of a giant sperm. I know, it’s weird, but we were all given one during sex ed in sophomore year. I found Aaron’s between the couch cushions the other day. It’s probably been there for years. “This ties our responsibilities together nicely. And really, it’s a much better deal than the little witch deserves.”

“Are you sure we can even touch Brittany right now?” I ask, furrowing my brow slightly. Cal bites into an apple with a crisp snap, drawing my attention to him. “I mean, considering that her father is the captain of the VGTF?”

“Actually,” Vic begins, leaning against the peninsula with his big arms crossed over his broad chest. When I glance back at the folder and peek inside it, I see that it’s full of maps, activity logs, and lists of names relating to the Grand Murder Party. Intel, from Havoc’s crew. “We’re going to use that to our advantage against the GMP.”

Cal takes another bite of apple, studying the fruit for a moment before lifting his eyes to mine and smiling. “What do I get to do?” he asks absently, like he’s damn near certain that violence is going to be involved in this particular plan.

He’s probably right.

“We’re going to borrow Brittany for half a day,” Victor says mildly, rubbing at his chin in that way of his. His hair looks violet in the light of the living room lamps. “Cal will give her his special treatment—arms and upper back only. We don’t need any of her injuries showing up during an ultrasound.”

His special treatment.

I’m not exactly sure what that means, but it’s clearly something to do with physical torture. What had Callum said before? Something to the effect of, cut her up where nobody can see.

“And then?” Hael asks, cracking his knuckles. He lights up a cigarette near the back door, his shirt stained with grease. Ever since we fucked on the hood of the Eldorado, he’s doubled up on the amount of time he works on it.

“We let her off with a dose of pain as a warning, and then we send her with information about the GMP. She delivers it to daddy, the VGTF moves in on the target they’ve been after all along,” Oscar says, standing up from the armchair and moving closer to the dining table where Aaron and I are sitting.

Last night, I found Aaron on the couch looking through his mother’s old phone. She left it when she took off, and he keeps it charged, so he can look at childhood pictures of himself, his sister, and his cousin. He notices me looking at him now and tousles that wavy chestnut hair of his. It’s been a month since I got him back, but every time we see each other in the hallway at school, or the bathroom upstairs, I get a rush of adrenaline and relief all over again.

He saved my life.

He came for me.

We can never be parted again.

“How do we do this without being caught?” Aaron asks, his eyes straying over to the darkness of my phone screen. We’re both thinking about Oak River right now, no doubt about that. We’re both thinking about the inevitability of sending our sisters away.

“Hael will meet with Brittany out front of Fuller High. The more people that see him there, the better.” Vic stands up straight and tucks his hands in his pockets. “Callum will find his way into the backseat of her car while she’s talking with Hael. When she leaves, Hael will stay. In fact, he will place a call to Bernadette’s phone, so we can get a nice healthy ping on the cell tower nearby, just in case Brittany is dumb enough to tell anyone what happens to her.”

“You’re taking her to the cabin?” Aaron clarifies, referring to the remote cabin where the boys dropped Danny’s body off on Halloween, so they could rush back here in time to meet the Thing. I haven’t seen it yet, that cabin. Shit, I don’t even know where it is. Probably better that I don’t.

“Half a day,” Vic says with another nod, looking over at Callum. “That’s all we need. Then we drop her back off at the school and wait.”

“You’re not worried about retaliation from the GMP?” Aaron asks, tapping the fingers of his broken hand on the tabletop. He has about two weeks left in the damn cast. I’m already looking forward to feeling both of his hands skimming over my naked body.

“They don’t have to know where the VGTF got their information from. Brittany’s going to tell her father she got her gossip at a party. Whatever Ophelia is doing with Trinity, it involves Maxwell and James Barrasso. I don’t know how, but it does. And as soon as they all realize that I’m not really going to marry that bitch, they’re going to retaliate anyway.” Victor turns his attention over to Hael. I remember what he said, about not wanting to hurt Brittany, but this is best case scenario for her, to be honest. “If she doesn’t comply, we’ll take her baby and give it away to a worthy couple. Then we’ll put her in the ground.” Vic glances back at Callum. “Make sure she understands that.”

He takes off for the master bedroom as I glance at Hael over my shoulder.

This isn’t going to be easy for him, but it has to be done.

Havoc is in peril; Springfield is at risk. Everything the boys have ever wanted, ever worked for, is this close to tipping over and breaking into a million pieces.

The VGTF. The GMP. Ophelia.

Each one is a piece in a complicated game, one that I feel like we’re this close to figuring out.

If we can do this, it’ll be the greatest victory a bunch of Prescott brats has ever managed to pull off.

It’ll be so great and so monumental, you could write a book about it.

We just need to survive the anarchy first.

We just need to survive. Period.