One of the other guys grabs me by the ponytail, dragging me across the floor as Aaron struggles to break through the crowd and come to me. But he’s severely outnumbered, injured, and shit out of luck.

“Calling out Havoc was the biggest mistake you ever made,” Kyler snarls as Billie helps Mitch to his feet, and the three of them gang up on me. I can take Billie. I can take Kyler. I think I can even take Mitch. But all of them at the same time? That’s a tall order. I’m a scrappy bitch, not some UFC champion.

“Bernadette!” I can hear Aaron calling to me through the pounding beat of the music, but I’m gritting my teeth too hard to respond. When I glance to my right, I can see him, on his knees, blood pooling on the floor. Danny and a few of the other clown-mask wearing guys are holding him down, forcing him to watch whatever the fuck Kyler, Mitch, and Billie have planned for me.

“Hold her down,” Billie commands as she straddles me, and I flail beneath her. Mitch is stepping on my left arm, crushing my wrist into the ground as Kyler keeps his tight grip on my hair. My scalp and arm are a mess of pain, but I’m not done fighting yet. I spit in Billie’s face as she accepts a pocketknife from Mitch.

She frowns at me and swipes her hand over those pretty features of hers, but she doesn’t move.

“Shouldn’t you be at home with your baby instead of out here causing trouble?” I snap. I’m not really into mom-shaming, but come on, Billie’s a shitty mom if she’d rather incite gang violence than spend Halloween with her kid.

“Don’t you even mention my goddamn kid,” she says, flicking open the knife and then grinning at me. “What should we cut off first? Your hair? Your nose? Or maybe your tits? Considering what your boys did to Donald, I think all three of those things would be more than fair.”

“What do you give a shit about Donald Asher?” I ask, but Billie just slams the tip of the knife into my arm, and a scream tears from my throat. Sharp, searing pain rackets up my arm and into my head, turning my skull into a mess of white-hot agony.

“I don’t. But fair’s fair. Clearly, Havoc has no boundaries, so why should we?” Billie pulls the knife from my arm and spins it around in her fingers. “And we’re not letting you hurt Kali. There’s not a soul at Prescott who doesn’t know you’re gunning for her.” She traces the tip of the knife against my lower lip. All I can hear is the pounding beat of my heart, and the rush of blood in my ears. If she mutilates me, do I really care? I’ve honestly never wanted to be pretty.

“Are you enjoying this, Aaron?” Mitch snarls, fresh blood staining the bandage on his shoulder. “I hope so. Because when Billie’s done, I’m going to let Logan and Danny have their way with your chick, right in front of you.”

Aaron tears his arms from the grips of the guys holding him and manages to slam his elbow into the crotch of one of them before three more guys pile on, crushing him to the floor.

“Oh,” Billie says, slicing a line from the corner of my eye to the edge of my mouth. Pain follows along in the wake of the blood, but I manage to keep myself stone-still, quiet, blank. I don’t waste energy on protesting; I look for an out or an escape or at least a way to inflict some serious damage. I figure if I go down, at least they hurt with me. “Aaron doesn’t like the idea of sharing. Funny that, considering you whore yourself out to all five Havoc Boys.”

“Doesn’t bother Mitch that Kali’s cheating on him with some douche from Oak Valley Prep, so I don’t see why you give a crap,” I blurt back, and Billie hits me as hard as she can in the face. I see stars, but all I have to do is keep them busy for a few. The other boys will be here; they’ll come. I fucking know it.

“We’re running out of time,” Kyler says, glancing over his shoulder, like he can feel the same energy that I feel. Havoc doesn’t play games. They don’t lose. They used to be my tormentors, but now they’re my dark angels. I turn my head and make eye contact with Aaron. He’s gone completely still, building up energy as he pants and bleeds, waiting for one last chance to break free.

His green-gold eyes meet mine, and I can see a million different truths just waiting there to be revealed. He didn’t want me in Havoc because he knew that, eventually, something like this would happen. In his own way, Aaron was trying to protect me.

“We should take these assholes with us and go,” Mitch adds, and Billie scowls.

“Why? Take them where? We’re in the middle of the fucking woods. And you said you had enough guys to deal with Havoc. Let’s bring the other four in here and they can all watch as you take turns on their girl.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Danny says, laughing. His eyes rake over me before he splits off from the group and disappears momentarily. Meanwhile, Billie continues playing with her knife, cutting open the front of my cheerleading costume with a laugh, exposing a large portion of my breasts.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Mitch says, swiping at the sweat on his face. “Let’s just kick the shit out of these two and call it a win. I don’t want to stick around here any longer than necessary.”

“Don’t be such a pussy,” Billie snaps as Danny comes back into the room and kicks one of the fog machines against the wall, shattering it into black plastic bits. “Well?” she asks, looking up at her boyfriend’s brother.

“There are a few people passed out in the foyer, but that’s it. Looks like our guys chased theirs into the woods.” Danny checks his phone, scrolling through messages. “Nate says they’ve lost most of them in the trees, and they’re heading back this way now.”

“Good,” Mitch says, pushing down a little harder on my arm. “What about Vic?”

“Dunno,” Danny says, tapping out a text message. He pauses a moment and then shakes his head. “We can’t find any of the Havoc Boys.” He glances over at Aaron and then grins. “Except for this one.”

“Get fucked,” Aaron growls out, and gets a right hook to the face from Timmy for the trouble.

“I still say we take them with us and get out of here while we have the upper-hand,” Mitch continues, just before the sound of breaking glass gives us all pause.

“What upper-hand?” Vic asks, appearing from the fog with his bat in hand. He swings it hard and hits Mitch in the thigh, drawing a scream from one of the Charter brothers while the other—Logan—launches himself at Victor. The two of them end up in a fight while I use the moment of surprise to throw a punch at Billie’s face.

She howls with pain as Oscar appears and grabs Kyler around the neck, putting him in a chokehold and yanking him back. There’s a momentary burst of pain before Kyler loses his grip on my hair, and I sit up, shoving Billie off of me. She sprawls to the floor as I crawl over her, hitting her in the face. Once, twice, three times. As she groans and tries to crawl away from me, I stand up and turn to help Aaron.

But Callum’s already there with his own baseball bat, hitting Danny in the shoulder before he goes for Timmy next. Hael is on the other side, taking care of two more of the clown-masked wearing idiots.

I stand there stone-still in the middle of the brawl, breathing hard, watching as the boys systematically take down their rivals—skeletons versus clowns. It’s a ghastly sight, the fog swirling around our feet, clown faces leering at us from the ceiling. I have to say, Stacey Langford is one crazy bitch to have set all of this up.