Page 164 of Wicked Brutal

Iz freezes. So do the rest of us boys. Because every one of us fucking knows Bella. We know Homecoming. We know Iz. We know the months of bullshit before it and every miserable fucking thing that came after it.

“What?”

Arthur looks at him. “Isabella Whelan.”

“I heard you. Why the fuck is she on there?”

Cat slowly turns toward him. “You care?”

“About Bella?” His face twists. “No. I care why Satan’s favorite debutante has her name buried in the same fucking paperwork as Ally and Becca.”

Penny blinks. “Satan’s favorite debutante?”

Iz points at her. “You’ve met her.”

Kaid looks at Iz. “You think about her a lot for someone you hate.”

“I think about tetanus too. Doesn’t mean I want to fuck it.”

Danny’s eyebrows shoot up. “Interesting choice of verb.”

Arthur looks back at the document. “Her inquiry was opened October eighteenth.”

Iz’s smile disappears. Not slowly. Gone. I look at him. So do Kaid, X, and Danny.

Arthur lays Bella’s page beside Becca’s. Then Ally’s. Three names.

REBECCA CARNEY — OCTOBER 18, 2025.

ISABELLA WHELAN — OCTOBER 18, 2025.

ALISON O’TOOLE — OCTOBER 19, 2025.

Three girls. Same school. Three families already brushing against the same fucking people. Three international-placement inquiries opened within roughly twenty-four hours of each other. While Cat and Penny were being kidnapped. While the Penningtons were going down. And—

“Homecoming,” X says.

Iz’s eyes cut toward him. “Don’t.”

Arthur looks between them. “What about Homecoming?”

Iz says nothing so Danny does. “That was when Bella changed.”

Arthur looks at Iz. “What happened with Bella?”

“She was being Bella.”

“No,” I say.

His head snaps toward me. “Harrington.”

“You’ve never believed that.”

“Not now.”

“You said her mouth and her eyes never matched.”

That shuts him up. Every one of us knows what he meant. Bella saying shit specifically designed to make him hate her. Bella making damn sure he saw her with Tyler. Bella looking fucking scared while she did it.