Page 211 of Wicked Brutal

There are very few things capable of making me stop in the middle of an argument with Kaid. Victor Tremblay standing inside Edgewood Prep is apparently one of them.

“I’m telling you, possession matters,” Kaid says.

Danny looks at him. “Not when the possession is stolen.”

“I didn’t steal it.”

“Whose was it?”

“That’s not relevant.”

“It feels extremely relevant.” Kaid looks at X for backup.

X barely glances up from his phone. “Did it belong to you?”

“It was in my locker.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

Iz adjusts the strap of his bag over one shoulder, settling into it like a lawyer finding his rhythm. “Did the original owner willingly place it in your locker?”

“No.”

“Did they give it to you?”

“No.”

“Did you ask?”

“No.”

Danny nods. “The prosecution rests.”

“Fuck all of you.”

“You stole it,” X says, still not looking up.

“I found it.”

“In someone else’s shit.”

I’m about to ask what the hell they’re even arguing about anymore when I see him and stop.

Danny nearly walks into my back. “What the fuck, Harrington?”

I don’t answer. I’m staring across the atrium toward the administrative offices.

Kaid follows my eyes first. His expression changes. “Oh.”

X finally puts his phone away.

Iz turns. “Why the fuck is Count Chocula here?”

Victor is standing beside one of the administrators in a dark suit, coat folded over one arm, talking like a man in his fifties visiting his eighteen-year-old fiancée at her high school is something nobody should find strange. Nobody at Edgewood will say they find it strange. That’s different. This place is built on people knowing exactly when not to ask questions.

A girl coming out of the office looks at Victor, then immediately looks away — then looks back the second she thinks he can’t see her. Two guys passing him lower their voices. A teacher smiles at him in that polite adult way people do when they recognize a name before they recognize a person. Heads down. Eyes fucking everywhere. Edgewood Prep.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Kaid asks.