Page 224 of Wicked Brutal

Victor’s mouth tightens. “But you are always there. Pennington. Lucian. Reece. Hartley. Every investigation. Every confrontation. Every time one of these boys decides the rules don’t apply to him, Isaac Walsh is standing beside him.”

Iz shrugs. “They’re my brothers.”

No joke. No smile. Simple. And that lands harder in the watching crowd than any insult has, because it’s the only true thing anyone’s said out loud in five minutes.

Victor studies him. Then his mouth curves. “Arthur has always had the same weakness.”

Iz’s expression changes. “Which one?”

“An inability to leave other people’s problems alone.”

“He’s a lawyer.”

“Your father has built a career convincing himself that ruining another man is justified so long as the invoice is large enough.”

Iz smiles. “That’s not how invoices work.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do. It was just stupid.”

Victor’s eyes flash. Then he makes the mistake. “And Darla.”

A girl somewhere behind us actually whispers, “Oh, no.”

Iz hears it. So do I. Everybody fucking loves Darla. Half this school has sat in her office at some point. The other half has had her fix their shoulder, diagnose their concussion, talk them through a panic attack, call their mother, or somehow appear with snacks at exactly the moment their life exploded.

Victor doesn’t know his audience. “Your mother has spent so long collecting credentials and attaching herself to other people’s damaged children that I imagine she’s forgotten how to mind her own family.”

“What the fuck?” Not one of us. Some random girl.

Another voice: “Dr. Walsh is literally the nicest person alive.”

Iz closes his eyes. When he opens them again, he’s smiling. “Interesting.”

Victor looks at him. “What?”

Iz steps closer. “My dad takes down assholes for a living.” Victor’s expression hardens. “My mom fixes what assholes do to people.” The hallway goes still. Iz’s smile widens. “So I think the Walsh family business model is working exactly as intended.”

Someone laughs. Then another. Victor looks around. And I think this is the first time he truly understands what happened. The entire fucking atrium is watching. Not quietly anymore. Phones everywhere. Kids leaning against lockers instead of moving. Students crowded behind classroom door windows. A teacher standing behind three of them with her arms folded. Two staff members on the far side of the hall who have absolutely no reason to still be there. GlossX notifications keep vibrating in pockets all around us.

Victor came to Edgewood in complete control. Now an entire high school is watching five eighteen-year-old boys laugh in his fucking face.

His gaze snaps back to me. “This is exactly the spectacle I was referring to.” I laugh.

“You made the spectacle.”

“I came here to see my fiancée.”

“And then called me across the hallway.”

Victor hears him. “Do you boys believe being eighteen makes you men?”

Kaid shrugs. “No.”

X says, “But it does make us legal adults.”

Danny adds, “That’s sort of how eighteen works.”