Chapter 218
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED EIGHTEEN
NICOLE
“Landon’s place is up there to the right,” Imani said, cracking her knuckles.
The moment I pulled into the small dirt driveway, Imani jumped out of the car and went barreling toward a back door. I parked, grabbed my purse, and hopped out after her, walking with Allie toward the door. Imani swung the door open.
“What the hell was that?!” she screamed, halfway down the steps.
When we reached the bottom stair, I spotted Imani shoving Jo?o, who had a cigarette between his lips, against a wall. “Are you guys dumb?!” Another push. “You are the stupidest fucking people I’ve met!”
Allie left my side and hurried to Jace, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and melting into him the way I wanted to melt into Akio. “I lost my phone in the crowd. Everyone was going crazy. Sorry for making you worry.”
After kissing her forehead, Jace guided her toward a stained couch.
The basement was larger than I had expected, but still fairly small with a heavy stench of weed. I glanced around, noticing holes in the walls, glass scattered in the corner, and crayons and a coloring book on the coffee table.
Jo?o grasped Imani’s hands and shoved her off. “Don’t push me.”
Yet Imani continued to scream at all three of the Poison boys now. “What’s wrong with you guys?! You can be thrown in jail. You can’t just send out a video to everyone around! Then throw a head into a football game?! Are you serious?!”
“Relax, Imani,” Jo?o said.
“Nobody is going to jail,” Landon continued, taking the pack of cigarettes from Jo?o and lighting one up. He puffed on it once and blew out a cloud of smoke, slumping down on a couch and sighing. “Nothing will happen.”
“You don’t know that!” Imani continued.
Kai placed a hand on her shoulder and glanced at Allie for the quickest second. I pressed my lips together, kinda wishing that Akio were here with me, comforting me like that.
“We’ve done this before,” Kai said. “We know how to clean shit up and hide the evidence. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Imani widened her eyes, shook her head, and backed away. “All three of you are insane.” She looked at Allie and me. “Why aren’t you both freaking out more?! We just saw our principal’s head in the middle of the football field.”
Instead of freaking out like I’d thought she would, Allie blew out a long breath and shrugged her shoulders.
She looked tired, and I didn’t blame her.
From what I had gathered from the video released tonight and from her and Jace’s conversation in the hallway the other day, it seemed like Principal Vaughn had been using Allie to get off.
And I was glad that Poison had killed him.
One last guy who would bother me.
Imani huffed. “You guys can’t just—”
“Calm the fuck down!” Jo?o shouted, putting out his cigarette. “You know what we did when you got involved with us. I gave you a chance to leave. You didn’t. So, sit down and keep your mouth shut before someone hears you screaming at us for what happened.”
Imani marched right up to him and smacked him right across the face, leaving a big fat red handprint on his cheek. Jo?o clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes at her as she muttered something under her breath.
“You want to say that a little louder?” he asked, gritting his teeth in annoyance at her. “Because you’re one more mistake away from me teaching you a fucking lesson on how to behave, Imani.”
Imani turned on her heel, walked to the other side of the room, and sat against the wall. “Fuck you, Jo?o. I hate you.”
When the room finally went quiet, I cleared my throat and sat next to Allie, unsure if she would let me. But she didn’t say a word.
“Well …” I started, explaining what Dad had texted me earlier.
I didn’t partake in Jace’s or my father’s drama, but Jace had a right to know that the police chief was blaming him for this mess tonight.
I didn’t know why, nor did I know much about the supposed files that Jace had stolen from my house.
But I cared.
Even if Jace hated me. Even if Allie hated me. Even if Redwood hated me.
I still cared about them.
Landon waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about the police chief. We’re taking care of him next. He’s the only person standing in the way of Redwood’s fall. All the other police officers don’t know shit about all the blackmail your father has been doing throughout the years.”
I teetered back and forth on the sofa and toyed with the ends of my skirt.
Kai and Jace began chatting tensely about something that I couldn’t care less about, so I let my mind wander. If Poison took care of my father like they said they would, then maybe I could be with Akio without him getting himself in trouble with Pick.
Akio didn’t know what Pick looked like, and I had made sure not to give him any more details than just his name. He was too cute and small, too sweet to get in the middle of any of my crazy drama. Plus, I didn’t want him to find out the truth.
Pick would surely spill it if put in a life-or-death situation.
“Will you really take care of my father for me?” I asked Landon.
Jace, Allie, and Kai were still chatting. Jo?o and Imani had disappeared upstairs, screaming at each other like an old married couple. And I was so, so alone with nobody to lean on, nobody to talk to. I had even lost Akio tonight.
“I don’t know when,” Landon said. “But that’s the plan.”
“Good,” I whispered, tucking some hair behind my ear. “That’s good.”