Chapter 227
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN
NICOLE
When I pulled up to Landon’s house in the slums, I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea, but I didn’t know who else to go to. If I wanted to prove to not only Akio, but Hannah, that I wanted out, then I needed to do this.
I blew out a breath and exited the car, pushing some tears off my cheeks.
The door’s slam echoed through the slums, and I walked on the dirt driveway to the door I had entered the other day with Allie and Imani. A couple of other cars were parked on the road in front of the house, which meant that more than Poison was here tonight.
Could I tell my secrets to everyone who hated me?
After gathering the courage, I opened the door and walked down the stairs. When I reached the bottom step, the entire room—Jace, Allie, Imani, and Poison—collectively rolled their eyes. I dropped my gaze to my feet, guilt rushing through me.
They all hated me.
“Hey, guys,” I whispered, trying to muster up all the confidence that I had left.
I lifted my gaze and met the confused stare of some other girl with red hair that I didn’t even think Poison hung out with, feeling just as confused.
“Weird that you’re here, but …” Fuck, can I do this with just random Redwood students here? “Okay …”
Nobody said a word, so I took off my shoes at the door and walked to the couch, where the only free spot was next to Jace. Allie pulled him closer to her so we weren’t touching—which we hadn’t been anyway—and clenched her jaw.
“You said you had information,” she said. “Tell us or get out.”
My eyes widened slightly, the nerves piling up. I hoped that they believed me.
Jace placed a hand on Allie’s knee and squeezed. “We’ll leave soon, baby. Settle down.”
Tears watered in my eyes, and I straightened myself out.
“About my father …” My throat began closing, but I forced myself to continue.
“This can’t … nobody can know that this information came from me.
Please, if you can make it look like you got it some other way, please do it.
I don’t want my father to be angry with me. I want him put away.”
If I thought the room had been silent before, nobody even sucked in a breath now.
“He’s using the cheer team to do his dirty work,” I started because I couldn’t lead with …
He rapes me.
Landon rolled his eyes. “God, why is it always the cheer team in the drama?”
I pressed my lips together, feeling a flood of tears about to burst through. Nobody would believe me. They just thought it was all some drama that I’d caused because what the hell else would Nicole do, huh?
“I’m being serious,” I said, voice cracking.
“He found out that Principal Vaughn had been taping people in the locker rooms. It started with the cheer squad. He let it slide as long as he was able to take some of the film of the girls. He’s been using it against us and blackmailing us into getting information about people in Redwood for him, threatening to leak the tapes and ruin our lives if we don’t. ”
Jace shifted next to me, an unreadable expression on his face.
He and I’d had a fling—nothing too deep—at the beginning of the school year, and he had walked in on me with his archnemesis.
“That’s why I slept with Carter,” I said. “I never loved you. I just … my father wanted me to get information out of you. I knew it was wrong. I fucking knew it.”
“What?” Jace asked. “He’s doing that?”
I wiped tears from my cheeks with a shaky hand. “That’s not all. He’s roped some of the girls into a sex ring, and he was helping pimp them out at one point. He’s doing it all for the money. He’s so … so greedy. He doesn’t care.”
A sob escaped my mouth, and I held myself tighter.
“I-I-I’m one of those girls,” I said, a complete and utter mess of tears and snot. “He used me, forced me to have sex with men sixty years older than me. Just to get a quick few bucks. I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. I’m so sorry.”
I collapsed onto someone’s lap, but my eyes were so blurry that I could barely see straight anymore. All I could feel was pain and relief. They wouldn’t believe me—hell, they didn’t even know the extent of it—but I was so relieved that I wasn’t living this alone.
So relieved that others knew about it.
“Prove it,” Landon said, waving me off and lighting up a cigarette. “Why should we believe you? All you have done is lie for and protect your father for the past few years. Why tell us now?”
After sitting up, I wiped my eyes. “Because … because I know that you can do something about it now. I know that you can put him away for years, if you … if you want to. And I’m begging you to do something. If you don’t, I’ll be stuck here for the rest of my life.”
A few silent moments passed, and the dread returned.
I stood. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
Instead of responding to me, Jo?o looked at Kai, who shrugged. “I didn’t find any of that footage when we went through the principal’s computer, but he could’ve stashed it elsewhere. I don’t know. She could be lying, or she could be telling us the truth about her father. We know he’s a prick.”
Jo?o shared a look with Landon, then looked at me and nodded to the door. “Get out.”
My chest tightened, and my feet stayed glued to the spot.
I want to die.
That was the first and only thought that crossed my mind at that moment.
People knew, but nobody believed me. Nobody cared. Not even Akio.
Allie’s eyes widened. “You’re going to make her leave? After what she told you?”
“She can’t prove this. We have nothing to go off of and nothing to hurt her father with,” Jo?o said, glancing back at me. “You bring me all the shit you can find to prove to me that you’re not lying, and we’ll help you out. If you can’t, then you’re stuck.”
I shook my head. “But I-I—what am I supposed to get? How am I supposed to give it to you? What kind of evidence do you need? He doesn’t let me into his office, and he somehow always knows if I try to sneak in there or not.
I can’t get you anything.” I rubbed the back of my neck and stared at the ground through wide eyes. “Please, you have to believe me.”
Jo?o sighed heavily through his mouth and stood, grabbing me by the arm and dragging me to the door. “I told you that I want you out,” he said through clenched teeth. “Come back when you have something that we can use.”
As he dragged me to the stairs, I looked back at Jace and Allie. “You have to believe me. Please, Allie, please. You’re the only one who does. I can see it. Don’t let them—”
Before I could finish, Jo?o shoved me out and slammed the door in my face.
I was all alone. Truly alone.