Chapter 83
CHAPTER 83
MADDIE
A fter the funeral, we headed to Poison’s place with all our friends from the group. Jo?o sat on a dirty white plastic chair with an unlit cigarette in his mouth while flicking a lighter in front of him. I nestled on the couch next to Vera.
Alec had been acting weird since he had finished his conversation with his coach, but I attributed that to him having to bury both of his parents today. Even though he hated both of them, it must have been hard.
“Gotta give it to you.” Jo?o lit the cigarette. “Didn’t think you had the balls, Wolfe.”
“What’re you talking about?” I asked, glancing between Alec and Jo?o.
Alec stiffened. “It’s nothing, Maddie.”
Jo?o chuckled. “No shit. You didn’t tell her, did you?”
“There’s nothing to tell her,” Alec growled. “Drop it.”
“What happened?” I asked, looking from Alec to Jo?o to a suspicious Kai and back.
What aren’t they telling me? And what is this big hush-hush secret that Alec has with Poison, who he supposedly hates?
After twisting his chair around, Jo?o sat backward in it and leaned forward, cigarette between his fingers and a smirk written across his face. “Your little boyfriend took Kai’s gun and killed his mama.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“I didn’t kill her,” Alec gritted out between his teeth.
“What did she do?” I asked him.
Tears trembling in his eyes, Alec dropped down onto the couch and stared emptily at the wall that was decorated with holes the size of fists. “She was the one who sent you those messages, who put you in danger, who ordered Piper to … do what she did to me.”
“Wh-what?”
Mrs. Wolfe was behind all of this from the very beginning? What in the fucking world possessed her to be batshit crazy? What kind of drugs has she been taking? What kind of business has she been into?
“But I didn’t do it,” Alec said, almost as if to reassure himself. “I swear I didn’t.”
“Yeah, yeah. Your daddy did it.” Jo?o waved dismissively again. “I don’t give a shit what kind of story you tell the town. I just didn’t think you had it in you to kill both your shitty parents. Easier to clean Redwood’s billionaire row for us.”
“I didn’t do it,” Alec repeated, this time more firmly.
Alec didn’t have to say who had actually killed her because if he hadn’t done it, then the only other person with him during that time had been Oliver. I highly doubted that Alec would kill anyone, but if pushed enough … Oliver would.
Especially if it was for me.
“Drop it.” I cleared my throat. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re not here to talk about who killed who. We’re here to discuss how we’re going to fix the problem that we have.”
“We’re not going to leave it in your hands,” Imani said to Poison, more specifically to Jo?o, while crossing her arms. “Someone tried to kill us, and I don’t feel safe with them running around town.”
Jo?o leaned back, blowing out smoke through his nose. “What do you want me to do about it?”
“Let us help you,” Imani said. “Like you agreed to do at the hospital.”
“I wanna take down those fuckers,” Allie said, crossing her arms.
“Me too,” Nicole said.
“Um …” Vera glanced at Blaise, gently drawing her fingers over her wound. She was supposed to be sleeping now, but Blaise had said she had dragged them out to see us. “I’ll bake you guys some cookies and cheer you on from the sidelines while I recover.”
Sakura leaned back on the couch, one hand on her belly. “Can you please make raisin oatmeal?”
“Fuck no.” Jo?o scrunched his nose. “You’d better make chocolate chip cookies if you want us to do your dirty work.”
Sakura’s eyes filled with tears. “B-but I’ve been craving them.”
Vera gently rubbed Sakura’s shoulder. “I’ll make raisin oatmeal and chocolate chip. Don’t worry, Sakura. I got you.”
“So, does that mean you’re in?” I asked Jo?o.
Jo?o glanced at Landon and Kai, who nodded, and then he turned back to us. “We’re in. Let’s kill these motherfuckers.”
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