Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
NICOLE
“Dad,” I whispered, staring out my windshield, “someone will see.”
With his hand fondling my breast, Dad leaned back in my passenger seat and stared out the windshield with me. “People will turn blind with enough money, Nikki. Don’t worry about this. I’ll protect you as long as you do everything I say.”
I pressed my quivering lips together and sank down in my car. We were in the student parking lot, an hour before school actually started, and while there weren’t many students here yet, Jo?o had parked in the corner of the lot about five minutes ago.
“Have you gotten me any information about Yui yet?” he asked, seizing my nipple.
When he squeezed, my body jerked from the sudden pressure, and he placed his hand over the growing bulge in his pants. I shoved back the tears and hoped that he’d stop, get back into his police car parked beside me, and drive far, far away.
Drive into the Atlantic Ocean. Drown.
“A bit from Joe Santos,” I whispered.
While I’d received the information last week, I hadn’t told him yet because I wanted to drag this out for as long as possible. I didn’t want him pushing me to get closer to Akio for more and more information.
“Joe Santos?” Dad repeated, pinching my nipple even harder. “He’s dead.”
“What?” I asked in a breath.
Then, he used his fingernails to dig into my nipple, like he usually did as punishment.
“You’re lying to me,” he growled. “Where’d you get the information?”
“I-I am not lying,” I whispered.
“He washed up onshore last night. Dead.”
My eyes widened. “S-someone killed him? But I was with him just the other day …”
Dad’s hand snapped around my throat, and he squeezed hard, his other hand dropping between my legs. He shoved his hand up my skirt and thrust two fingers into my dry pussy. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
With stinging eyes, I shook my head. “I-I don’t know. I’m sorry.”
After tightening his grip around my throat until I could barely breathe, he pounded his fingers deep into my pussy. I bit down on my lip hard enough that I could taste the blood pooling in the bottom of my mouth.
Tears streamed down my face. “P-please, stop.”
“Why did I think a bitch like you could do anything right?” he growled, spitting on my cheek. “You should’ve fucking told me the second you found out. Makes me think you’re hiding other shit from me.”
“I’m not,” I cried. “I p-p-promise.”
“Bullshit, Nicole. I know when you’re lying.”
“Please.” When I couldn’t take it anymore, I grabbed his wrist. “Y-you’re hurting me.”
Instead of stopping, he added a third finger and stretched me out even more. I stared at him in desperation, stars clouding my vision and my head lolling slightly to the side. It was … getting harder to breathe.
“Dad,” I said, my voice dry, “please.”
He squeezed my neck even harder for another moment, then released me. But instead of storming out of my car, driving away, and getting into a car accident, like I had wished would happen for years, he dropped his now free hand to my tits again, fondling and squeezing them.
Just how he liked.
“Your sister took punishment better than you do,” he sneered. “No crying from her.”
Lips quivering, I sniffled and attempted to stop the tears. But they kept pouring down my face as he ripped open my button-up shirt and slapped one of my tits. I dug my fingernails into my thighs, enough to cut through the skin, all to keep quiet.
To be good.
So he wouldn’t hurt me more.
“What information do you have for me?” he snarled.
“I-it’s in the glove compartment.”
After another moment of him slamming his fingers into me, he pulled them out and opened the glove compartment. Inside it was a single yellow envelope that I had taken off Joe.
Dad grabbed it, exited the car, and slammed the door. I sank down in my seat and watched him drive off through the tears in my eyes. Once he was gone, I wiped my cheeks, reapplied some makeup, and buttoned up my shirt.
Pussy stinging, I stepped out of my car and smoothed out my skirt. Since it was still almost an hour until school started, I marched over to Jo?o, both to confront him about Akio and wanting to hurt someone because I hurt.
Being mean never made me feel better in the long run, but it gave me a sense of control for a few moments. And a moment of control in a life that I didn’t control made me feel powerful. Even if it didn’t last forever.
My heels clacked against the pavement, but Jo?o didn’t even look up.
“Have a good conversation with Daddy?”
I seethed at Jo?o. “What’d you do to him?”
Leaning against his car with windows tinted darker than what was legal, he scrolled through his phone. “To who?” he asked. “Carter, Jace, or your little boyfriend that you’re trying to keep a secret from Red?—”
With my teeth gritted together, I smacked the phone out of his hand and kicked him straight in the balls. Who did he fucking think he was? Jo?o knew exactly who I was talking about because Poison had beaten him up just last week.
Grunting, he fell to his knees.
“What the fuck?!” he growled, clutching his precious jewels. “You bitch.”
“I might be a bitch, but I asked you a question. What did you do to Akio?”
“I didn’t do shit to Akio,” he said through his teeth. Using his grip on his car, he slowly stood back up, his hand over his crotch and a low grunt leaving his mouth. “Why do you have to be a fucking bitch to everyone?”
“If you didn’t do anything, why does he have a black eye?”
If I couldn’t protect myself, the least I could do was protect someone I cared about.
Like Hannah had done for me.
“Crazy fucking thought, you bitch,” he growled, “but maybe ask him?”
I crossed my arms. “I don’t appreciate your attitude.”
“I don’t fucking appreciate that you just kicked me in my fucking balls.”
Fuming with anger that either Jo?o was lying or Akio was being beaten up by someone he refused to tell me about, I twirled on my heel and stormed toward the building. “Hurt him again, and I’ll kick them so hard that they come out through your throat.”
“Fuck you,” Jo?o spit.
After throwing up my middle finger at him, I crossed the teachers’ lot and hopped onto the sidewalk that led to my first class. If Jo?o hadn’t hurt Akio, then who had? Barely anyone knew who he was at Redwood.
Which meant that … it had to have been someone he knew. Well.