Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AKIO
After stuffing some books into my locker, I kept my gaze on the hallway for any sign of Jace. He hadn’t been alone all last night. But if he had been, I would’ve shown up at his front door, like I had with the other two men who had fucked Nicole, and taken care of him.
Nicole had explicitly said that she wasn’t with him willingly.
Which meant that he must’ve threatened her.
Kai Koh, the third member of Poison, stormed up to me. While Kai stayed on the quieter side, he terrified me the most, more than Jo?o and Landon. I shut my locker and pulled my books to my chest, knowing exactly why he was here.
“I told you to stay the fuck away from Imani,” he said between clenched teeth.
“I-I did.”
Out of all the members of Poison, Kai was the most protective of Imani and the most dangerous. I had heard rumors that he had killed many people with his bare hands. Unlike Landon and Jo?o, who were loudmouths who intimidated their business partners, Kai actually took action.
He’d definitely take action against me. He’d already told me to stay away from her once.
Especially after I’d taunted Jo?o about being with Imani on Saturday night.
Kai grabbed my collar and shoved me against the locker. “Don’t fucking lie to me. You were at Nicole’s house on Saturday night, spying on us, weren’t you?”
“How do you know that? Did she tell you?”
“No,” Kai said. “Imani didn’t tell me anything. I saw you with her.”
“Look,” I said, shaking my head and spotting Jamal Simmons, who was Jace’s best friend, walk down the hallway. “Nothing happened. We were hanging out. I … I don’t even like Imani like that. She’s not my type, and I … I just wanted a friend …”
And I needed to get out of this conversation now so I could pester Jamal about Jace’s whereabouts. He hadn’t shown up yet today. Not only was it a few minutes before the bell rang, but there was a sudden uproar of whispers, Allie Hall’s and Jace’s names being thrown around in the halls. Something must’ve happened.
“It’s not my fault you guys wouldn’t hang out with her this weekend,” I said.
Kai’s grip on my collar tightened as he gritted his teeth. “We were doing a fucking job.”
“What do you want me to say, Kai?” I asked, looking over his shoulder at Jamal, who was staring at his phone with wide eyes.
I glanced around to see cliques of students giggling at their phones. What was going on?
“I want you to tell her what your parents did to mine, and then we’ll see if she still wants to be your fucking friend,” Kai growled, so much anger and rage boiling up inside him, more than usual, all because of Imani.
My parents did so much shit to everyone that I couldn’t keep it straight anymore.
What had they done to Kai again?
Kai released me and reached into his black cargo pants to pull out his phone. On the screen was a picture of Allie Hall with a stack of Playboy and Mayfair magazines and porn DVDs falling out of her locker. It looked like it had been taken moments ago, and it was already circulating social media.
“You’re fucking lucky that I have other shit to deal with,” Kai said to me.
The first bell rang, and Kai shot me one last warning look. Students rushed down the hallways, scrambling to get to their first period while gossiping about Allie and Jace. My phone buzzed, and an image popped up on the screen of Allie standing in front of a thick-as-fuck ten-inch dildo, suction-cupped to her locker.
Well, Imani was about to be livid. I should probably find her.
Curiously, I followed Kai down the hallway and toward Allie’s locker because Imani was bound to be around. I stopped at the end of the hallway and glanced around the corner, watching Carter—the quarterback of the football team—mess with Allie.
“Your date with Jamal go good?” Carter asked Allie, leaning against the locker and crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “You finally let him hit it after those soggy Saturday night fries?”
“Fuck you, Carter,” Allie said through clenched teeth, scrambling to get her books for the day without the DVDs and magazines falling out of it. Her cheeks were red and blotchy, and her eyes were filled with tears.
“Akio,” someone said from behind me, tugging on my wrist, “it’s not safe here.”
“What’s not safe?”
Nicole looked over my shoulder at Carter and Allie with Kai storming toward them. “That.”
Carter pulled the dildo out of her locker. “You buy this because Jamal wasn’t big enough for you, baby?” He stepped closer to her and rested his hand on her shoulder, leaning in. “You wouldn’t have to worry about that with me. I’d fill your tight little ass up until you screamed.”
Allie punched Carter in the jaw, who stumbled back and smirked.
“Feisty,” he said, licking the blood off the corner of his lips. “Just how I like them. You’ll fucking learn to be a good little”—he placed a single finger on her thigh, beneath her skirt—“whore?—”
Kai pulled a gun from his waistband and stuck it against the back of Carter’s neck. “You fucking move your finger a fucking millimeter up her thigh, and you’ll get a bullet in your skull.”
My eyes widened, and Nicole tugged on my wrist again.
“You see. Now, come with me.”
We headed down the hallway.
“What happened with Allie?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But you shouldn’t associate yourself with Poison or Imani.”
“Why not?”
She stopped at the corner of the hallway and looked over. “Because they’re into her and they will do anything to protect her, just like—” She cleared her throat, cheeks reddening, then lowered her voice. “Just like I’d do anything to protect you.”
Warmth spread throughout my chest, but I wondered exactly what she was trying to protect me from. Was it Poison? Maybe Jace was involved in some bad shit somehow? Did she even know who my mother was?
The second bell rang, and I realized that I was late for class again .
“Get to class.” She turned on her heel, her blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders. “But stay out of trouble and meet me in the library at lunch.” She threw me a wink. “I have something for you.”
“Wait,” I said, taking her wrist and pulling her back.
Before I could stop myself, I kissed her on the mouth because something felt different about us today. Maybe it was my imagination, or maybe it wasn’t. But she had come up to me, told me that she’d protect me. And I wasn’t going to let her slip through my fingers.
Not this time.
I pulled away and tucked some strands of hair behind her ear. “I’ll see you at lunch.”