Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
AKIO
Later, I sat at the dinner table at Imani’s house with Mom, unable to get the words Nicole had said to me out of my head. I swore she had said that she loved me. Me! And like the idiot that I was, I’d completely frozen up and not known how to respond.
So, I had run away from her. I had blown it.
After groaning to myself, I turned back to the dinner in front of me.
Usually, Dad had dinner with Imani’s parents and always tried to set us up. But tonight, Mom was here, and something felt … off. Or maybe I was feeling this way because Nicole had told me that she loved me out of nowhere, and I hadn’t said it back …
Even though I might love her too.
Imani’s mom laughed at something my mother had said, smiled tensely at Imani, then elbowed her. Imani gently rubbed her ribs and cleared her throat. That glint in her eye was the same one she’d had when we snuck over to Nicole’s house the other day.
Which meant that Imani was about to say something she shouldn’t.
And I’d have to clean it up.
“What’d you do to the Koh family?” Imani suddenly asked.
My eyes widened.
Koh, as in Kai, the third member of Poison? Why would she ask that?!
After her parents sucked in a collective breath, an awkward silence fell heavily over the room. I stared at her in hopes of getting her to look at me, to get her to apologize for even bringing it up because Imani didn’t want to know what my parents had done to Kai’s parents.
Imani pursed her lips and looked between my mother and father, who was pale.
“So?” Imani asked, eyebrows arched. “What happened?”
Once my mother regained her composure—because nobody talked to her like that, except me—Mom smiled too widely at Imani and continued eating her steak. “Nothing, sweetie.” She sent daggers my way with her pointed gaze. “Why do you think something happened?”
“Because Kai Koh’s parents are both dead,” Imani said.
Fuck, Imani! Why can’t you keep your mouth closed?!
“Why do you think we had something to do with it?” Mom asked her.
Imani’s nostrils flared.
“Imani,” her mother said harshly, “stop it.”
Pissed off, Imani pushed out of her chair and leaned over the table with her hands posted on it. “People like you won’t get away with everything. Whatever you did to them, you will pay for it one day.”
“Are you threatening me?” Mom asked her, wiping her lips.
Imani held her intense stare. “Yes.”
Oh my fucking God. I can’t have one normal day of my life, can I?
Mom gave a shrill laugh as Imani walked out of the room and into the kitchen.
“Akio, why don’t you take care of your friend ?” Mom said, smiling like she wanted to finish with, Before I have to .
After pushing back my chair, I hurried into the other room and shut the door behind me. “What are you doing?! You can’t say stuff like?—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Imani grabbed her keys from her purse and walked to the back door like she hadn’t just said what she said, like she didn’t fear the punishment that my mother would give her. “Come on.”
Because there would be consequences.
After groaning, I shrugged on my coat and followed after her. I wanted to meet Nicole tonight, to apologize for freezing up and to tell her that I might possibly feel the same way as her, but that wouldn’t happen if I stayed at dinner any longer with Mom. She’d probably want me to do something for her after this. Then, I’d have to watch her splatter blood everywhere.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and grabbed something large and?—
As Imani headed toward her car, I stopped and pulled a gun— a fucking gun —out of my jacket pocket. Mom must’ve placed it there when she got here this evening. I opened it up to see one of the bullets was gone and gritted my teeth.
That damn woman had probably killed a man and stuffed the weapon in my jacket.
I hated her.
Once I shoved it back into my jacket, I climbed into Imani’s car. Instead of chatting it up like she usually did, Imani stayed quiet the entire ride around Redwood. Never once opening her mouth to ask any questions.
She knew that I knew what my parents had done to Kai’s. That was why Kai had especially had it out for me lately. Not only was I friends with Imani—the girl he and his crew liked—but my parents had caused that motorcycle accident that killed his father. And the drugs his mother bought after it to cope with the pain … Mom had sold them to her.
After taking a spin downtown, Imani drove around Main Street and looked out at the dark ocean. Restaurants and shops were filled with the Redwood rich. I stared out the window and scanned for Nicole.
I needed to apologize.
But instead of Nicole, I saw a woman walking with a big, burly man.
Suddenly, like she wanted to kill us, Imani slammed on the brakes. My body moved forward, but the seat belt caught me before I could fly through the windshield. The car behind us laid on its horn, and Imani finally turned on the blinker and pulled to the side of the road.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, yanking on my seat belt.
“Jo?o’s mother,” she said, like I was supposed to know what the hell that meant.
Suddenly, Imani jumped out of the car and began following the woman and the man. I cursed underneath my breath and exited the car, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Poison was doing nothing but corrupting Imani, making her more insane than she was.
Maybe being friends with her wasn’t my best idea.
I could’ve picked Sakura … but she was sleeping with Mr. Avery.
I could’ve picked Allie … but she had her stepbrother drama.
Hell, I even thought that Vera Rodriguez—one of the sweetest girls at Redwood Academy—was banging the billionaire, bad-boy punk who skateboarded around Redwood and pissed off Principal Vaughn.
Nobody in Redwood was normal.
“Imani!” I called after her as she turned a corner and stopped in an alleyway.
Fuck!
I raced toward her, my heart pounding and shoes hitting the pavement.
“You’re Poison’s friend, aren’t you?” a man’s voice asked.
“No,” Imani said.
She crossed her arms and stared down the alleyway at who, I would guess, was the burly man, though I couldn’t see him yet. But I told myself that I really needed to start working out and push myself harder.
“Yeah, you are,” he said, stepping toward her so I could see him now. Towering over her, he curled his upper lip into a snarl. “And Jo?o murdered my boss last week. It looks like it’s time to return the fucking favor.”
When the man reached for a gun in his pocket, I yanked mine out and pulled the trigger twice as fast. Imani screamed and ducked. The man dropped his gun and was clutching his bloody hand that I had shot a hole into.
I had aimed for his chest, but his hand worked too.
With her hands shaking, Imani grabbed the gun he had dropped and turned around to see me with my gun. My eyes widened because nobody was supposed to know that I even had the capability to hurt someone, never mind maybe kill them.
Imani ran toward me and pushed me to the car before any of the man’s friends could come out a back door and shoot at us.
I stared through the windshield, my eyes heavy and stinging. “I-I’m sorry. He … he was going to kill you. He had a gun. I didn’t think …” I continued rambling.
Imani sped to the Overlook, checking in her rearview mirror about a hundred times for any followers, then parked. Then, she took both our guns and shoved them into her glove box. “What the hell was that?!” she exclaimed. “Where did you get a gun?! Where did you learn how to shoot like that?!”
But I was terrified.
I had never shot anyone so quick, especially not in front of people who weren’t my family. I had never allowed anyone to see what I was capable of, especially not the one friend I had at Redwood. And for the first time, I was … thankful that Mom had forced me to go to the shooting range with her.
That was the only thing she had ever been good for.
Only problem now … I needed to make sure Imani kept her mouth shut. If word got around that I’d almost killed a man and Nicole found that out … I might lose her forever. She couldn’t know what I’d done to those assholes she’d been with.