Chapter 15
APOLLO
Jo?o leaned against a set of lockers, a cigarette dangling from his lips while he talked to some tall, blonde, and brawny kid. Almost as if he knew I was coming for him, he looked up when I approached. “DeLuca.”
“I need information,” I said, pausing in front of him.
He took a long drag from his cigarette and blew smoke out between us, pulling the cigarette from his mouth, a smirk crawling onto his face. “Information costs money. Help costs more. What do you need?”
“You already know, don’t you?” I asked. “How much?”
After flicking the ash off the end of his cigarette, he tilted his head. “How much you got, pretty boy?” He stalked around me. “Heard you come from money. Your daddy’s a bit too popular around here.”
I clenched my jaw and reached into my pocket to grab my phone. I didn’t have cash on me, but I could transfer whatever he wanted into his account. “Give me your number, and I’ll send you everything I have.”
“This is for Daphne? She’s worth that much to you?”
“What’s it to you?” I snapped. “Give me your number.”
“Information is knowledge, and knowledge isn’t power. It’s money.”
“Give me your fucking number, Rocha. I don’t have time to fuck around with you.”
“I need cash.”
“I don’t have cash.”
Jo?o growled and waved his cigarette at me. “Then get out of here until you do.”
“God, I fucking hate this town,” I muttered, dragging a hand across my face. “You follow me to the bank, and I’ll get you the money. Then you’re going to help me get Daphne back and take care of the mess afterwards, got it?”
Jo?o peered at the blonde, who shrugged. “Where’s Kai?”
“With Imani. Why? You want him in on this too?”
“Find him and meet us at the bank,” Jo?o said to the blonde.
Once he disappeared down the hallway, Jo?o grabbed the back of my neck and guided me toward the exit doors. I yanked myself out of his hold, storming down the hallway because I didn’t need to be guided.
What I needed was to find Daphne. Now.
“What do you know about Mark Sesta?”
“Why? Got a crush on him too?”
“He took her. I know he did. He’s stalking her.”
Jo?o dropped his cigarette on the tiled floor and stomped it out before slipping out the door and into the freezing cold. “Mark Sesta isn’t some high school loser. He’s dangerous. Part of a rival gang. Killed his parents. It was a whole thing.”
“That fucker is part of a gang?”
“He’s unstable.”
“And you’re any more stable?” I asked under my breath.
“Don’t be a dick,” he growled. “Last person to show interest in Daphne disappeared last year. Never to be seen again… until he washed up at the Overlook. You, pretty boy, have to be careful with him. Or that’ll be you next.”
I found my way to my car. “Not if I kill him first.”