Page 84 of Heirs of Havoc

He’s laying into me but it hits me. “I have nowhere to go.” My fingers sink into the skin of my palm. “And aren’t you working with the Bratva?” I’m looking for leverage. For help. “Lucie Lozano and Milo Murphy. Aren’t they—”

His hands slam on his desk, cutting off my words. “I want you off this campus by sundown.” Looking behind me, he nods before firm hands come to my wrist.

“Hey! Wait!” The guard pulls me towards the door, my sneakers stumbling over the other.

“Figure it out, Mia!” McQueen calls. “On your own!”

* * *

My sneakers slap against the rainy Clementine road. Hands on my arms, tears stream down my face, my hair sticking to my head.

I deserve this. All of it.

But Dominik and his men don’t.

The school doesn’t want me. Chaya hates me. And I don’t know if Dom’s men are ever coming back.

There’s only one other place in town that’s felt like home.

Godfrey Books.

Gunshots still ring through my ears, the chaos that ripped through the school still fresh in my mind. McQueen’s right. I’m a liability. I should’ve left a long time ago. It shouldn’t take a shootout and getting kicked off campus to get the picture. I’m taking a risk being on my own with my dad’s goons hiding in every corner. I have nowhere left to go in town.

Nowhere except Nani.

“No way,” I mutter, my hands falling from my chilly arms. Approaching Godfrey Books, my memories aren't the only things bringing a shock up my spine. “Nani?” Stepping over broken glass, I make my way through the window of the bookstore. Well, what’s left of it. “What the hell happened?”

My eyes wander the havoc, the inside of the store matching the front. Books and pages lay scattered on the dirty wooden floor next to broken, knocked over shelves. Leaves and branches from the “Tree of Life” add to the mess and even the cross in the middle of the shop sits snapped in two. If God didn’t do this, someone with God-like wrath did.

But who?

Rushing over to Nani’s booth, I hope she's okay. “Nani?”

It doesn’t smell like spices and baked goods, and when I get to her side of the store, it's as smashed as the rest of the shop.

“Mia?” Nani comes out of the backroom, wheeling out a suitcase. My shoulders drop when I see her in one piece. She’s not wearing her usual apron, a brown blazer over a yellow dress. “Where have you been?” She drops her luggage before embracing me in a big hug. “You alright?”

“Me?” She squishes my head against her cushiony chest, the smell of nutmeg coming off her. “What happened to the store?”

She looks around the shop with me, sighing, “Whatever happened doesn’t matter. You’re okay.” My eyes scan the store, stopping on a pack of …

Fuck. Oh fuck, no.

A pack of spearmint gum lays next to an overturned shelf, and I know exactly what that means.

Daddy wants me home.

Chapter Thirty-Two

“Mia?” It’s only when Nani lowers her chin that I realize I’m sobbing against her chest. “What’s the matter? Is it those boys?”

“Wh-what?” My brows furrow, warm tears drenching her dress.

Nani chuckles, a finger wiping away a tear. “I'm old, but I’m observant. Feliks and his friends. What did they do?”

“No-nothing…” Clenching to Nani’s shirt, more tears stream from my eyes.

“Mia?”

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