Page 124 of My Brother's Best Friend

“No, but thank you.”

Once I pulled her into a hug because she needed it, I followed Blaise and Mateo into the hallway. While I expected them to head to the café, Blaise stopped at Imani’s door, where Poison was gathered outside with Alec.

“Why don’t you pick us up something in the cafeteria, kid?” Blaise offered Mateo, gently nudging him down the hallway. “Heard that chocolate pudding is good. I gotta talk to Poison for a bit, okay?”

Mateo glanced at me. I shook my head.

“I’ll come down in a couple of minutes. I promise,” I said. After Mateo disappeared down the hallway toward the elevators, I cleared my throat and turned toward Poison. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan is that you’re not getting involved anymore,” Alec growled.

My eyes widened at how aggressive he suddenly was in front of everyone else. “Alec?—”

“No, Maddie,” he said between gritted teeth. “You almost died today.”

“But I didn’t.”

“But you fucking will,” Alec said, “if you keep trying to solve everyone’s problems.”

“To solve everyone’s problems?!” I exclaimed. “We were looking for Nicole because she hadn’t been answering any messages and hadn’t shown up at school after the funeral. We thought something had happened to her.”

“And what would have happened to her?” he said. “She’s the police chief’s daughter.”

Blaise stiffened next to me while Poison feigned surprise. Did Alec not know about Nicole? I thought I had told him or that he had heard it from someone else. Maybe he had heard it but didn’t remember because his life had been just as crazy lately.

“Alec,” I whispered, moving forward, wanting to tell him so he could see that what I had done was justified. But I should’ve done it alone and not dragged Vera along with us because I was the one who had gotten her in this mess.

“Not here,” Landon growled, glancing at the cops lingering at the other side of the hall.

“We can talk about specifics back at my place,” Kai offered.

“I’m not leaving the hospital,” I said, arms crossed.

“God, you’re as annoying as Imani,” João said, rolling his eyes.

I snapped my hand around his collar and yanked him toward me, not giving a damn about the consequences. “I get that you think we don’t know what we’re doing, but at least we give a fuck about our friends. We’re smart, and we have connections too. Let us work with you—at least until the end of the year. Nobody will suspect a thing from a group of good girls. We can take down this shitty town forever.”

CHAPTER76

ALEC

“Wolfe!” Landon called from down Redwood’s hallway, jogging to catch up with me. He kept my pace as we headed for the cafeteria and nodded toward a side hallway. “We’re meeting with Avery in five. You’re coming with us.”

“Me?” I asked. “What happened to you agreeing to work with the girls?”

Not that I actually wanted them to work with Poison. But João had finally cracked yesterday while sitting in the hospital and told Maddie that if she kept her mouth shut, they would work with them. And I was still pissed.

“Fuck that,” João growled from behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder to see him pulling out a pack of cigarettes and walking alone toward Landon and me, heavy bags under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept.

“They’re not getting involved.”

Thank fuck.

“You need to control your girl, Wolfe,” João said, lighting up in the middle of the hallway and blowing smoke out through his nose. He pulled the cigarette from his lips and shook his head. “She’s fucking crazy.”

“She’s passionate,” I said.

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