Page 18 of Science Project

“Yui is fine!” he shouted. “I didn’t touch?—”

“Not my mother.” I smashed my foot into the side of his head. “Nicole.”

“Who?”

A low growl escaped my throat, and I dropped to my knees in front of him and hurled my fist at his face. Rage seized hold of me, the way I had seen it take hold of my mother since I had been a kid. And yet, I still couldn’t control myself.

Nor did I want to.

Not after I saw him inside Nicole.

Not after she admitted that he hurt her.

Desperate to shove me off him, he reached for the gun again, this time with his unwounded hand. I kicked it with my boot so the waves washed it away, and I climbed onto him to keep him still.

I had never been a physically strong guy like Mom wanted me to be, but she had taught me how to fight. And I was going to use that to kill one of her men because he fucking deserved it for everything he had done.

Once I grabbed his collar, I slammed his skull into the rocks repeatedly.

Not stopping until blood gushed out of an open wound on his head.

Screaming and shouting and shrieking, he attempted to push me away, to hit me back, to stab me with whatever type of sharp rock the waves had washed up into his grimy hands. But there was no stopping me.

Crimson gore stained my hands. My knuckles had split open. Salty water soaked the bottoms of my pants. But seeing this man struggle underneath me, tasting his blood spraying back up at me from his worthless body, feeling the life leave his corpse …

Made it all worth it.

When he didn’t even twitch after one last punch, I released his collar and stood over him on the rocks. Then, I spit on him like I believed he had probably done to Nicole. He’d just seemed like that kind of asshole.

My chest rose and fell harshly at the sudden burst of energy and adrenaline. And I could barely see straight. But I wasn’t worried about what I had just done. I would do it over and over again if I had to.

So, after slipping his phone into my pocket, I used the heel of my shoe to shove him into the Atlantic Ocean. With waves this rough, his body would be shredded by morning. And if anyone did find him, nobody would care. He was just another pawn in my mother’s game, just someone expendable. Like anyone else would be if they hurt my girl.

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

NICOLE

Me: Wanna meet up tonight?

I leaned against my locker the next day, impatiently tapped my foot, and stared down at the message I’d sent Joe Santos three hours ago. Should I text him again? Why wasn’t he returning my messages? Men like him usually did within minutes.

After tearing off some skin on my inner cheek with my teeth, I double-texted.

Which I had never done to someone like him.

But, damn, I was desperate as fuck not to use Akio for my father’s dirty work. I didn’t want to get him involved at all and would much rather suck it up and let the mob’s grimy hit men use me so I could get information.

Me: Maybe a quickie after I get out of school. xx

Still nothing.

But the Delivered message turned to Read.

I tightened my hands into fists and then I shoved the phone into my purse because he obviously wasn’t interested, and if I couldn’t get any information from anyone, then maybe Dad was right.

My body just wasn’t cutting it anymore.

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