Page 94 of Science Project

“Yes, Imani, and I?—”

“Who is targeting her?” Kai asked.

After tightening my jaw—because he had to know that my mom and her posse had it out for Imani ever since that day Imani had told her off—I nodded. Kai flared his nostrils and tightened his hands into fists.

“Your parents gave you that,” Kai said, nodding to my face. “Didn’t they?”

I reached up and touched the slightly swollen eye that Mom had given me this afternoon because I hadn’t returned one of her calls yesterday. But I didn’t care. If she was preoccupied with me, then she wouldn’t have time for Nicole or Imani.

“Listen … you can’t tell anyone that I told you,” I said, thinking about the conversation I had overheard after she sucker-punched me. “They were talking about getting rid of her and her family if things get much worse. They know you have shit on them, and they don’t want to risk anything with the Feds.”

Kai grabbed me by the collar. “If you find out that they plan on killing her, you tell me. I don’t care how the fuck you do it. You make sure that I’m the first fucking person to find out. Do you understand me? You get me anything you can on them.”

I nodded. “They don’t have any plans that I know of yet, but I will let you know. I don’t want Imani to get in the middle of this. All she’s trying to do is get out of Redwood. If she can get through the rest of this year alive, then she’ll be safe.”

“Why are you fucking doing this?” Kai asked.

“Because I don’t want Imani to get hurt.”

“Why?”

“Because I care about her.”

“Do you like her?”

“As a friend,” I said. “Nothing more, Kai. I swear. I like someone else.”

“Who?”

I furrowed my brow, not wanting to tell him because he had seen what I did to Pick the other day. That was his bike speeding down the roadways, and if he found out that I liked Nicole, I didn’t know what would happen.

“Nobody,” I said. “You don’t even know?—”

“Who?” Kai asked, hand behind his back, probably clutching his gun.

“Nicole,” I said, turning away. “Okay? I like Nicole.”

Kai scrunched his nose. “The cheerleader?”

“Yes, the cheerleader.”

Suddenly, he curled his lips into a smirk and laughed. And then just as quickly as he chuckled, his expression dropped. “If you withhold any information about your parents, I’ll torture Nicole in front of you.” He glanced down at the blood by my feet, then back up at me. “And you know I’m not fucking around. Get me information, Akio.”

Now, I was off to find Nicole.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-FOUR

NICOLE

“Just like that, Nikki,” Dad grunted behind me. “Arch your back.”

Fuck, what is wrong with me?! Why didn’t I just tell Akio?

With tears burning my eyes, I gripped on to the couch cushion and took the pain of every one of Dad’s rough thrusts inside me. He smacked me hard on the ass over and over until I could almost feel the welts.

The day after I had returned from Akio’s, Dad had told me that he’d found Pick—one of his lifelong friends—dead. And since that day, he hadn’t let me go to cheer practice. He hadn’t let me stay after school. He picked me up, brought me home, and took his anger out on me.

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