Page 108 of Science Project

But I’d much rather use my hands, like he had with Nicole.

After I slammed my fist into his chin, he stopped moving completely. I stood to my feet and stared down at him with my chest rising and falling quickly, cheeks flushed. I widened my eyes slightly, realizing that this fucker was finally dead, and then I stumbled backward and shook my head, pissed that I would now have to clean up my mess.

“Good job,” someone said from behind me.

Jumping into the air, I reached for my gun in my back pocket and turned around quickly. Kai and João stood behind me. João grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed the muzzle toward the ground so it wasn’t aimed directly at them.

I blew out a breath and dropped the gun completely, then began pacing the room.

“I just killed a man,” I said, realizing that they had watched. Still trying to keep up the good-boy persona that I had lived in for the past four years. Nobody knew about this side of me. Nobody except Nicole. “I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Why’d you kill him?” João asked, crouching beside the officer. “We could’ve used him.”

“He did it to protect his girl,” Kai said, looking at me. “That’s why you did it, isn’t it?”

With my back turned toward him, I gripped the doorframe and clenched my jaw. “I didn’t have proof, but I found out what he did with Nicole, and I lost my shit.”

João pulled up a chair from a table—which was the only other piece of furniture in the room—grabbed me by the shoulders, and shoved me down into it roughly. Then, he gripped a fistful of my dark hair, pulled it back, and shoved the muzzle of his gun underneath my chin.

“I don’t give a fuck what you did. What do you know about my mother?”

What the fuck is he talking about?!

I shook my head. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“She committed suicide. I had two guys I trusted take her out of my house and place her somewhere safe. Today, my mother’s finger was delivered to Imani, and I found those men dead. What the fuck do you know?!”

“All I know is, my parents came home with blood on them yesterday morning,” I said, holding my hands up into the air. I hadn’t talked to them, but I had been watching them from the security cameras. Like a fucking hawk. “I-I don’t know anything else. Ask Kai. I haven’t even had enough time to make it home. I-I left school?—”

“Shut the fuck up,” João said, hitting me in the temple with the side of his gun. “I don’t want excuses. I need fucking answers. Where the hell are your parents? I’m done playing around with Redwood. I’m going to take care of them and every other problem here.”

“If what you know about Nicole is true and your parents are part of this,” Kai interjected, “you’re going to want them dead. And besides, they’ve threatened to kill Imani and her family. They’ll kill you, too, once they find out what you’ve done to one of their trustworthy men. And you fucking know that too. They don’t give a fuck about what happens to you.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding, just to keep João happy. I didn’t have time for this shit. I needed to find my next victim. “The next time I see them, I will?—”

“I want them now!” João growled.

“I don’t know where they are now!” I said. “Apparently, they went out to dinner with Imani’s family hours ago, and they’re going into hiding. They don’t give me any information about anything.”

“Where’d they go out to dinner?” Kai asked.

“Ocean View.”

João stormed out of the room, and I rolled my eyes. Whenever I ran into him, he’d always wonder if I knew shit about random goddamn things and without giving me any context about anything. And it pissed me off.

“Thanks,” Kai said. “You good?”

I wiped my hands on my pants and nodded. “If you find any more of these assholes, text me.”

CHAPTER

SIXTY-FIVE

NICOLE

The warm sun cast an orange glow on the fallen leaves on the pathway just outside the ice cream parlor that Akio had brought me to after school. I had skipped cheer practice because I didn’t want to go anymore and decided that … this was normal.

Skipping practice for a boy. Going on a date. Being happy.

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