Page 116 of Science Project

They were trying to find me.

Tears blurred my vision. I clung to Ms. Simmons harder, the knowledge that the police were closing in on us sinking in so deeply. My dream life had been so close, just in reach. If they found me now, then they’d kill me.

But what would happen if we stayed here? Would they hurt Jamal and his family too?

“How’s Redwood reacting?” I asked her when she pulled away.

After wiping her tears, she shook her head. “Everyone’s angry.” She glanced out the front window, then drew the curtains so nobody could see into the house. “I hope the rest of you kids are staying safe.”

My phone buzzed in my hand, startling me, as Akio walked down the stairs.

Allie: It’s insane out here.

Allie: Everyone is rioting over the video.

Allie: The police department is on fire. We just drove past.

Allie: We saw your father. He’s acting crazy. He was aggressive toward Jace.

Allie: And Jace shot him.

The words on the screen sent shock waves through my body. The messages were coming in so quickly. I dropped the phone. Everything inside me was so empty. I didn’t know how to feel. Was he dead? People actually cared about me? The station was on fire?

Akio picked up the phone from the ground and read the texts. His eyes widened in shock, but his body didn’t falter like mine had. He was stronger than I was, especially when I needed him the most.

He grabbed my hand. “If your father is hurt, if he’s weak, then we need to find him.”

My heart pounded in my chest as he pulled me toward the door.

“This is our chance,” Akio said. “To end this all for good.”

“You can’t go out there now!” Jamal’s mother called.

“We’ll be back,” I said over my shoulder. “I promise that we’ll come back.”

“Alive,” she said. “You’d better come back alive!”

“We will!”

I didn’t know where all my confidence had come from, but Akio was right. If Jace had shot my dad, he was lying in a puddle of his blood somewhere in Redwood and bleeding out, probably at the hospital or back at home.

And I would bet that he had gone home.

Nobody in the hospital would treat him if everyone was reacting as Allie and Jamal’s mother had made it seem like they were.

Sirens still blared around us, but Akio tightened his grip on my hand, and we headed toward João’s house on foot, which was where we had parked Akio’s car last night. We were going to find a way to escape this town and start a new life.

My father’s reign of terror was over. Today, I’d make sure of it.

CHAPTER

SEVENTY-THREE

NICOLE

I stared across the spacious warehouse at my father. Blood seeped out of his bullet wound and created a small puddle on the ground underneath him. He screamed and tried to escape the rope that Kai had just finished putting on him, but he wasn’t getting out.

No, not this time.

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