Page 120 of Science Project

“No,” I repeated, unfastening his binds. “That’s enough torture for tonight.”

“Where the fuck are you taking him?” Kai said, placing a hand on my chest. “I thought?—”

“I’m going to bury him alive.”

After staring at me in shock for a few moments, Kai pulled his arm away from me and then turned back to the exit of the warehouse. “I’ll bring Poison’s van around back. It’s easier to clean than trying to get blood out of car cushions.”

My lips curled into a smirk, and I dragged Nicole’s father’s body across the warehouse to the exit, creating a trail of deep sanguine blood after him. Her father had lost a lot of blood tonight, but he was still alive. And I wanted his last moments to be wonderful.

Just like the life he had given Nicole.

A moment later, Kai pulled up and hopped out of the driver’s seat. I hadn’t known that they had another car, but I guessed they used it to take care of business like this. Maybe they’d used this van to dispose of Principal Vaughn’s body too.

After opening the back, we stuffed in Nicole’s father and slammed the door. I slipped into the passenger seat and clicked on my seat belt—can’t break any more laws tonight—and then we took off through Redwood.

“I know a place,” Kai said, turning onto the highway.

I stared emptily through the windshield, listening to the rain pattering against it and the sweet sounds of Nicole’s father’s grunts in the back. The melody was a nice one that I would burn into my memory forever.

About fifty minutes later, Kai pulled into a wooded area way outside Redwood. We exited the car. While I opened the back and pulled Nicole’s father’s body out of it, Kai retrieved two shovels from somewhere deep in the woods.

We found a spot that hadn’t had the dirt pulled up yet, and I dropped Nicole’s father on the ground to start digging. After forty-five minutes of us digging a hole deep enough for his body, I rolled him deep down into it and listened to the thud as he dropped.

A grunt left his mouth, and he fluttered his eyes open, his body still tied.

“What’s going on?” he asked, his voice groggy. “What happened? I feel like?—”

I dropped some dirt onto his wound, and he winced. Then, he stared up at me as if all the memories were flooding back through his head. My lips curled into a smirk as he screamed and shouted for someone to help.

But I continued filling the hole with dirt until everything but his face was covered.

“Let me out! Someone, please?—”

I scooped up some more dirt and dropped it into his mouth, filling it completely. And even when he stopped screaming, when he stopped moving underneath the dirt, we finished until there was no more dirt left.

Until I knew he was dead.

CHAPTER

SEVENTY-SIX

AKIO

A blanket of darkness lay over the Redwood slums when I pulled up to Jamal’s house. It had been several hours since we had left this morning, but Nicole had come back here after I asked her to stay safe.

Now that I had taken care of her father, I couldn’t wait to see the relief on her face.

She deserved this vengeance more than anyone.

When I parked, Jamal opened the front door and glanced out at my car, giving me a stare that I would bet he gave the opposing football team on Friday nights. I exited the car to show him that I wasn’t any trouble, and his expression softened.

Nicole glanced over his shoulder at me and smiled. He stepped back, said a few words to her, and allowed her to walk out with a heaping plate of food that Jamal’s mom must’ve told her to take with her.

As she made it halfway to me, I spotted Jamal’s mom behind him. “If you need anything, sweetheart, you’re always welcome!” she shouted. “My home is your home. I’ll cook for y’all anytime y’all want it.”

“Thank you,” Nicole called, waving her off.

I opened the car door for Nicole, but before she slipped into the passenger seat with her plate, she leaned over and planted a sweet, lingering kiss on my cheek. My face warmed, and butterflies fluttered through my stomach.

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