Page 74 of Science Project

While I wasn’t a doctor, I did what I could to stop the bleeding and treat them. I couldn’t let them die because of me or Imani. Mom had done this to piss me off, to scare Imani, to keep her parents in place. Imani didn’t know it, but her parents worked for mine.

Blood drenched my hands as I wrapped the last bandage around her mother’s stomach. I sat her up next to her husband and gave them a couple of pills to ease the pain. Imani sobbed next to them, shaking her head uncontrollably and asking why my mom would do this to them.

“She sent them a warning,” I said, swallowing hard because I knew that Mom wouldn’t stop there. “To keep their daughter from getting in their business.”

Next would be Nicole. Mom would hurt her to get me to obey.

I would do anything to protect my girl. She loved me.

CHAPTER

FORTY

AKIO

After I helped Imani clean up her parents and bring them to bed so they could rest, she dragged me to another house in the slums, probably one that belonged to either Landon or Kai from Poison.

I didn’t want to go, but felt obligated to because of what my parents had done to Imani’s. The last thing I wanted was for her to be driving through Redwood with tears blurring her vision and her getting into a car accident.

That would definitely weigh on my conscience.

“Come on!” Imani exclaimed after squealing into the dirt driveway.

I exited the car to follow her.

Once she burst through a door, she hurried down a set of steps that led into a basement. When I reached the bottom stair, I spotted João with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, Kai glaring at me, and Landon with his arms crossed. Allie—Imani’s best friend—also sat on a couch.

“They … they beat my parents up. I found them almost dead.” Imani cried hysterically, like she had been while we drove over here. “I … I didn’t know what to do. I bandaged them as much as I could, but I … I don’t know if I did it right.”

“Slow the fuck down. What happened?” João asked.

After glancing over her shoulder at me, she turned back to Poison and shook her head. “Over dinner, I asked Akio’s parents what they did to Kai’s. They were being assholes, so I left with Akio. We went down to Main Street, and … and I swore that I saw your mother talking to someone. I went to confront him to make sure she was okay, and he tried to kill me. Then?—”

“Who the fuck tried to kill you?” Kai asked, standing up and tucking his gun into the waistband of his cargo pants.

Tears ran down her cheeks, but she quickly pushed them away. “Some guy on Main Street. The same place João had found his mother. Akio …” She looked over her shoulder at me. “Akio saved me.” Imani sat beside Landon, wiping the blood from her hands with a wet towel.

Kai growled and dragged me by the back of my jacket, all the way back up the stairs and through the basement door. After slamming the door behind us, he threw me up against the side of the house. “If I find out that you touched a hair on her fucking head, I will kill you.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t. I swear.”

After shoving me into the street, Kai nodded toward the road. “Walk home.”

If he wanted me gone, then I would leave, but …

“You have to protect her from my parents,” I said, turning back toward him. I wasn’t going to plead because he already knew what my parents were capable of. They had killed his father. “You know how violent they can be to anyone who disrespects them. Imani … she told my mom off during dinner. My mom will want me to kill her for it, and if I don’t do it, they will. Please, keep her safe.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Kai said through gritted teeth. “You’re not welcome.”

“Please, Kai. I can’t protect her,” I whispered. “They’ll kill me if I don’t.”

With his jaw twitching, he stared emptily at me. “Leave.”

So, I left because there was nothing more I could do. I couldn’t protect everyone.

I needed to make sure my parents wouldn’t do anything to her.

On my walk home in the rain, I decided to take a detour because I knew Mom couldn’t wait to gloat about what she had done to innocent people. And I wanted absolutely no part in that. I hoped she was gone by the time I got home.

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