Page 88 of Science Project

He clenched his jaw. “That’d better be all that it is because she’s taken.”

As the words left his mouth, my chest tightened. My first instinct was to ask who she was taken by because Nicole had never mentioned anyone else to me, but she kept a lot of secrets to herself. And I still didn’t think she wanted anyone to know about us.

So, I nodded. “Okay.”

After eyeing me for a few more moments, he turned around and headed toward the entrance to the field. “You should get out of here for your own good. I doubt Yui would like to know that her son is hanging around a crime scene. Makes you look suspicious.”

When he was at least fifty feet away from me, I reached into my pocket for my keys and walked out of the stadium and to the student parking lot. A single light flickered over my car. I walked through the nearly desolate lot and spotted Nicole’s parking space empty.

Which meant that she’d made it out.

Imani’s car was still parked in her normal spot, and while I hoped that she and Allie had gotten out alive and were safe, I didn’t have time to go looking for them. I had missed my goddamn chance to prove to Nicole that I could be a different man than who she thought I was.

If I had just kept my eyes on Pick…

I slipped into my car and turned it on, the soft hum of the engine coming to life. After readjusting my rearview mirror, I caught sight of a police car driving around the campus, as if to check the perimeter for any stragglers.

The whole purpose was to be undercover, but undercover Redwood Police cars were sometimes even more obvious than the regular ones, with tinted windows and even blacked-out plates. Not legal, of course, but this was Redwood.

I started after him and drove about thirty feet behind him, lights completely off so it wasn’t obvious, and I stopped far behind him whenever he came to a streetlight or a Stop sign. Instead of circling Redwood, he headed back toward the police station.

When he came to the light before Fitz Road, he rolled down his window, hung his arm out of it, and looked into his rearview mirror, his gaze locking on to mine. Pick. Knowing that I had been caught—and that I had caught him—I flashed my high beams, blinding him for a moment.

He parked and stepped out of his car, but I was already out of mine, running toward him. I didn’t have my gun—I’d left it in Imani’s car—but I didn’t need it tonight. If he’d hurt Nicole the way that she’d said he had, I wasn’t going to let him off with a single bullet.

No easy death.

Before he could seize hold of his gun, I snatched him by his jacket and hurled him to the ground. I dropped my shins onto each of his shoulders, straddling his back and then grabbing fistfuls of his hair. I smashed his head into the pavement over and over and over.

Until he stopped struggling.

Until blood was splattered everywhere.

Until I could pick him up off the ground and throw him into the back of my car.

While I took off down the road with Pick in my backseat, I listened to the rev of an engine behind me, and then a motorcycle flew past me. The only person in Redwood that I knew had a bike like that was Kai Koh from Poison, the guy who hated me the most.

And he had just seen that I had kidnapped a cop.

CHAPTER

FIFTY

NICOLE

After cheer practice the next Monday, I walked to my car in the parking lot. Thankfully, I hadn’t seen Dad all weekend. I didn’t know where he had been, but Redwood had gone fucking crazy after what Poison did on Friday night.

I was honestly surprised that there was school today.

My phone buzzed, and I yanked it out of my bag, hoping that it was Akio. He hadn’t been in school today—and that kid had nearly perfect attendance—and he hadn’t been great at responding all weekend.

At least, he’d told me that he was safe. I had driven around Redwood all night on Friday, trying to find his car. But he hadn’t even been at his home, or at the Overlook, or at any other place a nerdy kid might hang out.

When I reached my car, I spotted a ripped sheet of paper, from what looked to be from a science textbook, stashed between my windshield wipers. I pulled it out, slipped into my car, and locked the doors.

I wasn’t about to get jumped.

Once I set my belongings on the passenger seat, I unfolded the note and saw Akio’s handwriting: Overlook. 11 p.m. Tonight.

---