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JACE
Impatiently pacing in Landon’s basement, I rubbed my sweaty palms back and forth. Where the fuck is Allie? My fucking luck would be to save her from my father, only to hear that she had been fucking trampled in the crowd when I left the field.
I trusted Poison, but when they had told me that Allie got into the car with Nicole and that Nicolewas bringing her and Imani here, I didn’t fucking believe it. But Nicole had texted me ten minutes ago, telling me to get the fuck off the Redwood field and meet her at Poison’s for a delivery of special goods.
That was what she had called Allie—special goods—probably because she was jealous.
Suddenly, the basement door swung open, and a furious Imani barreled down the stairs.
“What the hell was that?!” Imani screamed at João, who leaned against the wall with a cigarette between his lips. “Are you guys dumb?!” She shoved João. “You are the stupidest fucking people I’ve met.”
Allie walked down the stairs, muttering something incoherent to Nicole. When she saw me, she walked away from her and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I lost my phone in the crowd. Everyone was going crazy. Sorry for making you worry.”
After kissing her forehead, I handed her phone back and guided her toward the couch and away from Imani, who continued to scream at all three of the boys, who didn’t look like they cared that they had killed someone.
“What’s wrong with you guys?! You can be thrown in jail.”
“Relax, Imani,” João said.
“Nobody is going to jail,” Landon continued, taking the pack of cigarettes from João and lighting one up. He drew on it once and blew out a puff of smoke, slumping down on the couch and sighing. “Nothing will happen.”
“You don’t know that!” Imani continued.
Kai placed a hand on her shoulder and glanced at Allie for the quickest damn second, probably to make sure she was okay. For some reason, he always fucking watched over her. And I didn’t know if I liked that or not. Allie was mine, and I’d fought fucking hard to get her back. Nobody was going to take her away from me.
“We’ve done this before,” Kai said. “We know how to clean shit up and hide the evidence. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”
Imani widened her eyes, shook her head, and backed away. “All three of you are insane.” She looked at Allie and Nicole. “Why aren’t you both freaking out more?! We just saw our principal’s head in the middle of the football field.”
Instead of freaking out like I’d thought she would, Allie blew out a long breath and shrugged her shoulders. She looked tired, and I didn’t blame her. Neither one of us had gotten much sleep these past few days. This must’ve been another night in Redwood for her.
“You guys can’t just—”
“Calm the fuck down!” João said, fury laced in his words. Though he led their little gang, he rarely lost control and usually kept himself calm—most of the time. He put out his cigarette. “You know what we did when you got involved with us. I gave you a chance to leave. You didn’t. So, sit down and keep your mouth shut before someone hears you screaming at us for what happened.”
Taken by surprise, Allie tensed next to me. Imani smacked João right across the face, leaving a big, fat red handprint on his cheek. João clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes at her as she muttered something under her breath.
“You want to say that a little louder?” João asked her. “Because you’re one more mistake away from me teaching you a fucking lesson on how to behave, Imani.”
Though the words came out harsh, Imani seemed not to care. She turned on her heel, walked to the other side of the room, and sat against the wall. “Fuck you, João. I hate you.”
When the room went quiet, Nicole turned to me. “Well …” She cleared her throat and adjusted herself in the seat beside Allie.
Allie sat up taller and narrowed her eyes at Nicole, as if she was being protective of me … which was cute, to say the least.
Nicole fixed her attention on me. “My dad is going to blame you. I know he will. He knows that you were the only person in my house the weekend all the files got stolen.”
Allie looked up at me and frowned. “Is that true?”
I tensed at the memory of being with Nicole at her house. “Allie, you know that I went—”
Allie shook her head and looked back at Nicole. “He’ll blame Jace?”
Nicole nodded, brows furrowed together. “I know he will. He hates him.”
Landon waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry about him. We’re taking care of him next. He’s the only person standing in the way of Redwood’s fall. All the other police officers don’t know shit about all the blackmail your father has been doing throughout the years.”
Nicole teetered back and forth on the sofa, toying with the ends of her skirt. “And me?”
