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KAI
Imani’s car was parked right outside Landon’s house. As Jace Harbor drove off and out of the Redwood slums, I glanced into the windows at the empty car and clenched my jaw at the mere thought of Imani being out with Akio tonight.
Not only had she come to a job with us, but she brought him too.
After I had told him to stay away from her.
Instead of saying anything to the guys, I followed them into the back toward the basement door.
Landon glanced around the backyard, brows furrowed. “Where the hell is she? She doesn’t have a key.”
When Landon opened the basement, we could see Imani’s figure sitting on the couch.
“Did you guys find what you needed to find?” Imani asked, sitting on Landon’s basement couch in the dark with her arms crossed over her chest. “Did you do what you needed to do?”
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” Landon asked, flicking on a light switch.
“Probably couldn’t find the light,” João said, pointing it out to her as if she were a toddler.
Imani stood and stomped over to him, nostrils flaring. “Actually, I wanted the element of surprise.” She poked him in the chest. “But you wouldn’t understand that because you guys don’t care who sees or hears you.”
“It would’ve been more of a surprise if your car wasn’t out front,” João said, brushing past her and farther into the room.
Everyone was on edge tonight, even him.
Fuming with anger, Imani shoved him back and stomped back to her place on the couch, hands balled into tiny fists by her sides. It would almost be cute if she hadn’t snuck into Nicole’s neighborhood with us and now needed to be punished.
“So, did you?”
“None of your business,” João said, sitting beside her.
When neither João nor Landon said a word about Imani being there with us tonight—because they didn’t know—she turned toward me.
She furrowed her brows slightly, as if to silently ask, You haven’t told them that I was a bad, bad girl?
And when I raised my brows at her, she turned away and sucked in a sharp breath.
“What’s got you so flustered?” Landon asked, sitting on the opposite couch and clutching his stomach. He pulled out an orange bottle of pills and took two, and then he washed it down by lighting a blunt and relaxing against the cushion. “Fuck.”
Knowing that she was in the wrong, she pressed her lips together. “None of your business. And you shouldn’t be taking pills and smoking at the same time. They don’t mix well together.”
“Says the girl who wanted a hit,” João said.
“Have I told you how much I hate you?” She seethed, nostrils flaring.
“Why don’t you get the fuck out of here?” João snapped back to her. “We’re not finished for the night. We still have shit to do. And if you’re going to sit here, complain, and try to get up into our business, you’re going to really piss me off.”
Imani pressed her lips together, suddenly quieting down. “What’d you do with Jace?”
“What the fuck did I just say?” João said.
“All I heard from you was whining. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” She grabbed her keys and stood. “You all either want me here so you can fuck me or you don’t want me here at all, and I’m getting so fucking annoyed with it. I don’t understand why you can’t be honest with me.”
“Because your dramatic ass wouldn’t be able to handle it,” João said.
And we all knew that was a lie, though neither Landon nor I tried to refute it because Imani needed to stay out of this. She might’ve gone through a couple rounds of kicking people’s asses with us, but she didn’t—and shouldn’t—know about this heavy shit.
She shouldn’t know that we’d done things far worse than kick someone’s face in.
