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KAI
“You should be here,” I whispered to Dad.
Rain poured down around me, drenching my bike parked on the side of the road. I shifted from foot to foot, coating my boots in a layer of thick mud, and fell to my knees in the middle of the cemetery. My fingers brushed against his gravestone.
“It’s not fair.”
I squeezed my eyes closed, the rain hiding the fucking tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks. Dad would hate that I wanted to cry for him. When he had been alive, I’d wished that I could spend more time with him, but … he had his other family, too. I used to hate his kid, but … she was just like me now.
Broken.
My phone buzzed in my soaked jeans pocket.
João: You coming?
After drawing my fingers against the words etched in Dad’s gravestone, I pulled out a flask of bourbon—his favorite drink—took a sip, and poured the rest over the grass above his casket. Then, I stood up and forced myself to walk back to my bike.
I didn’t come here as often as I should, and I made sure not to come when his other kid came to see him. She didn’t know about me, and I wanted to keep it that way. That was how Dad had wanted it.
When I hopped onto my bike, I secured my helmet and pulled out my phone again.
Me: I’m busy tonight.
Truth was that I needed to take a break. I needed something other than watching Landon smash someone’s head into a concrete wall. I wanted to relax tonight even if it was only for a couple moments.
So, I glanced one last time back at the gravestone, started the engine, and drove to Redwood. Imani was at the football game tonight, which should be ending in the next few minutes, if it hadn’t already. I wanted to see her.
After parking on the side of the road and watching all the students spill out of the bleachers and stumble back toward the parking lot—half of them drunk off their asses and the police not doing shit about it—I spotted Allie Hall walking by herself out of the stadium.
I placed my helmet on the bike and shielded my face from the rain, jogging up to her. “Where’s Imani?”
She paused and readjusted her glasses, pointing over her shoulder. “Under the bleachers to try to stay away from the rain. She’s talking to Akio now. She should still be there.”
“Thanks,” I said, slipping into the stadium with my hands balled into fists.
Within a couple moments, I spotted Akio talking tensely with Imani. I would’ve been fine with it, but I had told Akio to stay the fuck away from her earlier this week.
And that fucker obviously didn’t like to listen.
So, I stormed up to them and shoved Akio back. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Akio stumbled back into the metal bleacher, and Imani stared up at me with wide eyes.
“What are you doing, Kai?”
“Putting Akio back in his fucking place,” I said through gritted teeth.
Fuck, I had so much rage inside me tonight because of the memories of Dad that I wanted to hurt someone. Forget wanting to rest. Akio thought he could go around touching what didn’t belong to him.
“I don’t see Landon anywhere, ready to kick my ass,” Akio said, regaining his composure. “I think I’m good to talk to whoever the hell I want to talk to, Kai. You’re not going to do—”
I pulled the gun out of the waistband of my jeans, shoved him against the steel beam that held up the bleachers, and pressed the muzzle against his abdomen. Out of sight of all the teachers and police roaming around, I made sure to slam it into his rib cage so fucking hard that he knew not to fuck with me.
My day had already been shit.
“I told you not to fucking talk to Imani,” I said through gritted teeth, my face inches from his. “Next time, you’d better listen to me, or I’ll put a bullet straight through your fucking skull. Do you understand me?”
Akio pressed himself as close to the steel beam as he could get and nodded. “Yes.”
