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It’s not his shouting that scares me; it’s that I feel like I’ve been caught doing something wrong even though no one’s seen me. I leave Caden’s Instagram and get over the fact that no one caught me stalking, it’s just my dad wanting to talk to me.
I jump off my twin-size bed and walk to the living room. He’s in his usual armchair while Emma is watching TV on the sofa. His bushy eyebrows are furrowed as he looks down at his phone. My heart drops instantly. Did Caden release the video? It’s five p.m. I don’t have to meet him until nine. Why would he do this? Maybe he was just fucking with me yesterday and was planning to release the video no matter what.
My dad looks up, hot anger emanating from him. “Why is Lik telling me you haven’t been attending any of your college classes?”
The fucking snitch. I roll my eyes as my shoulders relax and let out a sigh of relief. “I’ve been busy,” I tell him.
“Busy?” he snorts. “What could you possibly be busy with since you’ve stopped working for me so you could pursue your ‘dream’ career.”
Fuck I hate when he’s like this. “I wasn’t ‘working for you’, Dad. I was dealing drugs for NSC.”
“I am NSC,” he snaps back. He just can’t get over the fact that he’s old and can’t be our leader anymore.
“Sure,” I nod. “And I’m sure it must be horrible that your daughter decided to give a real career a chance rather than work for your gang. I can’t risk being arrested and missing a fight. This is important to me.”
“Fighting is not an actual career. You will never make money out of it. Your real career will come once you go to college and graduate and find a goddamn job. In the meantime, you’re bleeding me dry for no reason.”
“I don’t have any use going to college,” I argue back. “My time is better spent at the boxing gym.”
“Look, pumpkin,” he huffs, running a hand through his beard. “I don’t care that you don’t work for me anymore. Of course, I prefer you not to be involved. Of course, I don’t want you arrested. But your sister didn’t go to college so that you could.”
“I never asked for that!” I defend myself. “That was your decision, not mine.”
“Billie.” His stern voice stops me from fighting any harder. “We lose money daily to try and give you a chance at life. That shit costs me three grand a year. Do you have any idea how hard it is for us to try and make that work? Don’t be ungrateful. Just show up to classes and try your best.”
Three grand. We’re one of the cheapest community colleges in the U.S., I get the most affordable fee since it’s my district. And yet we can barely afford it. I never even asked to go; they all forced me to.
Keeping quiet, I simply nod. Emma gives me an apologetic, tight-lipped smile before her eyes go back to her phone. Her face falls.
“Fuck!” she snaps.
“What?” I ask automatically as I head over to her. Something bad happened, and I can only hope that no one I care about is hurt.
Emma puts her thumb between her teeth, biting the acrylic nail extension. “Crook’s dead.”
“What?” I gasp as I look at her screen.
“Don’t look,” she grunts, pulling her phone away and giving it to my dad instead. But I saw the picture that was sent to her.
Crook is one of Emma’s close guys. He usually takes illegal bets on anything across town, but a couple of weeks ago, she sent him to spy on the Kings. They’ve been stealing people from our crew anyway, so it wasn’t weird to them that Crook switched sides.
It seems they caught him reporting to us.
In the picture, his tongue was cut out and stapled to his naked chest. They bashed his head in so much that his nose was flat and caved inside his skull. He was in a pool of his own blood, and I’m sure the bullet to his forehead came after they tortured him. I know who did it because, right under his tongue, someone carved a massive crown on his chest.
Caden’s signature.
My dad’s eyes narrow on the phone as he reads out loud. “This is what happens to snitches. I shot him in case, but he opted for the coward’s way to go.”
“Fuck,” I huff.
The Kings are vicious. They pride themselves on killing people from fear. They torture them so much that their heart gives out. And they call thatthe coward’s way to go.
“Caden King gets more dangerous and unpredictable by the minute,” Emma says low. “He’s out of control.”
My dad runs his big hand across his face. “I told you it was a mistake to send Crook.”
Instead of acknowledging the criticism, Emma answers without an ounce of emotion in her voice. “We’ll lay low for a bit. Let Caden calm down. Then we’ll strike again.”
