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“The brothers,” I say low. Nudging Tamar, I get up and help her follow. She clings to me as I walk to Emma, avoiding looking at Zara.
“What did they want?” Emma asks, knowing there’s always a reason for a murder.
“The same thing they keep asking.”
Emma rolls a hair extension around her finger and unrolls it. “You’re not giving it to them,” she orders. “They hate you. Once they have that info from you, they’ll kill you.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I snap back.
Tamar’s body trembles against me as another sob comes from her.
“Let’s not discuss this here,” Emma concludes. “Go home, both of you. I’ll make an anonymous call to the cops.”
“I can’t leave her here!” Tamar cries out. “Not to be found by pigs. Are you insane?”
“Someone needs to tell her mom before the cops do,” I add.
“I’ll stay back and watch from afar to make sure she’s taken care of.” Emma huffs, thinking some more. “Tamar, you go tell her mom. Xi, go with her to rid her room of any drugs. Cops will want to check her place sometime this week so they can say it was a drug deal gone wrong. We don’t want her mom in a situation.”
“I want to find the brothers.”
“Not now,” Emma replies, her stern eyes on me. “Retaliation will have to wait. They know you. They know you’re volatile and will expect you to strike back right away.”
“I don’t fucking care what they expect,” I hiss as I shift forward, leaving Tamar behind to cry on her own. “Kings are coming toourterritories to killourpeople. That’s not how it fucking works.”
“I thought you wanted out,” she scoffs.
“I wanted to make this fucking town a better place. I wanted to end the ongoing bloody massacres.”
She snorts and tilts her head to the side. “Those aren’t your words, Xi. They aren’t your thoughts. Those are the words of a little girl from Stoneview who has no idea how it works here and who put pretty dreams of unicorns and rainbows in your head.”
My nostrils flare as the truth slaps me in the face.
"You don’t change how the streets work. You adapt. And if you can’t…people die. The Lucianos are a solution you threw back in my face.” Her eyes dart to Zara. “Actions have consequences.”
The weight of guilt practically makes my knees buckle. I failed my friends. My family. NSC.
All for Alexandra Delacroix’s pretty eyes and her ability to see the good in everyone.
It was a mistake.
“I want to fight in the Death Cage. Against one of the brothers.”
The Death Cage has determined the fate of the North Shore for years. One opponent from each crew, one cage, one comes out alive. Whoever wins that fight wins the North Shore. We had one about three years ago and lost our town to the Kings that night.
It’s time for another fight in the Death Cage. I want to murder one of the brothers while their whole crew watches.
“There’s no way I’m allowing you in the Death Cage. It’s too risky.” Her no is categorical. Like every time I’ve asked. The brothers always refuse anyway. They’re too fucking scared. "Even if I convince Kayla King to accept a fight, I can’t make her send Ethan or Elliot. She’ll send her best fighter, and you might end up dead.” She takes a deep breath. “No.”
Not wanting to hear any more, I give Zara one last look, feeling my heart break into a million pieces. “We’ll all help pay for her funeral. I don’t want her mom to spend a single cent on it,” I tell Emma. “I want every single fucking person from NSC to pitch in.”
“You got it,” she says softly. She looks at Zara again. “Take your jacket back. We don’t want the cops to find it here.”
I do. And then I wrap an arm around Tamar’s shoulders and guide her to my truck.
We spend hours at Zara’s house. The first one consists of me receiving insults from her mom. After screams of horror and heartbreak, she calls me all the names she can find in Arabic, butmurdereris the one that breaks me the most. I take it all while Tamar tries to calm her down.
If you hadn’t dragged her into this.
