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IMANI
While I should’ve gone right home for the night or told Poison what had happened, I found myself driving toward João’s house to see if I had imagined the entire thing. João’s mother couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave Ana at the house alone.
Not willingly.
If Ana was here, then we would pick her up, drop her off at Landon’s, and go out to find João’s mother. She shouldn’t be hanging out on Main Street with those rich bastards who had nearly killed her a week or so ago.
“We need to get out of here,” Akio said, glancing into the rearview mirror. He adjusted his glasses and breathed heavily, his chest moving up and down, nervously rubbing his hands together. “We can’t stay in this car. We have to ditch it. They’ll be coming.”
“We don’t have time!” I said, cutting a corner a bit too sharply.
The right tires must’ve come off the ground a couple inches, and Akio grabbed hold of any handle he could find, shrieking and still in shock. My heart pounded against my chest, but I pushed my foot to the floor, making the car accelerate.
God, I was learning a lot of bad habits from Poison.
And I meant, a lot.
When I finally pulled up to João’s house, I parked, literally dragged Akio from the car, and marched up to the front door, banging on it with the side of my fist.
Akio stood beside me with wide eyes and muttered, “No,” over and over again.
“Stop it, Akio,” I said, adrenaline rushing through me.
I had almost died tonight, but I could think of nothing but making sure she was safe.
“You’re giving me anxiety,” I said, banging on the door again and searching for a key that they might have left under the doormat or in the bushes, under a rock, something. I needed to get in. The lights were on in Ana’s room, and the gas stove was on with a pot on top of it.
Ana might’ve been trying to make brigadeiros by herself. Maybe.
If she wasn’t careful …
“Imani, we should go,” Akio said, arms wrapped around his body. He rocked back and forth on his heels and shook his head, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. “We should go, get out of here. You’re not saf—”
Before he could finish his sentence, the door swung open. João’s mom stood inside with a cheap plush robe on and tired eyes. I furrowed my brows, knowing that I had seen her down on Main Street tonight.
Being the rude bitch I had been lately, I stepped into her house, uninvited, and pulled Akio into the room behind me. I barely knew Portuguese, but I knew some, so I desperately tried to ask her where she was.
She furrowed my brows and pointed to the hallway.
“Não,” I said, shaking my head, then followed with the Portuguese word for tonight.
At least, that was what I hoped I was saying. Who the hell knew anymore? I could barely think straight. My heart pounded hard against my chest, and I argued back and forth with her for a couple moments.
After becoming thoroughly annoyed at my lack of knowledge of her native language, I shook my head and stormed to the back room to see Ana sleeping soundly in her bed. I blew out a deep breath and held my hand over my heart.
She had on some bright green Princess Tiana pajamas and hugged a stuffed dog to her chest, snoring softly. I quietly closed her door, so she couldn’t hear me talking—or arguing—with her mother, and I walked back out to the kitchen.
“Did you go out tonight?” I finally asked in plain English. “Did you leave Ana alone?”
“Não. Não.”
“I saw you on Main Street.”
“Não.”
Every single question I asked her, she answered with no. But I was sure that I had seen her, almost surer than I was that her son was maybe, actually starting to open up to me. Yet this was João’s family I was thinking about …
His mother had always been nice to me, but the more questions I asked her, the angrier and more annoyed she was becoming with me, her brows furrowing in a pissed stare and her nostrils flaring the way João’s did when he was pissed.
