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IMANI
Kai sat on the couch opposite of me and Landon.
I stared at him and swallowed hard, my stomach in tight knots. I couldn’t stop thinking about the picture he had sent privately to me earlier tonight. That image of a man he had beaten to death was burned into my memory forever.
And I didn’t know what to think. Kai was more violent than I’d thought, a monster almost.
After smoking out of a bong, Kai rested it on his knee and leaned back with his heavy gaze still focused on me. I shifted on the couch and sank down against Landon, pulling my eyes away from Kai and hoping that he wouldn’t show me that picture again.
Or keep his promise that if I got in trouble again, I would have to kill a man like that.
Still, I couldn’t help but look over at him one more time. There was a splatter of blood on his neck, which he must’ve forgotten to wash off or something. Maybe he had wanted me to see it, wanted to taunt me with it.
Whatever the reason, it was working.
Once I decided to forget about it, I looked up at Landon and closed my eyes. Just as I was about to fall asleep in Landon’s arms, someone banged on the basement door. Landon moved me off him and hurried up the stairs.
With Ana in his arms, João stood outside the basement door. I ran up the stairs after Landon and stood behind him, staring at João’s bloodshot eyes, and frowned. Less than two hours ago, João had left to go home.
Now, he was back, and … I was nervous that something bad had happened.
“Unlock your fucking house, Landon. I’m bringing Ana up to your parents’ old room.” João pulled Ana tight to his chest to keep her sleeping little frame warm. “You’ve cleaned it out, right? There’s no shit lying around, is there?”
Landon pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the back door, turning on the light switch and holding the door open. “It should be all good. I’m going to bring Allie up with her, so she’s not lying up there alone all night.”
After Landon disappeared into the basement to pick up a sleeping Allie, I followed João into Landon’s house and up the stairs to a small bedroom that looked like it hadn’t been touched in weeks. And I was fucking thankful that Landon’s parents hadn’t been back.
When João placed Ana down, she shifted around and reached her small arms into the air, grabbing João by the neck. “Kissies,” she murmured, pulling him down to meet her.
He kissed her on the cheek and told her good night.
I stared at the exchange from the doorway, my heart clenching.
João might be the unsympathetic gangbanger, but he loved his family. Hard.
Once Landon made it upstairs with Allie, he placed her in bed beside Ana. As they talked tensely in the hallway about something, I pulled the blankets over my best friend’s and Ana’s bodies to keep them warm and frowned.
They both deserved so much more.
Redwood had failed them.
Turning off the light, I shut the door behind me and stepped out into the hallway, where João stood by himself. I chewed on the inside of my lip and stared at him for a couple moments, knowing that he wanted to talk.
If he didn’t, then he would’ve gone down to the basement with Landon.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, brushing some hair out of his face.
Very unlike João, he avoided eye contact with me and stared at the ground. “Move out of the way, Imani. I want to smoke and forget about this whole night. Why don’t you go to bed with Ana and Allie?”
He tried to move past me, but I stepped into his way. “Talk to me.”
Like I thought he would, João tried to push past me to get down the steps to the basement. I moved in his way again and crossed my arms, refusing to let him by. We pushed and shoved, back and forth, for a couple moments. Then, suddenly, his arms came around me.
And he hugged me.
Tightly.
We stood quietly in the middle of the dark hallway, João’s body tensing more with every passing moment. I rubbed his back gently and laced one hand into his dark hair, wanting him to know that he didn’t have to be all big and bad with me.
