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KAI
“What did Akio say to you earlier?” I asked Imani an hour after school ended, spotting Akio walking to his car with his hands clasped around his backpack straps and his glasses sitting low on his nose. He was going home late. “Anything about what his father wanted?”
When we had been out yesterday, getting shit for Landon’s place, and Imani told me that she spotted Akio’s father in one of the many aisles, I had searched every last inch of that store for him but couldn’t find him anywhere.
He wasn’t there to shop, like he had said. He was there for her. He’d wanted something.
“Nothing much. Just that his mother came home with blood on her the other morning. He thought that she had …” She trailed off, her cheeks paling. “That she had killed me, especially after we didn’t show up for school yesterday.”
I gritted my teeth. His mother was the one who deserved to die. His mother had made Dad’s death seem like a motorcycle accident, like a drunk driver had killed him, and nothing more. But Dad had been investigating them and the rest of the police force, like we were. And I wouldn’t let them touch Imani.
After scanning the parking lot to make sure nobody was watching us, I opened Imani’s car door for her and ushered her into the car. “Drive to Landon’s and nowhere else. I’ll meet you there in a few. I need to talk to Akio first.”
“Don’t hurt him,” she pleaded. “He didn’t do anything.”
As much as I hated the kid, I wasn’t going to kill him. Yet.
“I won’t,” I said, shutting her door once she sat.
Once I watched her drive off into the direction of Landon’s place, I glanced over my shoulder to catch Akio standing at his car, almost as if he was waiting for me, so I walked over to him. “Did you find any information on your parents?”
“No,” he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Nothing yet.”
“Your father showed up while we were out shopping yesterday.”
“He did?”
I grabbed him by his collar and slammed him against the car door. “Don’t fuck with me.”
“I’m not,” Akio said, holding his hands up. “I swear, I didn’t know. I don’t know anything about what they do. I’ve been trying to find something without them being suspicious. I’ve never wanted to be part of the family.”
“You promised me that you’d get information.”
“I will,” he said, pushing on my hands. “I promise, I will.”
“What do you know about Nicole?” I asked, wanting to see if his family knew anything about what she had admitted to us the other night about her father.
“What do you mean?” he asked, confusion clouding his face.
“Nicole. The girl you have a crush on, head of the cheerleading squad—that Nicole?” I said. When he still didn’t say anything, I continued, “Your parents work closely with the police, don’t they? Nicole told Poison a couple days ago that they’re using her.”
“What?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “What do you mean, they’re using her? For what? Information?”
“Information and,” I said, watching him carefully, “sex.”
Sex? he mouthed.
“She told us that her father is forcing her to sleep with everyone in town so he can get info on them to use for blackmail. Doesn’t that sound like something your parents would be a part of?”
Akio’s innocent expression turned into one of fury and viciousness within a moment. His upper lip curled, his brown eyes suddenly becoming darker and more sinister, and his hands were clenched tightly by his sides.
“You didn’t know?” I asked.
“You’re lying,” he said.
“Ask her yourself.”
“I can’t ask her,” he said between gritted teeth. “She doesn’t even know who I am.”
