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IMANI
After the football game, I leaned back in the driver’s seat, blew out a deep breath, and pulled out the gun from my jacket pocket. I hadn’t needed to take it out once, but more and more, cops had kept showing up during the night that I was feeling a bit too … anxious.
Allie stared at the gun in horror and leaned as far away from me as she could. “Imani! What are you doing with a gun?!”
“Using it to protect us,” I said, not able to keep it in anymore.
Allie was in as much danger as I was, and it wasn’t like her ultra-rich stepfather was going to protect her. Hell, I doubted Jace Harbor even knew how to hold a gun correctly.
“A gun?!” she asked, eyes wide.
“Yes, a gun. Now, will you stop screaming?! I need you to put it in the glove box. I’ve had it on me all night, and I really need a break from it,” I said, acting as if it were an annoying child or something, but I’d never held one on my body for that long.
Once Allie opened the glove box and stuffed the gun inside it, I started the car and blasted the heat to warm up my frozen fingers and toes. I spotted Kai on his bike a few parking spaces back with a black helmet covering his face.
We were safe for now. He would follow us for the rest of the night.
“I don’t want to go home yet tonight,” Allie said. “Jace is probably going to hang out with Jamal for a bit after the game, and I told him that I would be spending some time with you and not going back home to my mom and stepdad. So … can we do something?”
I backed out of my parking space, making sure not to hit any students—though I wouldn’t mind running over a few of them after what they had done to Maddie earlier—and drove out of the parking lot toward the Overlook, just for a quick ride.
“We shouldn’t stay out long,” I said.
“We could go look for Maddie,” Allie suggested. “She lives on the good side of town, I think, so it should be pretty safe there, and she seemed so upset earlier.”
“I know,” I whispered, still in disbelief about what had happened with her during school.
Those images and videos still hadn’t been taken down and were circulating Redwood Academy’s social media.
I didn’t know what I would do if all my video chats with Landon circulated Redwood.
Spotting Kai’s bike lingering behind me on the road, I nodded. At least, if another police officer tried to pull me over, Kai would be here. João and Landon must’ve been out with Ana tonight and planning their next Redwood rich deaths.
“I added her on social media when I worked with her on that Bio project,” I said to Allie, pulling up to a Stop sign and handing her my phone. “Last time I checked, she had her location shared on her phone. Why don’t you check that?”
Allie paused for a moment. “She’s at the Overlook.”
“At the Overlook?” I asked, continuing to drive there. “Why would she be there?”
Once Allie shrugged, she put the phone down and pulled her glasses off to defog them. “Maybe she needed some time to think. I sure as hell did after pictures of Jace and I were posted literally everywhere. Hers are so much worse, though.”
After turning into the Overlook, I spotted Alec and Maddie chatting tensely on the side of the road. Her body was trembling in the frigid air, and tears were running down her cheeks. I just wanted to jump out of the damn car to hug her.
When I pulled up closer, they got into their car. I flashed my high beams at them, then pulled up beside the car. Allie rolled down her window, and we both looked out toward them. It was rude to stare, but I wanted to make sure she was okay.
A couple moments later, she rolled down her window. “Imani? Allie?”
“Sorry for interrupting,” I shouted. “Are you okay?”
Maddie stayed quiet for a long time, and then Alec said, “You gonna answer them?”
“Thank you,” Maddie finally whispered, voice hoarse. “I’m good.”
“Redwood is shit,” I said, eyeing Alec. “If you ever need anything, we’re here.”
“Actually,” Maddie said with a smile, “there is something you can help with. We need a favor from Kai.”
Twenty minutes later, I stood in front of Poison in Landon’s basement with Maddie and Alec behind me. Maddie uncomfortably stood with her arms wrapped around her body.
