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“They deserve it.”
“Yeah, I know, but this is Akio, for crying out loud,” Imani said, shaking her head.
“It’s no different than me doing something for you,” I said.
“So …” She paused, a small smile making its way onto her face. “Does that make me your girl?”
My entire body tensed, and I found myself unable to look away from her. She was grinning a bit too widely, and I liked the thought of her being mine way too much for me to lie to her again tonight.
“If I had to kidnap a cop and kill him for you, I would, Imani.”
She moved closer to me, brushing her fingers against my forearm and making the hairs on my skin stand right up. “That didn’t answer my question. I want to hear you say it.”
I swallowed hard, her presence becoming the only fucking thing in the entire room that I could focus on, and tugged on one of her curls. My heart pounded inside my chest. This feeling was so foreign.
“You’re my girl.” The words came out so much softer than I’d intended them to, but that didn’t stop Imani from stretching her smile ear to ear and beaming at me.
She didn’t say anything in response. Hell, she didn’t need to. Her smile told me fucking everything.
When a silence fell over us—because I didn’t know what the fuck I was supposed to say after that—Imani leaned closer. “How are you feeling? Is there … is there anything I could do to help you along with your … parents? I’ve been thinking about it all day since you told me about it in the library.”
“No,” I said.
“But I want to—”
“I told you because I needed to talk to someone, Imani,” I said, brushing some of her curls off her forehead. “You don’t have to try to fix everyone, though … you did a pretty good job with Landon and João.”
“I didn’t fix anyone, and I don’t want to fix you,” she said. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”
But maybe I wanted her to fix me because a normal eighteen-year-old kid shouldn’t enjoy killing the people who had hurt his family and his girl. He might’ve wanted revenge, but he wouldn’t get off on it the way that I did.
Imani was the only person that I felt this way for, and I couldn’t help myself every time I was close to her. I’d vowed to stay away from her for as long as I could, until Akio’s parents were gone for good, but that was proving more and more difficult.
I feared that I wouldn’t be able to protect Imani from them.
I feared that the same thing that had happened to my parents would happen to her, too.
I feared that they would take her away from me.
