AllFreeNovel
Share Us
KAI
Akio stuffed his hands into his pockets and paced around the room, worried etched onto every inch of his face. Blood was splattered all over his shirt, which no doubt belonged to the police officer he had kidnapped earlier.
“I hate this town,” Akio said, shaking his head and looking at the ground.
“What did you do?” Imani asked. “What happened?”
“My parents have been in on this,” he said to me, shaking his head. “They’ve been in on this whole thing that has happened to Nicole, every single fucking thing that goes on in Redwood. I should’ve done more. I should’ve stopped this earlier.”
“Slow down,” I said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from my back pocket and handing him one. He swatted it away and continued to pace the room, his strides becoming even faster. “What the fuck happened? Did they contact you?”
“No,” Akio growled. “He told me everything.”
“Who?” Landon asked.
Akio looked up at me. Without him saying a word, I already knew who he meant. He had kidnapped that officer after I told him that Nicole had disappeared into the building with him. Akio had already broken and already killed a man. I had watched it with my own eyes.
He had stopped caring about being a good boy and staying out of his parents’ business.
He was far too deep in their shit, and he was the only person who could help us.
“He told me fucking everything,” Akio said to me, gritting his teeth and tightening his fists. “And I want to kill them all. It isn’t fair what they have done to her. Nobody should have to go through what she has.”
“If that’s all the shit you got,” João started, taking the pack of cigarettes from me, “get out. We’re busy with other shit. Don’t come back until you have information on your parents’ whereabouts. We have no use for you.”
But João was wrong.
If we pushed Akio away, he would go off the fucking rails, just like I had when I had nobody. He needed someone to help him hone his anger and direct it to the people who had hurt him the worst—his own two parents.
Akio might’ve acted like he had the perfect life, but nobody had a good life as a Mafia leader’s son. His parents abused him to further their life and status in this town. They acted all holy and mighty.
It was all bullshit.
“Join us,” I said, never once thinking that I would say those words.
“Kai,” João growled, sending me a death glare.
“He’s not joining Poison,” Landon said.
I shook my head and stepped closer to Akio. “You’re not joining Poison, but you should work with us. You have information. You want this shit to end. Don’t let your parents run or ruin your life and your relationship with your girl,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Imani. “They don’t deserve to take something important away from you.”
I didn’t know how to say it, but I was trying to relay to Imani that I wouldn’t let them take her away from me either, that I liked her more than I had let on, that when she had asked me if I loved someone and I said no, I had straight-up fucking lied.
“You want me to help you guys?” Akio asked, staring from me to Landon to eventually João, who looked beyond pissed off.
He didn’t like new people working with us, especially the son of the two people who had disgraced his mother’s dead body.
But as much as it hurt to say, we needed him. He had proven to be useful so far.
“Not as a member of Poison,” I reiterated. “But we could use the help.”
Akio stared at the ground for a few long moments, then looked up at Imani. They shared a certain kind of look that I couldn’t quite decipher. And while old me would’ve thought that he still liked her, I knew that wasn’t true.
He was the one who had told her to stay away from us weeks ago.
Now, we were asking him to join us and to take down Redwood.
“If my parents find out …” He trailed off.
