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Our phones buzzed almost immediately, social media lighting up with videos, retweets, and chaos about the police force, the video being shared almost a thousand times within the first few minutes.
I sat back and stared over at Allie, who was scrolling through her phone. God, why was this so hard? I felt like I was about the throw up my fucking lunch, just looking at her. What if she … what if she didn’t accept me?
When Allie glanced up at me, I scratched the back of my head and looked away. “So, how’s your internship?”
“That didn’t answer my question,” she said.
“It will.” I stood and nodded to another locked room, my stomach in knots. “Come with me.”
Part of me wanted her to forget her question. The other part wanted her to finally see me as her brother.
Hopping up, she followed me into a room filled with guns from ceiling to floor, wall to wall. I locked the door behind us and leaned over a table in the center of the room.
“How’s your internship?” I asked her again.
“It’s good,” she said, staring wide-eyed at all the guns and walking around the room in amazement.
“What department are you in?” I asked.
“None yet. I have to choose by tomorrow. Why?”
I paused, silently debating on whether or not I had the fucking confidence to tell her today. Not only that, but I also wanted to ask her to join us in taking Redwood down. She hated this place as much as we all did.
“Because this is the start of the chaos in Redwood. The rich will try to silence the poor, like they’ve done for fucking decades. They’ll kill them with no repercussions, and I want to give us a fighting fucking chance,” I said.
“And you’re suggesting …”
“Work with me,” I said, fingers paling on the table and heart racing even faster. “You’re the smartest person to come out of Redwood in years, and Mr. Abara’s company is making tech that is only seen in cyberpunk fiction, tech that will change the world of war and of life forever.”
Her eyes widened. “You want me to … to steal their ideas and make it for you?”
“It’s fucking crazy, I know. I didn’t even want to get you involved in it in the first place, but we’re not prepared for what’s to come. You know that the rich will slaughter the poor, will walk all over us, and put the blame on us. They’ll split the town up, so kids in the slums won’t get a proper education anymore. They’ll leave us homeless. You saw it when you lived here. I know you did.”
“Kai …” she whispered. “You’re asking me to make you weapons for a gang.”
“Not for me,” I said. “To level the playing field.”
She paced around the room and shook her head. I knew that she wouldn’t agree without knowing the entire truth. I needed to tell her as much as it hurt me inside to know that she might not want anything to do with me after this.
I grabbed her hands. “Dad wanted this.”
“Dad?” she asked, brows furrowed. “My dad or yours?”
“Our dad.”
Allie’s face went completely blank. The moments passed so slowly, so agonizingly slowly. Then, she finally … laughed. “What the fuck, Kai? What are you even saying? My dad … wasn’t …”
“Yes, he was,” I said before she could finish her thought, nerves bubbling in my stomach. “He didn’t want you to know that he had another family, that he had gotten another woman pregnant before he met your mother. He didn’t want you to see him in a bad light.”
She shook her head, voice quiet. “You’re not serious, are you?”
“I’m not lying. I have a DNA test to prove it.” I walked around her to grab Dad’s handgun and placed it in her hands. “That’s why I have this. That’s why I’m telling you this and pleading with you to help me. A rich motherfucker killed our father and got away with it. They do this shit all the time and never get punished for it. It’s time that stops. It’s time we fight back.”
“Kai,” she whispered, the gun trembling in her hands. “That’s why you … you’ve been so protective of me?”
“You’re the only family I have left,” I whispered. “My mother overdosed three months after Dad died. The rich rip families apart and leave us with nothing. Nothing, Allie. And your mother … is in the same boat as Jace’s mother, isn’t she? She might die too, and if she does, you know that nobody will give a fuck.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Kai, I don’t … I don’t believe this.”
“If you don’t want to help us, that’s fine,” I said, glancing down at my feet and feeling happy that I had gotten it off my chest.
Maybe she’d finally let it sink in and hate me later for it, but she wasn’t running away and crying now; she wasn’t leaving me like the rest of my family had.
“Just think about it, okay?”
Allie stared at me, her eyes wavering. “Okay.”
