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He was eighteen. They wouldn’t even send him to juvie.
“That’s none of your business,” Mr. Avery said.
“But what are you—”
Before I could say another word, someone opened the door behind us. I expected it to be Maddie or Piper or even Skylar’s annoying-ass best friend, who wanted to confront me about what I’d said during lunch.
Instead, João Rocha stood at the door and stormed into the room. After eyeing Mr. Avery, João snatched my elbow and tugged me to his side.
“You’re coming with me,” he said through clenched teeth, dragging me out of the room.
“Wait, stop! What are you doing? I need to ask him questions. Mr. Avery—”
“No more questions,” João growled, harsher than usual. “None for him.”
I tried to pull away because I wanted more information from Mr. Avery, but he wouldn’t release me from his grip until we stood two hallways down from Avery’s room. When he finally let me go, I rubbed my elbow.
“What the hell was that all about?!” I whisper-yelled at him. “I needed to—”
“You shouldn’t trust Avery,” João said. “I don’t.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because he has ties to the Redwood mob.”
My eyes widened. “The mob? Redwood has a mob? I thought that was all a rumor.”
“Don’t fucking scream it like that,” he said between gritted teeth. “Some kids at Redwood work with them. If you fuck up and shout it all over Redwood, they will shut you the fuck up—and not in any way that you’d like.”
I pressed my lips together and gulped. He was serious.
João cut his gaze down the hallway, where some freshman kids walked with their friends toward their next class. “Listen, we can’t talk about this shit here and now. I have information for you. I’ll pick you up after school.”
“I have work.”
“Well, too fucking bad,” he said. “You tell me what’s more important—work or Blaise?”
“Blaise,” I said without a doubt.
A week ago, I wouldn’t have even thought about choosing Blaise over work. But something about that boy drew me to him, and I couldn’t let him go so easily. He had known that I wrote dirty smut and kept it to himself, bought me a laptop, spent time with my family, and taught me how to skateboard.
Things he hadn’t had to do.
Things that proved I was just as important to him as he was to me.
“I’ll meet you at your car,” I said, clutching my backpack straps. “And you’ll tell me everything.”
ChapterFifty-Seven
VERA
This whole mess had started when I stupidly decided to meet the bad boy by his car after school one afternoon. Now, I was meeting another bad boy in his car after school for a whole different reason.
I slipped into his tinted black Mercedes and nervously bounced my leg, staring at all the students leaving school and gossiping about Blaise being a fucking murderer. “Tell me what you know, João.”
“Not here.”
He started the car and drove us out of the lot, then through Redwood streets. My stomach twisted as I saw signs for leaving Redwood. He was bringing me down back alleys and into a dense wooden area.
