MADDIE
Imani nudged Carter’s unmoving body with her sneaker. “I’ll call Poison.”
Tears welled up in Vera’s eyes, and she backed up. “Maddie, we killed someone!”
“He’s not dead,” I said. Well, I hoped not because that’d be bad.
“I can call Callan too,” Sakura whispered.
Allie arched a brow. “What will he do?”
Sakura sucked in her inner cheek and rocked back on her heels. “You’d be surprised.”
“Isn’t Mr. Avery in the Redwood mob?” Nicole asked.
Sakura blushed. “Not anymore.”
“Not after I killed—” Imani started.
“Killed who?” João, the leader of Poison, said through the phone.
Imani walked down the street, pacing by my car to talk to João. Thankfully, we were able to drag Carter behind some dark bushes so nobody could see him—or us—standing over his heavy body.
Vera grabbed my arm. “Why did we do this?! We’re going to be in so much trouble!”
“It’ll be fine, Vera,” I whispered. “Poison will take care of it.”
“What if they don’t?” she said. “I don’t want to go to jail.”
“Then, you’d better wipe his blood off your knuckles,” I said.
After a couple of moments, Imani walked back over. “They’ll be here in five.”
Allie crouched over Carter, brow furrowed. “Do you think he’s really—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Carter somehow suddenly woke back up, ripped the duct tape on his hands apart, and grabbed Allie by the throat. Vera screamed and stomped right on his head with her new designer boots that Blaise had bought her.
Carter’s head bounced off the ground, and he was knocked out cold again.
Five minutes later, a car without headlights rolled up to the curb behind my car. João, Landon, and Kai stepped out of it and walked over, eyeing us up and then gazing down at Carter, who hadn’t woken back up from Vera’s attack.
“Damn,” João said. “Which one of you cracked his skull?”
We all pointed to Vera, who pressed her lips together.
“He was attacking Allie, okay?!”
“And the duct tape?” Kai asked, glancing over at Imani with a prideful smirk on his face. “Impressive.”
“Is that a dildo in his mouth?” Landon asked, crouching down in front of Carter.
“Maybe,” I said.
Imani moved closer to João, toyed with the ends of his hair, and batted her lashes at him. “Can you please make sure he doesn’t go to the police? Maybe embarrass him a bit more since we did all the dirty work for you?”
“The dirty work?” João scoffed. “You beat him up and called me for help.”
Imani pressed herself against him. “Pleeeease.”
João threw her a pissed look, then nodded to Landon. “Throw him in the trunk.”
As Landon picked up Carter, another car with its headlights on pulled up behind João’s Mercedes.
Mr. Avery exited the car and slammed the door behind himself, walking over to us with his arms crossed. “What’s going on here?”
“Who the fuck called Avery?” João scowled.
Mr. Avery grabbed Sakura’s hand and pulled her behind him. “What’s going on?”
“We formed a gang,” Imani said, smirking at João.
“Is that right?” João growled, staring her down and snatching her chin. “A gang? You think you’re tough enough to start your own girl group who kicks the shit out of people and then calls for help?”
Vera shook her head. “I told you guys this was a bad idea!”
“Nobody speaks a word about this to anyone,” Mr. Avery said, guiding Sakura to his car.
She gazed back at us with a smile. “I had fun!”
“Come hang out with us anytime,” Nicole said. “We’ll do more of this.”
“No, you won’t,” João said. “Because I’m not cleaning up your mess again.”
Imani rolled her eyes, then grabbed his hand. “I’ll see you all later!”
Once Sakura and Imani disappeared with their lovers, I grabbed the duct tape from the bushes and walked back to my car with Vera, Allie, Nicole, and Piper. We slipped into the warm car, and I started the engine.
“That was fun,” Nicole said.
“Yeah, I especially liked the part where we thought Carter was almost dead,” Allie said.
“You guys are actually insane,” Vera said, sniffling from the passenger seat. “I want to go home.”
“Okay, okay,” I hummed, turning the car around in the middle of the street and heading toward the main road.
I stopped at the Stop sign and blew out a low breath, hoping that Carter wouldn’t mess with any of us anymore.
And as I turned the corner to pull onto the next street, I spotted my brother’s car turning onto the road. Since he had fought with Alec the other day, he wasn’t allowed to go to practice, which meant that he was lounging around, doing some shit with …
My jaw dropped open when I saw Mrs. Wolfe in the passenger seat of his car.