The Bad Boy, page 19
Wiping my tired eyes, I sat back on the bed and pulled the blankets around myself. “Maddie, it’s, like”—I glanced at the digital clock Mom had gotten me for my birthday last year and groaned—“four in the morning. We have school in three hours.”
“Yeah, well, who cares? We have a problem.”
“I didn’t get to sleep until two thirty this morning.”
“Did you see Piper’s text message?” Maddie asked, ignoring my pleas to sleep.
I grabbed my phone from the charger. The screen lit up with at least a hundred messages from the group chat I had with Maddie and Piper, starting at three in the morning. I furrowed my brows and scrolled through them to make sense of what had happened.
“All you guys said was my name and, like, called me a bunch of times.”
Maddie rolled her eyes and pulled my phone away. “It’s about Blaise.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting up straight. “What happened?”
“You know, I would roll my eyes and poke fun at how much you fucking like him, but …” Maddie paused for a long moment, tore off her jacket, and sat on the edge of my bed. “You know how Piper’s dad works at the police station?”
“Yeah,” I said, tugging the blankets closer to my chest. “Why? What about it?”
“Well, Piper overheard him telling her mother that Blaise Harleen had been brought in.”
I slammed my hands against the mattress. “What the hell do you mean? For what?”
Hours ago, Blaise had dropped me off at home and told me that he was going to the skatepark for a little bit. Had he gotten into a fight with someone there? Had the police found something on him, pinned something on him? He was innocent, right?
Maddie stayed quiet, brows furrowing together.
“For what, Maddie?! What happened? Tell me.”
“They brought him in for questioning about the murder of Skylar Walker.”
“The … murder of Skylar Walker?” I whispered, my mouth parched. “S-she’s dead?”
“Apparently, they found her body washed up on the beach.”
My heart dropped, my body going rigid.
Oh my fucking God. This couldn’t be real. She had to be lying.
I scrolled to the very first message that Piper had sent in the group chat this morning, stating that she had overheard her father say Blaise really had been taken into custody for the murder of his ex-fling.
With my blankets pulled tightly around my body, I paced my small bedroom and stared at the ground. Fear and horror ran my blood cold.
There was no way that Blaise would kill someone, right?
Maybe if he had a reason, but I didn’t know how dark he could get. He had threatened guys to stay away from me for so long. And Skylar had fucked up our relationship by bringing him into the janitor’s closet. Would he kill her for me?
My throat dried. No. No, he couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have.
“You don’t think he did it, do you?” Maddie asked.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head for emphasis.
Still though … I barely knew the guy. He had blackmailed me. Blackmailed!
If he could blackmail someone he liked to get what he wanted, could he kill someone he hated to keep who he wanted? Would Blaise risk everything for me? Would he be messy about it, thinking that his father’s money could get him out of it?
I mean, it probably could, but …
I stopped in the middle of my room and shook my head to get rid of the thought. What was I even thinking anymore? Blaise wouldn’t kill anyone. He couldn’t. He might’ve acted all tough around everyone else, but I had seen how vulnerable he could be.
“He didn’t do this,” I repeated to convince myself. “No, he didn’t.”
In the midst of my panic attack, I glanced out my bedroom window into the rainy night and across the street at João’s house.
Heart pounding against my rib cage, I stepped toward the window and pressed my fingers against the glass. “Fuck.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
This was my fault.
I had asked João to take care of Skylar Walker because I was angry and furious and so fucking done with the way she had touched Blaise. A couple days ago, she had disappeared.
“João,” I whispered. “What did you fucking do?”
Chapter Fifty-Three
VERA
Not wanting to wake Mom or Mateo, I crawled out the window and stormed across the street to João’s house while Maddie followed behind me. I pulled up João’s contact on my phone and texted him, needing him to get his ass out here now.
Me: Get outside right now!
He texted back almost immediately.
João: It’s four in the fucking morning.
Me: I don’t give a fuck, João.
Me: Now!
I crossed my arms and stood in front of his house, tapping my foot impatiently. His bedroom light turned on, and a moment later, the front door opened. Wearing a pair of sweats, João stepped out of the house and pulled a sweatshirt over his bare abdomen.
“What the hell do you want, Vera?” João asked, walking toward us and glancing over at Maddie and giving her a sour expression that he usually saved for Blaise during school. “And what the fuck is she doing—”
Before I could stop myself, I shoved my hands into his chest. “You fucking killed her?!” I whisper-yelled at João, forcing him to stumble back onto the wet grass. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
“What are you talking about?”
“You killed her!”
João pulled up his hood, growled, and yanked me closer. “You can’t fucking scream shit like that in the middle of the slums, Vera. You should know better than that. And what the hell do you care if I killed her or not? It’s not any of your business.”
“Not my business?!” I shouted.
João slapped a hand over my mouth and shoved me against his car. “The fuck did I just say about screaming?”
I pulled his hand away and glared up at him. “It is one hundred percent my business if you killed Skylar,” I whispered to him. “That’s not what I meant when I said that I wanted you to take care of her.”
A confused expression crossed his face for a moment, and then he stepped away from me. “Oh, you’re talking about Skylar.”
I furrowed my brows. “Who did you think I was talking about? Who’d you kill?”
“Forget it,” João said. “Look, as much as I would’ve loved to be the one to end that bitch’s life, I didn’t do it. I have better things to do than to entertain a rich whore like her who’d do anything to suck off someone’s dad.”
“Well, who was it then? Landon? Kai?” I asked, racking my brain for someone.
But the more I thought about it, the less and less I believed that Kai—the quiet computer whiz in Poison—could’ve killed someone. And Landon? He might’ve been scary, but to end someone’s life? I had known these guys for so long. The only person that I knew who could kill someone and not give a fuck about it was João. So, he was either lying to me or …
“It wasn’t Poison. All we did was find some shit on her and bully her with it.”
“That was it?” I asked, skeptical.
He shrugged half-heartedly. “Might’ve kicked her ass a bit.”
“And what’d that entail?”
“Tying her to the back of my car and dragging her down the side of the road,” João said, an amused expression on his face. I couldn’t tell if he was serious and was rejoicing on the thought or if he was fucking with me.
“You didn’t kill her?” I asked again for clarification.
He sprawled a hand across his chest. “Vera, you think so lowly of me. We don’t kill unless we get paid or they’ve pissed us off enough,” João said. “Skylar was annoying, but not enough for any one of us to end her.”
I furrowed my brows and glanced back at Maddie, who held an umbrella over our heads. Still, none of this made any sense. If Blaise hadn’t done it and Poison hadn’t done it … then who had killed her?
“What can you do about it?” I asked.
A lifeless chuckle escaped his mouth. “What’d you mean?”
“You need to find me information—find out who killed her, when they killed her, and why they’re trying to pin this on Blaise,” I said, poking him hard in the chest. “And I need it as soon as you can get it.”
João laughed right in my face. “You’re fucking kidding me. No.”
“Yes.” I crossed my arms. “Or I won’t ever watch your sister again.”
After grinding his teeth together, João stared at me blankly. “The fuck you think you can boss me around for? You’re going to watch Ana because you need the money, Vera. I’m not getting you any—”
Done with taking his bullshit, I stepped forward. “You’re going to get me that information and pay me when I watch Ana because you’re doing more than just selling drugs while I’m babysitting your sister. You’re fucking killing people, and if you don’t want people to know—”
“Fine,” he gritted out.
My eyes widened slightly.
Wait, all this time, I just had to put my foot down and João would do as I asked?
“Good,” I said, straightening out my oversize Redwood Academy T-shirt and smoothing out the fluffy pajama bottoms I had gotten from Walmart, which were now soaked up to the ankles from the rain. I regained my composure and shoved my shoulders back. “I expect it soon.”
And with that, I turned on my heel and headed for Maddie’s car.
Was I bullying the bad boy now? Was that the monster Blaise had made? Shit, I should’ve cared, but I didn’t at the moment.
Blaise was in trouble, and I needed to see him.
Chapter Fifty-Four
BLAISE
“You need to clean up your act!” Mom screamed, pacing around the foyer with her fur jacket still draped over her shoulders.
We’d finally gotten back from the police station ten minutes ago.
She shook her head, hair flipping in every direction, and glared at Dad, who chatted with his lawyer at the front door. “Talk some sense into your son.”
Dad said a couple last words to him, then opened the door to let him out. He would be back in the morning when we had to go back to the police station to answer more questions about Skylar’s disappearance and the last few texts she had sent me.
Mom cleared her throat, causing Dad to roll his eyes.
“Where were you the other night?” Dad asked half-heartedly to me.
“With a friend.”
“There you go,” Dad said to Mom.
“Which friend?” Mom asked.
“Someone.”
“That girl from the slums?” she urged. “That no-good bitch?”
I gritted my teeth and stood up. “You don’t even fucking know her, so stop fucking calling her that. She might not have any money, might live in a run-down house in the slums, but she’s a better fucking person than you’ve ever been, especially to me!”
“Don’t lie to yourself, Blaise,” Mom said. “You deserve better.”
“Vera is better than me in every fucking way.”
But she couldn’t see that. She would never be able to see that. All she saw was money.
Someone banged on the front door.
Mom rolled her eyes and stormed over. “Who the fuck is it now?”
When she pulled the door open, Vera and Maddie stood outside in the pouring rain. Vera stared up at Mom with wide eyes, then glanced past her at me. Without even being invited into the house, Vera pushed past Mom and hurried to me.
She threw her arms around my shoulders and buried her head into the crook of my neck, so I could feel the tears she cried on my skin. “I was so worried about you. A-after Maddie told me what happened, we went to the police station, but you weren’t there.”
“Get her out of my house this instant,” Mom growled, turning on her heel to glare at us.
Because I didn’t want Vera to deal with Mom putting her down, I grabbed her hand and brought her toward the front door, where Maddie stood. If we had stayed inside any longer, Mom would have fucking cursed Vera out and called her every name in the fucking book.
That wasn’t happening to my girl.
I slammed the door behind me and stood on the porch with them. “You heard?”
“Skylar … she’s really dead?” Vera whispered.
“I guess so. They said they found her body washed up on the beach.”
“Why are they blaming you?” she asked.
“Because of my dad,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Long story that I don’t want to get into.” After glancing down at my watch, I frowned and ushered Vera toward Maddie. “It’s late, and you have school tomorrow. We can talk more about this later. I promise.”
Before she walked back to Maddie’s car in the rain, Vera grabbed my shirt collar and pulled me closer to kiss me hard on the lips. “Don’t say anything that will get you thrown into jail, please, Blaise.”
I rested my forehead against hers. “I won’t, Sunshine. I promise.”
Though … I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to keep that promise. I hadn’t done anything, but this was Redwood. If they wanted to throw me in jail, they would come up with the most outrageous evidence and blame me.
Once they left and drove down the road, I took another breath and walked into the house.
“You’re ruining our entire reputation!” Mom screamed at me as soon as I shut the door behind me.
Dad rubbed a hand over his tired face. “Quit it, Caroline.”
“Everything we’ve worked so hard for, and he wants to hang out with a girl from the slums.”
“Please,” Dad grunted. “All you do is yell at him.”
Mom crossed her arms. “It’s not like you do any parenting. You’re never home.”
“Neither are you,” I said under my breath.
She acted like she was some sort of perfect parent or something. She disappeared for weeks, if not months, at a time without so much as a goodbye or an I’m off to Paris; I’ll see you whenever.
When Dad ignored Mom, which pissed her off even more, I slumped down onto the couch and closed my eyes. Today had been so long for no good reason at all. I couldn’t believe that they were trying to pin this on me.
Skylar had been a whore, had probably been out with half of Redwood these past few days. And they only had some texts between us, where I was kinda, sorta fucking angry with her. That was it. Nothing fucking else.
“Vera looks familiar,” Dad hummed, sitting on the couch to untie his brown dress shoes that he must’ve worn every day and scrunching his eyebrows. “Almost like that house cleaner that we used to have. What was her name? Rodriguez?”
Mom glared at the back of his head and crossed her bony arms over her chest, seething hard as fuck. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you? You used to fuck her all the time when I was out with Blaise.”
My mouth dropped open, and I stared at them with wide eyes.
Was that why Mom had fired her? Ms. Rodriguez had always been so nice and genuine. I doubted that she’d do something like that willingly. But I didn’t put it past Dad to force himself on her, hold it over her head that he’d fire her if she didn’t fuck him.
Dad was a fucking sleazeball either way.
After that, Mom had hired all the house cleaners herself, made sure they were old enough to be my grandmother, and hadn’t let them be alone with her husband. Did I blame her? Truthfully, I didn’t give a fuck.
She had only married him for his money. She had known what she was getting into.
Knowing that they’d fight for the rest of the night—Mom screaming at him that this wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t fucked the police chief’s wife and Dad yelling back that if she had been able to please him, he wouldn’t have had to—I departed up the stairs to my bedroom.
It had been a long fucking night, and I didn’t want to deal with it anymore.
Tomorrow, I’d be back at the police station with my lawyer to fight whatever kind of evidence that they thought they had on me. I hadn’t done shit, but they needed someone to put away. And Mom was right. If Dad hadn’t fucked with the police, then they wouldn’t be pointing fingers at me. I’d be at school tomorrow with Vera.
God, I wished she had stayed with me tonight. I didn’t know what would happen to us if they put me in prison.
Chapter Fifty-Five
VERA
After third period, I walked to my locker to deposit my books. Blaise hadn’t shown up to school today, and I didn’t blame him. Whether it was because of the rumors flying around Redwood or because he was being interrogated again, I was glad he’d stayed out of the messiness in Redwood Academy.
My stomach tightened into knots. All day, I had texted him, but he hadn’t gotten back to me. I hoped that he was okay—and not just because of the whole murder thing. Granted, I had shown up at his house in the middle of the night. His mother had seemed angrier that I had come to visit him than the police trying to pin this on him. I could only imagine what she’d said about me once I left.
I stood at my locker and frowned, chest heavy. For the longest time, I’d thought that Blaise had everything, but I had never once seen his father within the past few weeks, and I had only heard that his mother was a bitch from him.
His family life seemed like shit. It made sense why he had spent so much time at my house, even before we admitted feelings for each other. Blaise’s parents didn’t give a fuck about what he did until it affected them.
“Is it true?” Mateo asked, walking up to my locker between fourth period and lunch.
“Is what true?” I asked, shoving my books in.
Mateo stepped forward and lowered his voice. “You know, about Blaise?”
“No, of course it’s not true,” I said, slamming my locker and following him toward the cafeteria. “You know that he would never do something like that. He has basically been hanging out with us all weekend anyway.”
Mateo frowned and stared at the ground. “I know. It’s just … everyone’s talking about it.”
