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Jiko sits back on his haunches. He runs his hands down his face. “I had to, J. I’m so fucking sorry. Your dad has shit on my dad, and I had to find a way to make that go away.”
“By stabbing him in the back?”
Jiko doesn’t even look at me. He just stares right back at his friend, begging and pleading him with his eyes to understand. “You know I would never touch her,” Jiko said. “I had to say that to get him out of here and to make it seem as if it was going to be awful for you guys.”
I knew I hated this fucker. “Shoot him,” I tell Mag.
Mag pulls the hammer back on his gun with an audible click.
“I had to!” Jiko screams, looking around wildly. “You know how it is, Johnny. You know.”
“So, you sacrifice your friends for your family?”
“I do what it takes,” Jiko says, thrusting his chin into the air.
“Is it all good?” Johnny asks. “With my dad and your dad?”
Jiko nods.
“It better have been fucking worth it.”
“I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t.”
“You could’ve fucking warned me,” Johnny scolds, relaxing a little.
I gawk at him. We’re just going to let him get away with this? I turn to stare at Magnum, my gaze burning into his. He still holds his gun to Jiko’s head, and he doesn’t look as if he’s going to pull the trigger anytime soon.
“Johnny,” I hiss.
He turns to me. My heart breaks as I look at him. His dad did a number on him. “I’ve had worse,” he says, trying to smile for me like that’s going to make me change my mind.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better. That bastard’s a traitor.” His words still ring in my ear about him enjoying fucking me without my consent as I point a trembling finger at him.
Johnny pulls my hands up, just like he used to. He drops kisses on my knuckles that soothes some of the tension. “If he hurt you, he knows I would fucking kill him.”
“He hurt you,” I growl.
Johnny takes my face in his hands, moving in to kiss me. His lips linger over mine, but I press into his split lip, blood and all.
When Johnny pulls away, he rubs his thumb over my lips, probably smearing his blood over me. “That’s part of this life.”
“That doesn’t fucking make it right!”
“I said I was sorry,” Jiko mumbles tersely.
I turn fiery eyes on him. “Sorry? You think that’s enough?” I pull Magnum’s blade up again. “Enough would be to see you suffer in the same way. Maybe I should tie you to the chair and beat the shit out of you.” I tread toward him like a predator, only kneeling next to him when I’m close enough to reach. I place the blade of the knife on his cheek. “Enough would be to see you bleed like him.”
Jiko licks his lips. “I’ll make it up to you. To both of you. I promise. You have my word.”
Johnny moves up behind me and places a hand on my shoulder. He gives me a quick squeeze, and I stand. He takes the blade from me and then crouches, feeling my legs for the holster. When he finds it, he lifts my leggings and places the knife back inside. “Magnum, let him up. We all need to put our heads together to figure this shit out. Can you do a bug sweep? My dad usually doesn’t have cameras running in his own suite because he doesn’t want evidence of the shit he does in here, but it would be like him to have them set up to catch this. If there is, we’ll figure something out about doctoring any video footage.”
“Figure something out?” My voice breaks. “Your dad is expecting pictures of Jiko raping me. How are we supposed to pull that off?”
“Don’t worry,” Johnny says, squeezing my hand. “I’ve got this.”
He looks like he’s far from having control of the situation. He’s bloodied and bruised. He can barely walk, and he can only see out of one eye.
“If he doesn’t usually have cameras, we’re probably good,” Jiko comments as he stands and straightens his suit coat like he wasn’t just begging us to forgive him. “We went right from talking to pulling you in. He didn’t leave the room, and he didn’t get on the phone with anyone.”