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At least Brawler was right. He told me Johnny loved me. I wanted to believe him, and I kind of did, but I was also worried about what I’d done to him. I get that I’ll be doing exactly what was done to me to him, but I still stick by the fact that my parents were good people and Kingston Marx is a motherfucker who doesn’t deserve to breathe.
Johnny chuckles. It’s such a rare sound that I immediately swing my gaze to his. He gives me a big smile. “Joey...”
I cock my head at him. “Hey.”
He laughs harder. “I actually really like your name, but we can’t be Johnny and Joey, that just sounds weird.”
I narrow my gaze at him, seeing the teasing in his ice blue eyes. “Good because I don’t like Joey. I’m Kyla. No matter what, I’m Kyla. And stop changing the subject. Why did you send me away?”
He props some pillows behind him and leans casually against them. “So, you have an aunt and uncle?”
I flick my gaze to Magnum, hoping I can find some answers on his face. For whatever reason, Johnny is acting like this is a first date, and he wants to ask me all the questions about my life.
My mouth drops. Of course, he is. It kind of is a first date. The real me is out there now. I’m holding nothing back from Johnny anymore, and he’s holding nothing back from me. My skin pricks, and I bite my lip. “Yeah. They took me in after my parents died.”
“You can say it, you know,” Johnny says. “You should say it. Your aunt and uncle took you in after my father killed your parents.” He grips the sheets in his hands, his knuckles turning white. “I can’t believe you can even stand to be in my presence. I can’t believe you’ve even let me touch you. I can’t believe you can even be near my father without murdering him.”
“It’s been...something,” I say. “The first time I saw him, I almost threw up.”
Johnny squeezes my hand. “I’m so sorry, Kyla. If I--” His mouth works, but there are really no other promises or apologies to make.
“It’s not your fault.”
His face turns hard. “You say that, but I’m not so sure. I’ve been wrapped up in this shit my whole life.” He skims the room with his eyes, landing on both Oscar and Magnum. “We’re all culpable in shit like this. Every one of us. I say it ends.”
Energy pricks my skin, but I’m also acutely aware of what that means for Johnny. What he’s saying. If he’s truly in this, he’s going to have some stumbles. I don’t care if your father is Hitler or a serial killer, you’re going to feel something when he gets his comeuppance. “We’ll all be here for you when it does.”
Oscar shifts behind me. “Alright, can we start somewhere near the beginning because I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty damn confused about what’s going on. You love Kyla. Duh. Anyone can see that. You told her to leave the Heights, but then come find her. That sounds like the perfect place to start.”
Magnum breathes out. For the first time in a long time, his features aren’t so hard. He doesn’t have that look of pure concentration like he usually does. He’s just him. Just Jacob Cotton. In fact, he looks the most at ease now that everything is out in the open. “Okay, when everything went down in Johnny’s suite, I knew something wasn’t right. I know him,” he says, nodding toward his friend sitting next to me on the bed. “I knew he wouldn’t give Kyla up so easily, so I caught on to what he was doing. He got you out of the Heights, away from his father and whatever ridiculous thing he has planned for you. We went to K and told him that you had a change of heart. We told him you left the Heights and that you and Johnny had broken up.”
“I knew you wouldn’t leave any other way,” Johnny says. “You’re too damn stubborn.”
“Oh, I’m stubborn?” I say, neck pricking.
He winks.
“Okay, well, I’m out of the Heights, but the problem is that K is in the Heights, and now, I’m not.”
“You’re safer here,” Magnum says. I open my mouth to say something, but he continues. “We’re not taking you out of this,” he promises. “We’re not going to make you sit this one out on the sidelines, but we needed to be smart about how we go about this. Having you here so we don’t have to worry about you all the time is a good thing. Now, we can all approach this with a level head. We can plan.”
“And we’re planning to take K out?” I ask, peeking at Johnny. I need to make sure we’re all talking about the same thing.
He swallows, his Adam’s apple protruding from his corded neck. “We’re going to take him down as Crew leader.”
“A coup?” Brawler asks.
Uneasiness rolls through me. Taking him down as Crew leader and killing him are two different things. “That’s not enough.”
“I know,” Johnny says, squeezing my hand again. “He’ll get what he deserves.”
I bite my lip. I’ve grown in the last few months. I understand there’s more to life now. I even have the beginning of a life I want, but I can’t have that life if K is still living. “This might be hard to hear, Johnny, but Iamgoing to kill your father. I honestly don’t care what you or Magnum or anyone else has to say about that. He’s dead. You understand?”
Johnny rubs his temple with his free hand. Magnum sighs. “We have a plan for that. We thought that if we got Gregory and the Dragons involved that maybe they would take care of the problem for us.”
The inside of my cheek is raw as I think. It’s not worth arguing with them right now over this. I will kill Big Daddy K. I don’t care what they say. It’s not enough for him just to be dead. I still want him to know who I am and why he’s going to rot in hell for what he’s done.
“We actually thought of that, too,” Oscar says while rubbing his hands up and down my arms. “We thought we could use them, but then we realized that they just want what K has, so we would actually just be replacing the problem with another problem.”