L A N A

After the weekend, Everett and I arrived to school together. There was no sign of Carlos at least in the parking lot where we met up with the girls. After hugging the girls, Isha whispered, "Go talk to Jada. She has a plan she wants to let you in on."

"Okay. I'll stay behind." After Everett left with the girls, I walked back and leaned against Carmen's bike next to Jada. Her frizzy dark hair was in a loose bun on her head and she was wearing black jeans, a grey hoodie with her favorite red leather jacket.

Before I could say anything, she put an arm around my shoulders and pulled my briefly to her side. "You seem okay."

She was really awkward when it came to feelings and emotional stuff, but I knew she tried and really cared. I was pretty bad at it too, honestly. "I'm okay. You?"

She nodded. "Fine."

Then she nodded at Everett walking towards the school entrance while chuckling to something Isha had said

"He really likes you. Takes good care of you," she said, giving me a small smile.

I nodded. "Yeah. He's really good to me."

"We're gonna team up with Arjun."

I blinked at her. "What?"

"Arjun wants his gang back. We both need him off our backs."

I grinned. "You and Arjun?"

Rolling her eyes, she shoved my shoulder, lightly. "Fuck off."

"Okay. Let's do it. You've told the girls?"

She nodded. "Yeah. But Carlos wants to take us down. It's not going to be easy now that we have a weak spot. Your boyfriend is our biggest weakness right now."

Despite knowing that perfectly well, I still clenched my jaw. This was bad. Really, really bad. After everything Carlos had done, I didn't even want to imagine what he could do to Everett.

"So instead of Carlos snatching Everett randomly, let's give him to Carlos instead."

Stunned, I stared at her. "Wait, what?"

"It's going to be a trap, of course. We'll set up it so that he can easily kidnap him, but we'll be around to save him and get rid of Carlos for good."

"But how exactly will we get rid of Carlos? You got dirt on him? Again?"

"Kinda, but the police will handle it."

I narrowed my gaze. "The police? We all have shit on us. This whole town does. If he goes down, we'll go down with him. And anyway, when did you start trusting the police? They can't be trusted. Hell, to us they're the bad guys. One sketchy move, they can shoot you. Shoot us."

"I know. I'm never going to trust the police, but this time I have real bad dirt on him. While he was out of town, he killed someone. I had someone send the footage to me."

Killed someone. My eyes widened.

"Murder? He murmured a person?" I whispered, my heart pounding in my chest.

She nodded, finally looking at me when she said, "Beat him to death."

"Shit."

"Yep. Real shit. The plan is to put Everett near him so that he can easily grab him. He'll tie him up or something like The Lions usually do when they have bad blood with someone. This time, that would be us. Then, he'll blackmail us to get there. Arjun will get the police there. They'll see that he's kidnapped someone and then we'll add the murder footage as extra evidence. Hopefully, charged for murder, jail time and gone from our lives for good."

It sounded like a solid plan, but literally so many things could go wrong because Everett was involved. To make it worse, Everett was the main point of this whole plan. The thought of Carlos hurting him, cause terror rushing through my veins.

Jada patted my head. "I know you're worried, but he won't hurt Everett. Not when he knows how valuable he is to us."

I flinched but nodded. "I have to tell him. See if he agrees, which he probably will, cus he's an idiot."

Jada chuckled. "You definitely got a type."

"Have you talked to Arjun?"

"Yeah. He agreed. I told him he'll get his gang back and we'll get rid of him. Both parties win and we can go back to our friendly feud."

I raised a brow. "Friendly, huh?"

She shrugged, lips quirking up. "Real friendly."

~

"I'll do it." Everett said, his answer coming quicker than I had expected just after I explained the plan to him. It was a few minutes after the bell rang and math class had ended, and lunch break had begun. The two of us stayed behind and I explained to him everything Jada told me this morning .

I sighed. "I knew it. You idiot."

Perched on his desk, he tilted his head to the side. "Is that what you told Jada?"

I nodded and he grinned before taking my hands in his, tugging me closer towards him. I had gloves on but as expected, he didn't mind. He gave me a warm smile after I exhaled a nervous breath. "You okay?"

"He raped me. He got Isha beat up. He killed someone. He could seriously hurt you. I'm fucking terrified," I whispered, clenching my jaw as I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Hey. Can you look at me?" He asked, softly. I raised my gaze to him and he offered me a reassuring smile. "I am scared, but I'll be okay. I have The Sirens by my side. Nothing will go wrong."

I shook my head. "That doesn't sound like you."

"You're always stressing and panicking and losing your shit."

He grinned. "Well, spending too much time with you has made me a calm, cool and fearless person."

I rolled my eyes and he chuckled before he slowly rubbed my arm with his hand, a soft smile on his face. "I am terrified and am probably going to regret it once we start executing the plan but I also really want him to leave you guys alone. I'll take Arjun any day over Carlos. That guy is crazy."

I sighed and nodded. We had to do it, anyway. There was no other way. I needed to trust Jada and Arjun. Even if their names together sounded completely fucked up in my head.

"You hungry? Let's go eat lunch."

I shrugged.

"Remember the sandwiches we made this morning?"

My gaze jerked up, my mouth suddenly watery. "I forgot about those. Let's go, let's go." He grinned and I grabbed his hand, leading him out of the classroom and through the hallway, towards the cafeteria.

Of course, thanks to my stupid luck, we ran into the last person I wanted to see right now. Carlos walked straight towards us, and stepped towards Everett, a coy look on his face as he eyes him from head to toe.

"Everett Weston, right?" He put out his hand but Everett didn't shake it. Carlos made an awkward face and glanced at me. "Hey, Takumi. I didn't expect you to pick up a squeaky clean white kid."

Then he looked back at Everett, "I'm honestly more surprised by you, dude. You into this ugly china girl?"

Everett's jaw clenched. "Don't call her that. That's so inappropriate."

Carlos tipped his head back and laughed before slapping Everett on the arm as he brushed past him, followed by his gang. He forcefully bumped into me on purpose, sending me stumbling to the side as I lost my balance on my bad foot.

Everett quickly caught me by my arm, steadying me on my feet before he turned his head and glared at Carlos as he watched him stride off. Then, he muttered, "Can't wait to get rid of him."

He then turned his attention to me and his expression softened instantly. He loosened his grip on my arm and frowned. "You okay?"

I nodded and reached for his hand as we headed towards the cafeteria. Despite Everett's comforting presence next to me, I swallowed hard as I felt Carlos' eyes piercing into my back. Definitely couldn't wait to get rid of him. This time, for good.

***

Author's note: Here's a new chapter! Hopefully, one or two chapters more to go! Hope you're excited for the ending!