Page 57 of Knockout Queen

“Three?” Johnny’s forehead wrinkles in confusion.

“You think I fucking knew what she had planned? Come on.”

My stomach twists like someone grabbed a hold of my insides and tugged.

“I took an oath, brother. You fucking know that.”

I snap my jaw shut. I can’t fight back. Magnum is lying for a reason.

Johnny reaches up to scratch his jaw. He turns toward me, and some of the anger fades. In one fluid motion, he slams his lips against mine, taking, taking, taking until he rips away from me. He grips my hips. “Goodbye, Kyla. Leave the Heights.”

My heart shatters in my chest at the vacant expression I’m met with when he steps away. He turns completely around and walks over to the couch in the living room and sits, crossing one ankle over the other and threading his fingers behind his head. He looks so much like his father I might well and truly throw up.

“Leave,” Mag says, flashing us a warning.

He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t tell me he’s playing. He doesn’t tell me he has a plan. The only thing his eyes say is that we better fucking listen to them. To both of them.

Magnum marches into the other room and comes back with my clothes. He throws them at my feet, and I clench my jaw while I pull on something that won’t get me looked at like a pariah on my way out of here. Confusion and hurt war for the top emotion over me, but when I finish pulling on a pair of joggers, Oscar and Brawler take a stance on both sides of me. Brawler reaches for my hand and tugs me. Before I know it, we’re in the hallway of the tower, walking to the elevator.

We step into the metal box, taking it down until we hit the ground floor. It feels as if I’m playing a part in a movie. It’s like my heart and my head aren’t even in my body and brain right now. I’m just going through the motions.

Oscar, Brawler, and I walk up the sidewalk past the guard station and out into the Heights free as birds. Or more like birds who have shackles of the past wrapped around their ankles.

“Well, that went well,” Oscar says.

A sob rips up my throat until they stop me right there on the sidewalk, cocooned between the two of them. “What the fuck are we going to do?”

“You told us you had a car once, right?” Brawler asks. “I think it’s best we do exactly as Johnny says.”

“He hates me.”

Brawler shakes his head. “If anything, he loves you so much it scares the fucking shit out of him.”

“He told me to leave.”

“He’s hurt, Kyla.”

Oscar sighs. “We can have this conversation, but we should have it someplace safe. Brawler’s right. We need that car.”

I start to walk toward the bus stop only to pull up short. “What about your mom?”

Oscar shakes his head. “She got away. As soon as we had to detour from the apartment, she ran off.”

“Fuck.”

“What about your mom?” I ask Brawler.

He lifts his shoulders. “I don’t think she’s in danger. She’s too drugged up and...” He swallows. “She won’t leave that apartment anyway. She hasn’t left since my brother and sister died.”

I close my eyes, pain etching my heart at that sad reality. She just fucking shut down after she lost her two children. If anything, this makes me want to fight back even more. How I’m supposed to do that now is beyond me. I just got kicked out of the fucking tower and Johnny hates my ass.

“Come on,” Oscar says. He places his arm around my shoulders, and we walk toward the bus station. Thankfully, the bus we need doesn’t take long. It stops and takes us to the parking lot where I hid my car. It’s sad that my life has become what I have on my body this very fucking second. The stuff that was in my old apartment got trashed. Johnny bought me clothes, but they’re not my clothes, they’re his. I’m left with just this shirt, underwear, bra, and joggers.

And Brawler and Oscar, of course.

I take them up to the second floor and find the key I’d hidden with a magnet in the tire well. I get in, and Oscar and Brawler climb in after me.

“You guys got your phones on you?” Oscar asks.

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