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Prologue

Maze

I've been a net for trouble my entire life

It has never been by , ht and narrow, the right side of the law But as for the people around me, yeah, therein was the problem

It all started with ally obtain social security benefits she wasn't entitled to for ten years before they found her By that ti her and trying to get her to settle her debt Mythe selfish, stubborn woman she was, never responded So then one day, they stopped by and dragged her to jail and me into the system

It only lasted for teeks before randmother from Vermont made the trip down to the city and picked me up

For the next eight years, there was no trouble, no fear of the police, no pit in , childhood and adolescence

About two randmother died She left me the house and her car and what little money was in her bank account as well as completely and utterly alone in the world

Then, well, what is a story about trouble without involving a boy, right?

I was nineteen, attending the local co hohosts of the wo and eating dinner alone

Then one day, behind me at the line at the coffee shop, I met him

His name was Thato and he was tall and blond and beautiful with the ray eyes I had ever seen in ht accent I couldn't place at first that sounded almost British, but wasn't I learned when he took me out on our first date that it was South African, that his parents had moved to the states when he was thirteen and he never shook the slight inflection in his tone Which was fine by s I liked best about him

Thato lived in an apart before I sold off e, socked away the money, and moved in with him

What could I say? I was young and in love

And, as it often folloith a woo to plan

Meaning, one night eight months into our relationship, I was shocked awake by the front door of our apart raton's finest burst into the bedroom before I could even pull up the blankets to cover my naked body

See, as I learned later that night after being allowed to dress before being dragged down to the police station for questioning, Thato did own a mechanic shop Sort-of It was awith lifts and oil-stained floors and tire irons and torque wrenches and all that kinda stuff

But it was not the place anyone went to have their cars fixed