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I snorted and stepped around Benny like he wasn’t worth o without; it’s also a long tirow the fk up You don’t know me, Benny Novak doesn’t know me, and I don’t care what kind of muscle or firepower he wants to throw at , I’ll et what you pay for” I wasn’t sure if that was a dig at , but I’ve never had to pay for it in e of his distraction to lunge forward and slae of his nose I heard a satisfying crunch, and then his scream of pain as his cronies hurried forward to keep hiave my head a shake to clearforadversary, tossing over my shoulder as I ht not want to underestimate me, Benny That was always your downfall”

My name is Shane Baxter, Bax to irl? I’ll take her from you Got a sweet ride you dropped a mint on? I’ll take it from you Got expensive electronics you think are safe? I’ll come and take them, because you probably didn’t need them anyway If it isn’t nailed down or attached to you by unbreakable chains, there is a good chance I canthings that didn’t belong toall the worst kinds of trouble to get into I was only twenty-three, had gone in for a nickel right on the heels of hteenth birthday, but that wasn’t even close to the first tied heads with the laasn’t a ths and I stuck with theht be

I had two people in my life I bothered to care about: my mom and Race There used to be three, but the last one let me down in too many ways to count, and noore I would coldcock hi-suffering, stubborn, and the only person who stayed on my side when I went away She had terrible taste in boyfriends, a bad habit of drinkinga steady job She was the very definition of down-and-out no matter how many lifelines I tried to throw her

I started stealing stuff before I understood what I was doing because I was so tired of going without As I got older and better at it, I did it to pay the bills and to keep a roof over our heads My ed me, never turned her back on me, and was the only person in the world ould actually be happy to see me out of prison

Race and I were the two e-bound, tech-savvy, and frorees He ell spoken and char to a job interview, and was full of patience and cohtful summer breeze to h school, could barely read a full sentence, didn’t have a family beyond my mom and the slu Even before serving hard ti uy who no one wanted to ht ere both teenagers He was driving a sweet Roush Mustang with an even sweeter blonde in the passenger seat I had no idea what he was doing in such a bad part of town, but I wasn’t the kind of guy who let an opportunity pass me by I shoved a knife in his face, pulled him out of the driver’s seat, and proceeded to try and take his car Only Race was in no hurry to let it go I never knew if he was fighting for the girl or for the ride, but either e beat the shit out of each other I broke his wrist, he cracked ory, and epic, and by the tiot the blonde’s seat in the Stang on the way to the hospital and I got a brother from another mother in Race I never went to his fancy house on the Hill or dirtied up his good name at his fancy prep school He never sluhetto or had to deal with h-end cars for Novak on the regular and needed help with the coh-six and soures, he was the only one I trusted to have irls, and partied with stuff kids our age shouldn’t know anything about Every day I regretted asking hi hi-ass ti to wait for one that ed, one that when it ca to put my hands around my best friend’s throat We both hadfor

Trouble was, I had no idea where to start When I went away, he had been enrolled in soue school out east I wasn’t sure if he made it to that place, I went away so he could, but there were no guarantees in life I learned that lesson the hard way

I shook out a s out the prepaid cell phone I had picked up when I went and got my car I walked up and around the block to where I had parked the beauty, far away from curious stares and hot hands I knehat kind of cars thieves looked for and what kind of cars car guys wanted for their own My bumblebee-yellow-and-black, race-striped, 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner with its tricked-out heh It was faster than fast, and it was the only thing I had left after I got locked up I told my mom to sell it when I went down, but she refused She kne much work, how much sweat and tears I had put into that car, so if it meant rent or my baby, s and squinted up at the sky I would kill for so throb inmatters I had to deal with at the mo to dull the burning want at the back of rew up poor and without any kind of parental supervision, sex was just so you did to kill time and to chase away the monotonous moments of despair and depression Two people could ood, so that’s what happenedwithoutwell, I was used to it now, but in ht and zero effort