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“Well, I’ve never been on a farm in my life and I will do whatever it takes to keep Race safe and bring hi I wanted to sound like I would be valuable to him I didn’t I sounded scared and unsure He heard it

“Without one Just vanished Disappeared into the night like the thief he was

I sighed and went back up to my apartment I wasn’t worried about any uy who lived on the stoop, didn’t let anyone in the building that wasn’t supposed to be there All I did was bring hi a six-pack every now and then and he kept an eagle eye on ed to findwhen Lester took his stinking self to church They were lucky I was not I was also scared

I was scared for Race—scared forhonest, I was one hundred percent terrified of Bax I was street-s inwith a guy like him He was a very scary wild card, but I needed him I had never needed anyone in my life before Race showed up atthe locks shut on the front door, even though I no they were useless, thanks to ht visitor I snatched it up and went to the ave down at Carhed in le ood kids She was a good mom but this wasn’t a fairy tale, so I knew life was hard for all of them, especially since Marco was thirteen and Carmen was only six years older thanlike this was every man and woman for themselves, and the sooner you learned that, the better off you were Expectations were foolish to have The reality of the situation kept all of us honest and allowed us to form loose bonds with each other

“So? What did he say?”

I sighed and twisted one of er and stared up at the yellowish-tinted ceiling It wasn’t a great apartment, but it was far from the worst place I had ever lived

“Not a whole lot”

“He have any idea where Race ht be?”

“No, but he didn’t see bad had happened to him either”

“Your brother told you that he was all kinds of ‘take care of business’ You should’ve believed him Race was always up front with you, even when you didn’t want to hear it”

She was right, so I sighed again