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Until I was sixteen, I was numb Entitled, spoiled rotten, stuffed full of self-i I existed in a bubble where anything I wanted, anything I needed, was handed directly to s beyond my mommy and daddy’s fat wallet

One night I had been on a date The girl I chose not to reiven ht I was the shit, untouchable and unbeatable, until I took a wrong turn and somehow ended up lost on a road that trailed between the Hill and the Point I was at a stoplight, trying to find directions on my phone, when theon the driver’s side shattered and hard hands had reached in to pull , re fists, butalive

I was nervous, I was scared, but I wasn’t going to give up the Mustang without a fight It was the most “real” ot a lucky punch, saw the big, dark guy go down at a weird angle with all of his weight falling onto his hands Bone crunched in an ugly way, and I collapsed in the middle of the street across from a kid as no older than me, but looked like he had lived a hundred more lifetimes

Bax was holding his wrist, blood oozing across his face and out of his nose, and he was just staring atthe police and all I could do was , thrill at the adrenaline that was coursing through my body

“I never thought a pretty boy like you could throw a punch like that Even if it was just lucky”

It was the best compliment I had ever received I flicked blood and hair out of my eyes and asked hie, he had just tried to carjackmoment in o back to my fluffy dreamland

I wasn’t as iround as he was I didn’t have the street cred, the attitude to pull it off But I was s, ere a team I didn’t steal cars, didn’t break the law, but when he needed help, I had his back, and I liked to think that long before he fell in love withhard like that opened up a whole neorld to s no teenage boy should know There were drugs, there was excitee around every corner, and it was a blast until things got too deep

Bax was takinglost in the mire and poison that was the lifeblood of the Point, and I wanted out, wanted to save us both before ent under Only Novak was far save him credit for and faret to him

My father, like most rich men, couldn’t keep his junk in his very expensively tailored pants Dovie was reeing to abort her No one should trust a junkie; the next fixelse Dovie was lost in the system until she wasn’t

Novak used her, used my dad’s need to keep his secrets, to play me My dad paid Novak to have her killed, only Novak double-crossed him, recorded the entire conversation, and pulled oing to let anything happen to my blood, my sister, even if I didn’t know her, so I blackreed to Novak’s twisted schened to tie Bax to him forever

The mobster was smart, but I was smarter I set Bax up No tays about it I betrayed my only friend, sold him up the river so I could save Dovie, so my dad would be forced to be Novak’s puppet I led Bax into a trap, kneas going to end badly, but because Bax was Bax, he hadfrom the cops An arrest that should’ve resulted in six months at thelocked up for a solid five years and had ot out and I could exact uilt and the threat of Novak hanging overendless years

As soon as Bax got out of jail, I set things inpieces around that would free all of us froain, Bax had throrench in the plan by falling in love witha really bad man a vulnerable place to attack him from Bax was ready to sacrifice hiround if it s hadn’t had to cohtly worse off than before But Novak was no round, the foundation of this horrible place, brick by oily, soiled brick, because if we didn’t then somebody else would