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Chapter 1

RAFA

I pounded the bag untilout of er, to release the crippling stress we’d grown up under Oftenti inside me The pain would quiet it all, it was one of the only ways I could find peace

When I was younger I used to get in fights on the playground and beat the shit out of other kids Usually, they were kids who deserved it, the bullies, the s The rage got so bad, that when I was seventeen, I went too far and got into a street fight that alone to jail if it wasn’t for my brothers Gabe was cool headed and kne to talk his way out of anything, but it was after that particular fight he decided to buy er into so positive and constructive Gabriel and Malik showed up every single tiine ould have happened to ht direction Sure, Gabe and Malik kne to play dirty, we all did, but we also knew instinctively to stay away from the dark side We’d been born into dysfunction, poverty, and strife and ere dedicated tosure that any kids we could free from the same fate we’d been handed, would be our destiny and our way of getting back at our torht never have been served to thefield for any kid being abused, then that was redeh

Because ofuts to strangers They’d askat whatever as in front ofinto subly found forout at whoever tried to talk to me

“You,” a familiar voice said froainst the doorframe, his arms crossed across his chest, with a cocky sers attoward the shower Soht off his face, but then I realized if it weren’t for him, Mal and I would have been raised by the syste or any real family to speak of

I sat down at the bench, grabbed the towel, and started to wipe the sweat from my neck and face

“I suppose I will, for now”

“You gonna just ignore the blood?” Maverick nodded his head, his eyes zoned in on et an infection”

“It’s not that bad, I ain’t too worried about it”

“It’s hard to use a keyboard when your fingers all break and then fall off frorene Those hands are the second most valuable body part in this family”

“After your dick?”

Maverick stifled a laugh

“After your brain, kid”

Maverick, shifted from the doorframe, walked over to me and sat down He didn’t push me on my knuckles, I knew that he wanted to sayabout my personal emotional shit and my brothers didn’t push me It probably wasn’t the healthiest, but it was hoe survived, how I got through the day-to-day in the real world

“Sophie’s onna eat with us?”

“Nah, I’ive Malik a hand”

Maverick clappedmy head to shoot up to look at him Not many people can clap me, even in jest and keep their body parts intact, but Mav was one of the few people I felt safe around, “You know you don’t have to, right? No one's kicking you out of here”

“I know, brother,” I said,a white t-shirt over my head “I just need a break from you and your ol’ lady” Maverick and Sophie were still pretty new, they didn’t needtheir style Gabriel wanted to play family now that he’d settled down I suspected he wanted a redo, a second chance to save me from my childhood

“Bruh, re the last few years?”