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Chapter One

When my older brother Hendrix moved out of the apartment that housed our family, I became the man of the house “Housed our family”? No—we never truly lived there I refused to believe that was living

The old , and his bar, as he called it, was below the apartment

His bar We knew better Momma ran that place If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t have been able to hang on to the only thing in his miserable existence he could possibly ever have been proud of Because he didn’t care about us, that was for damn sure

“Think of me what you will,” he slurred as he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, stood up froer at er—Momma, and me “Every other dive around here has been abandoned since the factories all took a shit But not my place I’m one hell of a businessman, and you’re all lucky to have a man like me”

“You piece of shit! Mo reason you have a business,” Hendrix said before lunging at him

Jagger and I both grabbed hi the old ain We had cause to worry, because when Hendrix had stepped in once before while the oldon Momma, he had knocked him out cold The old man was down for a while, too

Momma cried, worried Hendrix had killed hio to jail Never once was she concerned about the olddead; she was concerned about my brother, her son Over and over, Moh It was always his, the fucking bastard

With Hendrix gone, I had to learn how to keep the bastard fro up in jail, so I did

I took blow after blow from that ht back I re my head while he told me in the slurred, drunken voice we had all become accustomed to that I was either immune to pain or had one hell of a poker face

Over the span of severalain I’d stand in front of hiet between us, I wouldn’t allow it Gone were the days when she would hide us away in the tiny roo ere little There was nous from the fucker; ould do what needed to be done to shield her

I’d no longer lie on the floor I’d standunaffected as he beat row angrier and angrier, whereas I’d grow mentally and physically more able to endure his attacks