Page 29 of The Triangle

He was wearing blue slacks for one thing. Shirtless though.

I knew he and I were about the same age but his body, like mine, had filled out early. He wasn’t thick the way Curtis was. Or the way I was. He was lean, but the muscles were there. He was cut like a goddamned sculpture. And his skin was golden. Like he grew up on a beach and even though he and I were in the same drab, gray city now, that wasn’t where he belonged.

I guess the word to describe him was exotic. At least that’s the one that ran through my head at the time. And pretty. Not like a girl, either. There’s nothing feminine about Alec. He was pretty like Christine’s blue beetle. The beautiful hard exterior was just the beginning of what makes up Alec van den Berg. And the minute that thought popped into my head I knew she’d want to poke him. See what’s so special inside him that he gets to be blue.

I wanted to know too.

I wandered over to the ring to get a better view of the fight and spied a pile of clothes on the ground next to a pair of expensive leather shoes. There was a white dress shirt, a tartan maroon tie, and a blue jacket. Not a hoodie like I was wearing, but a real fucking jacket. The kind that goes with a suit. Which explained the blue slacks.

The clothes were on the floor like they were worthless, but the emblem on the pocket of the blazer said St. Francis of Assisi Upper School on it.

What the fuck was this kid doing in our gym?

That’s the next thing that went through my head.

But just as quick, I forgot about it. Because there was this loud, sickening crack and I thought, Well, that’s the end of this dumbass.

But when I looked up to see what I missed, it was Curtis on the floor of the ring. Blood pouring out of his mouth, broken tooth stuck to his lip.

I squinted my eyes and looked at this new kid again.

He’s blue on the inside too, that’s what I thought next.

He was jumping then. Kinda circling Curtis, yelling at him to get the fuck up and finish what he started. His knuckles weren’t even taped, so they were tore up from the blows he’d delivered. Bloody and sick, missing bits of skin.

Bare-knuckle boxing was forbidden in the gym. The rules on the sign hanging on the wall even said so. But that never stopped us.

Seconds later there were like a dozen people in the ring. Some kneeling on the ground trying to rouse Curtis, some blocking the new kid from approaching, two firmly gripping his shoulders, holding him back.

That’s when I looked into his eyes and made a decision.

I liked this asshole. Because those eyes weren’t the eyes of a kid who went to St. Francis of Assisi Upper School.

They were my eyes. They were blue, even if they weren’t.

He was pretty and I wanted him.

Fast forward a couple of years and my life had taken a turn. Because that was the night we were in the fuckin’ alley waiting on Christine to come out with the diamond and heard the gunshot inside the house.

That was the first time she ever killed anyone.

But it wasn’t the last.

Over the next few years we did dozens of heists. All over the fuckin’ world. Private planes became familiar modes of transportation. We ate caviar on crackers that taste like air, drank bottles of champagne that cost more than six months’ worth of weekly motel rent, wore bespoke clothes, and shot more guns in more countries than we ever knew existed.

All in the name of money.

Ah, but that’s not exactly true. Yeah, the money was the end game. But the excitement, the adventure, the fuckin’ adrenaline. The feeling we’d get afterward. The way we’d laugh, all scrunched up together on some luxurious couch. The want we felt for each other. The knowing that this was the true meaning of pretty.

That’s why we did it.

And even though the three of us spent years living the dream, the way it ended… well, that was the shit nightmares were made of.

CHAPTER TWLEVE - ALEC

BEFORE

Prague’s cold, damp, winter air is filling my lungs as I run, and I’m drinking it in. I have Christine by the hand, pulling her along, glancing to the side to make sure she’s keeping up. She is. She’s the only one I’ve met in my life who can.