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18 years old…
I shoved open the front door to my house and stepped inside. Flurries of snow swirled up behind me, the howling wind making me shiver as I kicked the door shut with aboomand stepped forward, to the unmistakable ratchet of guns. I froze, my pulse driving a little harder than normal as Dad stepped into the foyer with a shotgun in his hand.
Relief spread across his face when he saw me. “Don’t you answer your damn phone?”
Not when it’s you nagging me, I don’t.“I got busy.”
“You got busy?” Anger darkened his eyes as he came toward me in three engulfing strides and grabbed my jacket, yanking me close.“You got busy?”
I just stared at him, then slowly muttered. “Yeah.”
“You don’tget busywhen I call, Lazarus. Not now, not ever. You understand me?” he barked.
A dragging sound came across the floorboards above me, coming from the direction of my father’s room. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on?” Dad snapped as Gravel stepped through a doorway. Dad just turned to him and released me with a soft shove. “You hear this?Nowhe wants to know what’s going on.”
More was dragged across the floor, only this time the sound came from my room.
“Lazarus, go pack the rest of your stuff,” Gravel directed, stepping around Dad to come between us.
He was carrying, and a lot more than usual. Black steel glinted across his chest as he moved, grabbing my shoulders. Fear lingered in his eyes as he spoke. "Something’s come up. We need to get you and your father to safety.”
I jerked my gaze to Dad. “What? What the hell is going on?”
Dad just shook his head and turned away. “Pack the rest of your shit, Lazarus. We leave in ten.”
Leave in ten?
My gaze went toward the back door as panic moved in. We couldn’t leave, this was our home…we hadIggy,we had Iggy. “Go where?”
But Dad just kept walking away without a goddamn explanation. “I said…go fucking where?”
“Underground, son,” Gravel answered. “There’s been talk.”
I turned to him, like I always fucking did. “What kind of talk?”
He just shook his head. “The kind that makes us anxious. Now go. Get what you need, we can come back for the rest later.”
Leave our home, leave our memories. The heavy thud of footsteps on the stairs drew my gaze. Taken and Harley came plodding down, both hauling heavy boxes full of our stuff.
“Kid,” Taken acknowledged as he strode past.
I just watched them take our shit along the hall. Howling wind pushed in as they opened the front door behind me. A lone, sloppy leaf flew in behind them, slapping against the wall, and that’s where it stayed. The house was cold in an instant. Cold and unwelcome. But Iggy…I glanced again toward the back door. “Will we come back?”
“No.” Gravel gave it as real as he could. “Not while there’s a damn bounty on your head.”
I jerked my gaze to his as fear moved through me. “There’s a bounty onmyhead?”
One nod was all he gave.
A bounty. On my fucking head.Jesus.No wonder Dad was in a goddamn mood.
I kept my jacket on and trudged up the stairs, making my way into the too small damn room I’d had forever. There were memories here, good memories and bad. Still, the place was all I’d known. This small, plain damn house on a street of quiet families who watched us from behind their damn curtains and hurried to cross the street when I neared. I knew what they saw when they looked at us. Thugs. Criminals.
And they were right. Wewerecriminals.
The kind you didn’t want to piss off…but still, this was our home.
