AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, you’re stealing bread to make sandwiches for your brothers?” I lowered my head to his. “Here’s a hint, kid. When you’re told to do something, you don’t have to follow it to a T.” I licked my lower lip, slipping my hands into my pockets and expecting him to give up and go home already. To leave the corner store alone and my reputation intact and go eat the fucking peanut butter out of the jar like a normal asshole would.
But he didn’t get what I was saying.
“Are you dumb?” I asked him as he stood up, faced me and held his ground.
“She said to make them sandwiches. I’m not leaving until I get the bread.”
I searched his eyes for the longest time before going in and grabbing the bread for him. But I followed him home, telling him I wasn’t going to give it to him until I saw that he was telling the truth. I knew he was one of the kids who lived on the edge of the city. I remembered seeing a bunch of them out that way. I make it a habit to know everyone and for them to know me.
If he was lying to me, he’d learn real quick to never do it again.
I didn’t know that he had four brothers, or that their place was a mess because they’d just moved in. I heard they were on the run from where they came from, but I didn’t know that their mother was in the hospital because of their grandfather. Apparently, he’s who they were running from and he’d found out where they ran off to. Which is how his mom wound up in the ER and why their father in jail as a result of it all, paying Carter’s grandfather back for what he’d done to his mother. Leaving five kids alone in a new place without a damn thing to eat.
I didn’t know, and I didn’t care, not until I saw how happy they were just to eat. Even something as simple as peanut butter sandwiches. I asked him how long it’d been since she went to the hospital.
It had been four days. And they were starving, but he’d promised his mom he would feed them, and he did.
Twelve years old, and he was the oldest of five. She stayed in the hospital for another three days before the doctors would let her come home. Now she’s back in the hospital, but not with bruises and broken ribs. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. She’s been fighting it all this time, but Carter’s still taking care of his brothers, and now her too.
That was the first time I met Carter, four years ago. I took him under my wing at first, but now he’s a friend. A friend who’s been through some shit and is still in it. He has a family though and a reason to fight. I’ve only ever fought to stay alive or to rule with fear. That difference is something I’m not sure he’ll ever understand.
“Is she home?” he asks me, and it brings me back to the present. To being on the other side of the city, close to my place and in front of Chloe’s.
Letting out a sigh and running a hand through my hair, I shrug like I don’t know.
“You like her,” he tells me like it’s a fucking joke. He doesn’t know what’s going on. Not entirely, but even if he suspects it, he won’t ask. He doesn’t like to look for the darkness, not when he’s surrounded by it already.
“She doesn’t need me asking her out,” I mutter under my breath and ignore Carter’s eyes pinned on me.
It takes a second and then another for him to start putting the puzzle pieces together.
“You going to tell me why we’re here?” he asks me with a brow cocked. He’s feigning lightheartedness; concern is clearly etched on his face.
I’ve told him more than once that he doesn’t pay attention enough. That life is shit, it always will be, and either you accept it for what it is and protect yourself, or you fall victim to whatever fate chooses to inflict on us. But given the weight of what I’m hiding, I don’t tell him. I don’t want it to be real.
I lie to him and say, “I just wanted to see if anyone was snooping around here.”
“Cops? Or Romano’s people?” Carter asks and the gravity of either of the two options sends a chill down my spine. I can handle the cops, Chloe can’t. But neither of us could handle Romano if he decided to go after her. He runs the territory up north and I work for him on occasion. I may be his muscle, but I’m not sure even I know the extent of the shit Romano’s involved with.
As I’m thinking about the last fucked up thing Romano had me do, Carter asks something I wish he hadn’t, because it’s too close to being true. “Is this about that thing Marcus gave you?” His voice is even, but his expression’s fallen.
Pushing back in my seat and hiding my anxiety, I tell him, “I told you not to mention that.”
He only nods and seems to shrug it off, like it doesn’t matter if Marcus is the reason we’re here. Both of us know that’s bullshit though. Even saying his name is something no one likes to do around here. Romano may run the territory up north from us, he may even make an appearance down here on occasion when he needs something, but you always see him coming and he’s only dangerous because of the men he controls.
Marcus is a different sort of threat. By the time you see him coming, you’re already dead. He doesn’t have a territory, he doesn’t have men. When he makes demands, they’re always about death. They called him the Grim Reaper when I was younger. He doesn’t want money, he doesn’t bargain. What Marcus decides is final and there’s no room to negotiate. He’s only one man, but he’s killed every man who’s crossed him and even more men simply because they were on his list.
A minute passes before Carter reaches for the radio again and lets the music ease the tension.
“It’s fine.” My words come out casually as I watch Chloe’s house. Not a thing looks out of place. It’s not fine though. This shit is exactly why I could never be with her. One day you’re on top, the next you’re in a ditch. That’s how this lifestyle is, and I’ll never bring anyone into this shit life if I can help it. That especially goes for Chloe Rose.
“When are you going to ask her out?” he asks with a wide smile. He still has happiness in his soul. Enough to bring a bit of light to every dark situation. One day it’ll go out. It always does for men like us. But I’ll do my damnedest to keep it from happening.
“I know you want her,” he chides again.
He doesn’t know the half of it. I’ve known Chloe for a long time. And I made sure she never knew how I watched over her when her mother died. She wasn’t okay. Everyone knew it. Just like they knew I wasn’t okay when my mother died.
No one gives a shit though. People die, and somehow you keep going.
