“Wait, what?” I
frowned, confused. Why was it getting so difficult already?
“I’ll be seeing
you, Logan.” She reversed out of the driveway and I watched as she pulled into
the street and left. My heart was pounding and I realized that I didn’t have
her phone number. Shit! I rolled my eyes as I walked into the house, I would
just have to wait for Maddie to contact me. She’d likely call me in a few days
anyway, once she realized that I didn’t have her phone number. She couldn’t
stay away from me. I laughed as I opened the door and walked past the living
room without thinking about my dad. I was about to walk up the stairs when I
heard footsteps behind me.
“Whoa, Logan. What
are you doing?” Jared slapped my shoulder and his eyes were burning into mine.
“I thought you weren’t coming home tonight? What happened with Maddison?”
“I changed my
mind, and Maddie went home.”
“What? You let her
go home? Fuck it.” He shook his head. “Tell me what happened, man. What’s the
plan?”
“There is no plan,
Jared,” I answered him wearily.
“What?” His eyes
narrowed. “I know you’re not going to let this opportunity go.”
“There is no
opportunity, Jared,” I hissed at him angrily. “Maddie has nothing to do with
this.”
“Dad had a fit
tonight.” Jared placed his hand on the wall. “He hit Vincent.”
“What?” My heart
started pounding. “Why?”
“He told him to
get some beer. There is no beer, and we have no money.”
“Fuck, is he
okay?”
“He’s fine. He
didn’t even hit Dad back.” Jared’s face looked violent. “If he ever tries that
shit with me, I’ll punch him the fuck out. I don’t give a shit.”
“Where’s
Vinny
?” I sighed, worried.
“In the kitchen.
We’ve been talking about you.” He looked down. “We’re
kinda
hungry.” His voice was low and his heated animation was gone.
“Why didn’t you
buy any food?” I frowned as we walked to the kitchen.
“I gave you all my
money.”
“What?” I bit my
lip.
“I gave you all
the money I won on the races, and
Vinny
threw in his
last hundred as well. We knew you didn’t have the rent money.”
“How did you
know?” I was mad at myself for not having hid it better.
“We just knew.”
Jared looked at me with concern in his eyes. “We’re worried about you, bro.”
“Why … oh, shit.”
I walked into the kitchen and saw Vincent’s black eye. “You okay?” I stopped
short of running up to him and checking it.
“I’m fine. He can
still sock a man hard.” Vincent made a joke, and I half-smiled back at him. My
blood was boiling as I stared at my brother, and all I wanted to do was go into
the living room and shout at my father.
“We need to talk,
guys.” Jared’s voice was loud, and I turned to look at him. He looked like a
man. I realized that his boyish charm was gone and he was now a hardened man. I
felt disappointment seep through my body. I had failed my mother. Everything
was shit. I had done nothing to improve our situation.
“What’s up?” I
frowned at him. I wasn’t happy that he was now trying to take control of family
situations.
“I want everyone
to know that I can’t live like this anymore.” Jared looked at
Vinny
and me with a hard look in his eyes. “This is shit.
Dad is a fucking drunk who thinks he can say and do what he wants, and we never
have enough money for anything. We can’t get jobs in this godforsaken town and
Logan won’t even make the man responsible for it pay. This is a joke.” He shook
his head and looked at me. “I love you, man, and I know you’re trying, and I
know you made a promise to Mom to look after us, but you need some help.”
I stared at him
silently, not sure what to say. I was upset that I hadn’t been able to fulfill
my mom’s last wishes. She had trusted and believed in me and I was failing her.
I looked over at Vincent to see what he had to say. He looked at me sadly and
nodded slightly before speaking.
“We need to do
something big.” He stared down at the textbook in front of him. “And I don’t
mean calculus big, either.”
“What are you guys
thinking?” I asked pointedly. I knew better than to just assume they were just
thinking about this for the first time. They had probably been plotting for a
long time.
“Jared has an
idea.” Vincent nodded towards his brother, and I looked over to Jared, who was
staring at me with a defensive look.
“Don’t shoot me
down right away.” His eyes bore into mine. “Listen before you say no.”
“Why do I feel
like I already want to say no?” I groaned.
“I was hanging out
with Joey, and he …”
“NO.” My face
turned red as I shouted. “Hell NO.”
“Logan,” Jared
sighed. “Just listen.”
“Joey is bad
news.”
“Let him talk,
Logan,” Vincent spoke up. “I don’t particularly care for Joey either, but this
sounds like a pretty good idea.”
I glared at
Vincent for being a traitor and then looked back at Jared. “Go on, then.”
“There’s some guy
in town who has a Bugatti,” Jared talked quickly. “A two-million-dollar
Bugatti, and he’s going out of town in a few weeks.”
“So?” I shook my
head annoyed. “You know we don’t steal big money cars, we have no way to sell
them.”
“Here’s the deal.”
Jared leaned forward excitedly. “Joey has a buyer, he knows someone who is
interested in buying it. A million dollars in cash.”
“But it’s worth two
million.” I stared at my brother, starting to feel slightly excited.
“It’s all cash and
a done deal.” He grinned at me. “This is the answer to our problems! One
million dollars in cash. Can you even count that high, smarty-pants?”
“There’s only one
problem.” Vincent ran his hands through his hair. “The car is in a garage and a
keylock
won’t work.”
“I can get in any
car.” I shrugged, thinking how I would break into a Bugatti. “But if it’s in a
garage, it’s a no-go.”
“All we have to do
is break in to the garage as well.” Jared looked annoyed. “I’m sure it can’t be
that hard.”
“We don’t break
into houses.” My voice was firm. “You know that, guys.”
“It’s not a house,
it’s the garage.”
“The garage is
part of the house.” I shook my head and my voice was resolute.
“Maybe we have to
start playing by some different rules.” Jared turned away from me and looked at
Vincent. “Who’s ever heard of thieves with an honor code? And who only takes
Japanese imports? Give me a fucking break, it’s not doing anything to help us.”
“Jared, this isn’t
the road we want to go down.” My voice was soft as I walked up to him. “I don’t
want you guys involved in this shit. Let me think of something,” I pleaded with
him, hoping he would realize what a big deal it would be for us to break into a
garage. Theft was a slippery slope, and I was scared that if we did this, they
would think that it was okay to break into houses or even into stores. And that
was when people started getting hurt. That was when knives and guns came out. I
was scared and panicked. I didn’t want anything to escalate. And I knew I was
running out of time.
“Logan, listen to
me.” Jared turned around and looked at me with wild, passionate eyes. “I get
it, I really do. I know you have always looked out for me and
Vinny
. I know that you don’t want us involved in this life.
And I understand. Bro, we both understand, but you
gotta
admit, it’s not going so well for us. This is one deal. We steal this one car,
and we’re set. We don’t have to steal anymore. Not one single car unless we
want to. And we can move. We will finally have enough money to send Dad to
rehab, pay for college for all three of us, and we can get the shit out of
River Valley.” He grabbed my shoulder and stared at me for a few seconds. “This
town is toxic to us, bro. It’s time we finally packed up and left.”
“What do you
think?” I looked at Vincent to get his opinion. Jared had a point. A million
dollars was a lot of money. I’d be able to go clean, and I’d be able to ensure
we all stayed clean. We could get help for Dad and move and maybe buy a small
place so we didn’t have to worry about rent. And then maybe I could find a real
job somewhere, start to lead a somewhat normal life. I could be someone Maddie
could count on. I could take her out on a nice date and do things with her that
normal couples did.
“I think it’s a
good idea, Logan.” Vincent looked at me seriously. “We’d have to study up on
how to get into a Bugatti and how to break into a garage, but I think we can do
it.”
“We would also
have to figure out the mechanics of the ignition.” My voice was firm. “We can’t
expect to just find a spare key, and something tells me that fiddling with a
few wires is not going to do what we want.”
“Joey has someone
who can teach us,” Jared interrupted me eagerly. “If we want to, of course.”
“I just don’t
know,” I sighed. The idea itself was attractive, but knowing Joey was involved
made me very hesitant to get involved. I just didn’t trust him. “You guys know
how I feel about Joey. This just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing we should
get involved with.”
“Joey is fine,”
Jared sighed. “Come on, Logan.”
“What does he get
out of it anyway?” I shook my head. “Why is he brokering this deal?”
“He gets a hundred
grand,” Jared mumbled. “But it doesn’t come from our million. The guy buying
the car will pay him.”
“But we don’t know
who’s buying the car?” I cleared my throat. A knot was beginning to form in my
stomach. There were too many unknowns and I was starting to get a bad feeling
about everything.
“Just trust me
please, Logan. I trust Joey. I think it’s going to be fine. We need this, bro.”
“What do you
think?” I looked at Vincent again.
He nodded slowly.
“I think we should do it.” His eyes looked calm and serious. “I say we do this
deal and we walk away from the car theft business forever and never look back.”
“Okay.” I nodded
and sat down. “Let’s do it.” I ignored the qualms and fears I had over getting
involved in a deal like this. Jared was right, playing it safe and doing small
deals wasn’t helping the situation. We needed something big to happen, and we
needed to get out of this lifestyle. I didn’t want to be the guy who wasn’t
good enough anymore. I wanted to make a future for myself.
“For real?” Jared
grinned at me.
“Yes,” I sighed.
“I hope this isn’t going to be a big mistake.”
“Trust me, bro.
This is the best decision you’ve ever made. We’re going to be set from here on
out.”
“I sure hope so.”
“I think it is
going to change our lives, right, Vincent?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent frowned. “There are some things I don’t want to change.”
“What?” Jared
looked at him like he was crazy. “Are you fucking joking?”
“No.” Vincent’s
voice was soft. “I hate that we’re poor and that we worry so much, but we have
each other. We’ve always had each other. We’ve always been close. I just don’t
want money to come between us. I don’t want everything to change.”
“Dude, it’s one
million dollars, not a billion.” Jared burst out laughing. “We’ll be set for
now, but not forever.”
“I don’t want the
money to come between us.”
“It won’t.” Jared
shook his head. “We just have to decide how we’ll spend it.”
“How do we
decide?”
“Hey, guys,” I
interrupted them. “I agree with, Vincent. We can’t let this money divide us. We
all have to be on the same page as to how we are going to split it and spend
it.”
“I figure you can
be in charge of the money.” Jared’s tone changed. “You’re the eldest, you’ve
always had our back. I trust you. Right, Vincent?”
“Yeah, that sounds
like a plan. You’ll be in charge of the money, Logan.”
“Are you guys
sure?”
“Duh.” Jared
grinned and sat down next to me. Vincent sat down as well, and we all just
looked at each other for a few moments. This was the biggest decision of our
lives and I think we all realized just how much our lives would change based upon
this decision. We had all talked about the positive change, if everything went
well. But I knew we all realized that maybe everything wouldn’t go as planned.
Maybe it would all go horribly wrong. Maybe one of us would get caught. Or all
of us.
“We need to talk
worst-case scenario.” I pursed my lips and looked at them, feeling overwhelmed
with emotion. These were my two baby brothers, and as I stared at them, the
feeling of love washed over me, and I couldn’t believe just how much they meant
to me. “I don’t want both of you in this with me.”
“What are you
talking about?” Jared frowned. “You can’t do this alone.”
“Jared’s right.
It’s all of us or none of us.” Vincent’s voice was firm. “You don’t have to
risk your life for us anymore, Logan.”
“What are you talking
about?”
“We know
everything you’ve done for us.” Vincent leaned towards me. “And we appreciate
it. We’ve been selfish. It’s not fair to you. If we do this, it’s all of us. I
won’t accept it any other way.”
“You won’t accept
it?” I raised an eyebrow at him. I had never seen Vincent speak up like that
before.
“I won’t accept
it.” He grinned. “I’m second oldest and I’m usurping your command.”
“Really?”
“Really! So deal
with it.”
“Okay, but we have
to decide our roles.”
“Joey said we
should start the training right away. We don’t have much time.”
“I really wish
Joey wasn’t involved with this,” I groaned. “I know you guys think I’m
overreacting, but he’s bad news.”
“We don’t have to
deal with him after this.” Vincent made a face towards Jared and he shrugged.
“Joey’s cool, man,
but, if it means that much to you, I won’t hang out with him as much after
this.”