Prologue
William
Twelve months ago…
My sister has been my only family since… well… forever. She was the reason I didn’t tap out of this fucked up world back when I was eight and so hungry, I was tempted to pluck the rib from my own body and nibble. She’s the reason I work so damn hard, and the reason I didn’t roll over years ago when someone tried to slap a murder charge on my back and have me sent far, far away.
That guy tried to place me out of sight, out of mind, so in my absence, he could take my sister and keep her for his own.
I wasn’t a murderer back then. But I sure as hell am now.
And the blood on my hands belongs to that very man.
I call that karma, and I’m not sorry for the actions I took mere hours ago to save my sister’s life. But now I sit alone in my car, my hands shaking, my heart racing as the sun lowers in the sky and tries to blind me. But I drive.
Away from Quinn.
Away from a dead body.
Away from that town that could have been my home, if only the scales of karma weren’t so set on fucking me up.
My head throbs with a headache, and my eyes itch from dried tears. I dropped my sister off on her boyfriend’s doorstep, then I drove away. For the first time in my life, I drove away with no plans to return. I left her in someone else’s care, and now I’m on the run.
Maybe I wasn’t a murderer yesterday, but today, I am.
Maybe yesterday, I was the best protector for her, but today, that’s not true.
When the cops find me, I’m going to prison, and my biggest fear is they might never let me out.
My phone trills from the passenger seat, and since this is an expensive rental car – that I didn’t pay for – the call syncs with the stereo, and the screen in the dash shows a number I’ve called numerous times in the last week or so.
Swallowing and sending my Adam’s apple bobbing, I consider killing the call. Accepting it would be my first step into an orange jumpsuit, my first step toward a maximum-security prison where I’ll never again see sunlight. But something else plays in my blood too, a memory, a promise… another woman’s face.
I hit the green button on the steering wheel, but I say nothing.
“Will?” Shouts echo in my caller’s background. Orders, demands to find me. “Will, you there? It’s me.”
I swallow again, or risk choking on the nerves that won’t allow me to stop shaking. “I’m here.”
“Are you safe?”
I study the open freeway that stretches, never-ending, ahead of me. “Yes.”
“Driving?”
“Yes. I need you to keep an eye on my sister, okay? Keep her safe, no matter what.”
“No matter what,” my caller promises. “You’re not coming back here, are you?”
“I can’t.” My voice cracks, and tears burn my eyes as I furiously reach up to swat them away. “I can’t come back. The cops will get me.”
“What you did could be argued as self-defense, Will. Your crime isn’t killing a man, but running from a crime scene. I can help you fix this.”
“You…” I try to process my caller’s words. Lies? Empty promises? “I can’t stop shaking,” I rasp out.
“You’re in shock,” she gently replies. “Maybe pull over for a sec. I want to talk to you anyway, and I need you to concentrate.”
“I can’t pull over.” Instead, I press my foot down on the accelerator just a little more. “Can’t go to prison. Quinn will try to visit me, and I can’t–I can’t–I… no. She can’t see me in there.”
“She’d rather see you behind bars than wrapped around a tree because you were speeding and not paying attention. Focus, Will. Pull over for a second. I want to talk.”
“About what?” I lessen the pressure on the gas pedal, and glance in my rearview mirror; for cops, or for other cars? “What do you wanna talk about?”
“I have a deal I’d like you to consider. A one-time deal, the life-changing kind, but you only get the offer once, and after that, it’s gone.”
“A deal…” My brain works like an old, virus-addled computer. Too many pages open, too many tabs, not enough RAM. “A deal?”
“A deal,” my caller purrs as the shouting in their background turns quieter. “It means you can’t come back here, you can’t see your sister – not for a little while, at least. But it’s better than your plan to run to Cabo.”
“Where would you have me go?”
“I have someplace set up, an infrastructure in place for people just like you. At the end of it, if you’re still standing, you’ll be a free man.”
Signaling toward the shoulder of the freeway, I pull off of the tar and onto loose dirt, and when my wheels stop, I press the button for the handbrake and place my forehead on the steering wheel.
“If I’m still standing…” I choke out. “And if I’m not? You’ll take care of my sister, right?”
“I wouldn’t cut the deal with you if I didn’t think you’d make it through. I know guys like you, I know muscle and potential. So I know you’ll be fine. It’ll be tough, but we both know you can work hard.”
“If I go to Cabo, I wouldn’t have to work at all, and I’d still be able to call my sister,” I argue. “I’d be free. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to see her, but I could speak with her.”
“You can speak with her where I’m sending you, too.” My caller pauses. “But you can’t tell her where you are. It has to remain a secret.”
I frown and concentrate on the rhythm of my own breathing.
I don’t want to leave my sister, I don’t want to lie to her, I don’t want to keep secrets. But I shot a man today, right through the fucking head. That’s not self-defense. That’s an execution, and any decent prosecutor worth their degree could prove that.
Swallowing and licking my dry lips, I close my eyes and say the words that are probably going to break more hearts than one.
“Where, and how long?”
Olivia
A Fractured Fairytale
Current day…
“We’re doing dinner and cards tonight at the house.” Ben – my overprotective, almost-always-annoying, but definitely-always-has-my-best-interests-at-heart – big brother stands over me inside the Rollin On Gym and smiles.
This is a rare moment of quiet between classes, so I lean back against the wall and hold my adorable baby nephew, Wes, in my arms.
At some point a few years ago, back when I was firmly entrenched in my ‘I can’t stand my brother being all up in my business all the damn time’ phase, Ben moved out of the family home, married his high school sweetheart, made this handsome baby, and now I miss the hell out of them all.
I guess it was one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ things, because back then, I hated that Ben insisted on knowing everything about my life. But now, I freely volunteer a lot of stuff just so we can hang out and laugh like old times. I had no clue I would miss the guy I’d nicknamed Sasquatch a lifetime ago, but here I am, a grown woman in her mid-twenties, living on her own in an upscale apartment across town, and I miss the hell out of the overprotective people in my life.