Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“You were coming at me like you were about to eviscerate me!” the kid squealed.
“I was,” I promised him. “Get the fuck up.”
The kid stood from where he’d thrown himself down to protect his head.
From what, I still didn’t know.
In his haste to cover said head, he’d fallen and had taken not just the table, but his computer and bookshelf out as well.
In my haste to save the computer from biting the dust, which I did somehow manage to save, I’d gotten a jaw full of keyboard.
“I’m sorry!” he cried.
I looked at the little kid.
“You know you’re doing wrong,” I surmised. “You know you’ve been fucking with stuff you shouldn’t be.”
The kid’s eyes filled with tears.
He had to be fifteen at most.
“Yes, Sir,” the kid confirmed. “I…I’m sorry.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and looked over to Griffin who was standing beside me.
He hadn’t moved to do anything as it all went down, so he, of course, was clean of the Coke that’d spilled on the floor, as well as the dozens of powdered donuts that were now soaking up the Coke.
“I don’t know,” Griffin said. “How old are you, kid?”
The kid bit his lip.
“Fifteen. Sixteen next week,” he answered, whisper soft.
I glared at him.
“So you know you’ve been hacking into DMV records. Bank accounts. Government fucking, blacked out, nobody sees them but God records?” I gave him my best glare, and to be honest, I knew it was chilling.
I knew that the minute I said ‘God’ that he’d flinch, and he didn’t disappoint.
I used to be a drill sergeant in the Marines.
I knew my shit. I knew what to do to get a reaction out of a fucking kid. It didn’t matter that this one wasn’t eighteen and under my employ.
He was a wayward fucking soul, and no matter what he did to me or my sister, he was still a kid.
A dangerous kid, but a kid nonetheless.
“I’m sorry!” the kid started to wail.
“What’s your name?” I asked shortly, fed up with the crying and it’d just begun.
“Xavier,” he sniffled.
“Xavier what?” I persisted.
“Xavier Delgado,” he answered.
“Where’s your parents?”
Griffin stepped around me to pick up the bookshelf that’d tipped over, and I snapped my fingers at Xavier when his eyes went to follow Griffin’s movements.
“Focus,” I growled.
Xavier’s eyes came back to me with a start, and I nearly caved when I saw the fear in his eyes.
He didn’t like having Griffin at his back.
His body was tense, and his eyes were hyper aware.
He kept trying to look behind him, and then stopped the moment he realized what he was doing.
“My mom’s dead. My father’s…gone,” he hesitated.
“Gone where?” I pushed.
Xavier bit his lip.
“Xavier,” I said shortly. “You’re really close to going to jail. In Texas, you can be charged as an adult for crimes such as the ones I know you’ve committed. Not to mention I haven’t even had the chance to go through your computer.”
Xavier’s head dropped.
“My papa left me. Traded my services to some gringo who needed them.” He bit his lip. “Everything I’ve done is what he’s forced me to do.”
“What ‘gringo’?” I asked, sensing that this would be the break I needed.
“Tall. Brown hair. Curly. Crazy eyes that make him look fucking demented.” Xavier pointed to his eyes as he gave his colorful explanation.
“Ice blue,” I guessed.
Xavier nodded exuberantly. “Yes!”
“Name’s Josh Fry?” I continued.
“Don’t know his name,” Xavier said, his accent getting thicker. “He never gave me a name, and I didn’t ask. I get paid once a week. He comes to see what I got accomplished every week, gives me cash and then leaves.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You’re all alone?” I asked.
He nodded.
“You paying the bills?” I held out my hand.
He took it, hesitantly, and I pulled him to his feet.
“Yes.” He licked his lips nervously. “I pay them in person when they’re due. Pay in cash.”
“You going to school?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“You haven’t had a truancy officer here wondering why you’re not at school?” The thought that nobody cared about him was starting to tug at my heartstrings.
The kid was fifteen. Still a baby, and all alone in this harsh world that we lived in.
Xavier shook his head no.
“No, Sir.”
I looked around at the trailer house.
It was just like the one I’d grown up in with my sister.
Not a surprise considering it was only about seven trailers down from the one where I’d spent the first eighteen years of my life.
I could still practically hear the whispered, cruel words from the town residents when they saw July and me walk into an establishment. Could remember the exact words that I tried to shield July from.
Now those same town residents thought I was a fuckin’ hero but still treated my sister like she was the trash of the trailer park.
I made a decision, one that surprised not just Griffin and Xavier, but me as well.