One man climbed off his Harley, pulling off his helmet and setting it on the seat. Peering through the rain, I tried to get a good look at him as he approached us. I could make out that he was bald and had a slight limp as he walked. Without saying anything, he circled Anderson and me, his hooded eyes looking us up and down. I could make out a large scar that ran down the right side of his face. I swallowed hard, imagining how he got that scar. I could guarantee it wasn’t a fall from a bike when he was young.
As he continued circling us like prey, I nudged Anderson with my shoulder.
“What the fuck is this, man?” I whispered.
Anderson ignored me and simply lifted his chin in his usual cocky way, staring down the man with the scar.
“Markus. This is Jeremiah,” he said, gesturing to me. The man didn’t say anything, his lip curving upward in a sneer. I hated that he knew my name now. “He’s the one I was telling you about. We’re ready to do whatever it takes to join rank.”
I had no idea what the hell Anderson was talking about. I shot him a look, wondering what he had gotten us into.
Markus laughed loudly as he eyed us. “What the hell am I going to do with two pipsqueaks?”
“Don’t underestimate us,” said Anderson, standing a little taller.
“What do you want?” asked Markus with a raised brow.
“Power,” said Anderson.
Satisfied with that answer, Markus looked to me. “And you?”
I thought about it for a moment. Power didn’t sound so bad. I had never had any in my life, always falling victim to other people’s choices. I had grown up at the mercy of a father who didn’t want me, and spent money as if I didn’t exist, leaving my mother to pick up the slack. I watched her work endless hours at her three different jobs just to keep us afloat, while my father gambled most everything away.
Friends were hard to come by when your family’s low-life reputation tarnished you, and you had a shit attitude to boot. Most told me I was too smart for my own good, finding me brash and cocky. If I was so smart, then why didn’t my own mother listen to me when I told her to leave my father? She was blinded by love and it pissed me off. And with no siblings to confide in, I got the hell out of there as soon as I was able.
Anderson understood all of that. He was all I had now. I didn’t want to lose him too, so if I had to go through with whatever he had signed us up for, then I would.
“Redemption,” I finally said.
Markus chuckled. “Good answers, boys,” he said. “I can give you those things. And more. I can give you anything you want.”
It sounded too good to be true, and I knew it was. People didn’t just hand you things for nothing.
“What’s the catch?” I blurted out, raindrops running down my nose to my lips parted by the fog of my breath.
“Jeremiah,” said Anderson nervously under his breath.
“Smart one, aren’t you?” asked Markus with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “The catch is, you have to do something for me first.”
I watched through sleets of rain as Markus reached behind him into the back pocket of his jeans, pulling a gun out.
What the fuck.
He weighed it in both hands as if it were a toy, and not something that could easily take someone’s life. Could easily takeourlives in this back alley. He took a few steps toward us, assessing between Anderson and me, before making some internal decision to hand the gun to Anderson. I noticed my best friend’s hand was shaking as Markus pressed the gun into his palm, wrapping his fingers around the grip. A momentary sign of fear from an overly confident Anderson.
He stared down at the gun, his black hair dripping wet across his forehead. I tried to read what he was thinking, my brain going in circles, trying to find a way out of this. Would Markus let us change our minds without killing us with the same gun Anderson held in his shaking hands? I internally begged him to say “no” right then. To give the gun back to this shady man and pray he forgot we existed.
“What do you need us to do?” asked Anderson.
His words filled me with dread. The rain that poured down on us was just another sign that we were in over our heads.
Chapter 37
Sadie
As Jeremiah told me about the night in the alley, my head was spinning. He had lived a life so far beyond what he lived now that it was almost impossible to comprehend how he was the same person. I had never pried, past that one night in Dallas, because I saw how he had shut down after talking briefly about his parents and his history with friends. As much as I wanted to know him, I knew when to back off. Knew which subjects I had the courage to broach.
I had no idea that he was ever homeless, living on people’s couches and wondering where his next full meal would come from. Or that he was friends with someone who would steal and smile about it. Someone who would get him involved with the wrong people. But then again, I had never been as desperate to survive. All my problems, from my ex-boyfriend to my debt, seemed so small now.
