"At first?" she said. "So he changed his mind?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
Now,thatwas complicated.
Chapter 28
It was just over ten years ago. I'd been sixteen-years-old and facing an attempted murder charge. And for what? Dishing out a justified ass-beating to some middle-aged perv who thought it would be fun to fuck my little sister.
If Bishop hadn't shown up looking for me when he did, where would I be right now? I glanced around, taking in the mostly abandoned neighborhood. I wouldn’t be here, that's for sure. If I were lucky, I'd be in prison. If I were unlucky, I'd be dead.
As far as the attempted murder charge, the councilmandidhave a point. Ihadbeen trying to kill him. But I'd been stupid. If I'd been smarter, I'd have caught him in some dark alley instead of knocking on his front door and beating his ass while the next-door neighbors watched.
Chloe was still waiting for my answer. Why did the councilman change his mind? Why had he settled for sending me to juvie instead of fuck-me-in-the-ass prison?
"With that," I said, "I had a little help."
"From who?"
"Bishop." At the time, he'd been almost a stranger, a brother I didn't even know I had – until that one day he showed up at my front door and told me we had the same dad. I'd been out on bail, but headed for some serious hard-time.
Chloe said, "But he couldn't have been much older than you."
"He wasn't. But he was old enough."
"What'd you guys do?" she asked.
"That, I can't tell you."
I wanted to tell her. And I wanted to keep it to myself. It was ugly,toougly for a girl like Chloe, who'd grown up in a different world.
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because, it wouldn't be right."
I thought of what we'd done. It had been Bishop's idea, and it had worked just like he said it would.
All we needed was video equipment, a baby-faced hooker willing to play along, and the guts to blackmail the guy afterward – not for money, but for a reduction in the charges and for a promise to stick with women his own age.
I turned to Chloe and added, "My secrets are one thing. But his?" I shook my head. "They're not mine to be giving out. Even to you."
"I can respect that," she said, looking like she meant it. "So tell me in general terms. What happened with the case?"
"Plea bargain. I spent a couple years in juvie, got out when I turned eighteen. And you pretty much know the rest."
Chloe gave me a dubious smile. "I seriously doubt that."
She was right. A couple years later, I was out of juvie and starting to make a name for myself on the underground fighting circuit. That's when the guy made his move, telling me he wanted the footage back.
The first time, he'd asked nicely. And then, he'd asked not-so-nicely, delivering his message through some rough friends of the paid variety.
But I didn't back down, and neither did Bishop. Looking to send a message of our own, we uploaded that X-rated footage to his work computer, thinking we'd put a good scare into him, remind him of what he could lose if he didn't lay off.
But he didn't lay off. Instead, what did he do? He'd put a hit out on me.
Dumb-ass.
