Page 19 of Genesis

“He was kicking you in the ribs. What else was I going to do?”

He chuckles, wincing after he does. This time I don’t ask if he’s okay. I realize that his ribs are bruised if not broken. I wonder about his other injuries. He was hit on the head. I hope he’s not sitting here bleeding.

God, why do I care?

He’s the reason we’re here in the first place. He’s the reason my life has gone to shit.

I look up. Will we ever get out of here? How did this happen? Who is this man, and what does he want with us?

“Do you remember the first time we saw each other again after you moved away?” he asks.

See? He never let me go. Hence, why I’m fucking here. I don’t understand what is wrong with me. I shouldn’t have even been with him, but he assured me I was in danger.

I laugh to myself; he wasn’t wrong.

“Don’t,” I reply. “I’m not doing this with you.”

He’s hurt me too much. He doesn’t get to sit here and reminisce about old days.

“You act as if you had no part in any of the bad we experienced,” he tosses back.

I sneer. “You really want to point fingers right now?”

“I want you to admit that you’re not Miss Perfect in this fucking situation.”

“Fuck you, Danny. How about you not talk to me and I won’t talk to you?”

“Fine,” he says.

“Fine,” I reply. I move my wrists, wishing I could untie them. My breath comes out ragged, and I look toward where I think Danny is.

His words replay in my mind.“Do you remember the first time we saw each other again after you moved away?”

Of course, I remember. How could I not? Seeing Danny again after so long was a highlight in my life. Who knew where it would lead at the time.

I surely didn’t or I would have run.

Chapter Ten

Bexley

2003

I hit the bottom step, walking into the living room, which I completely bypassed when I first got here. Nostalgia hits me like a ton of bricks. I’m catapulted back to 1998. Ma hasn’t done much with the place. It looks exactly the same as it did when I was a kid. Same couch, same outdated TV, and same small wooden coffee table with the white polyester lace table runner.

Before Mama died and I had no choice but to move across town to live with my uncle Hale, I was in this house more than once after I met the O’Brien boys. Truthfully, I loved being here. Ma always made me feel welcome, and being here gave me some reprieve from being around sickness and the daily reminder of death.

After I witnessed the boys burning down Johnny’s house, we never mentioned it again. It was like I had some special secret with the two. Paul eventually came around to me hanging out with them. One day he just decided I was part of the family. He always invited me to eat with them and was constantly watching my back at school.

It was nice having more family than just my mama and uncle. And the night my mama died, I never needed my new extended family more.

Bexley

Year 2000

“She’s not in any pain,” the nurse tells me as I sit by Mama’s side holding her fragile hand. Her chest shudders, and it terrifies me. I look down at her digits slipped in between mine. How small they seem for a woman who was so strong. She lived longer than they thought. My chest clenches in agony.

I’m losing her.

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