Page 47 of Genesis

“What did he do to you? Why is this happening?” She looks down, her shoulders trembling as she cries. “Why has my whole fucking life been a shit show?” She kicks her feet, hitting the bottom of the chair continuously. “Goddammit motherfucking shit!” she cries and kicks and…crack.The chair snaps from under her and she crashes to the ground.

“Bexley!” I say.

She’s tipped over, her head against the wall, and then all of a sudden, she starts…

“Are you laughing?” I ask, confusion taking first place in all the emotions I feel.

She rolls her forehead against the wall, her body shaking as she laughs uncontrollably.

I smirk, but then she looks at me. She sniffs and says, “A person should laugh before they die.”

And none of this is funny.

Chapter Twenty

Danny

2003

A few days later, the cops questioned Carson and Johnny about David’s strange disappearance. They lied. Johnny said he had no idea where the man went. He’d moved out already. Carson said he was staying at Johnny’s, so he didn’t know either. They asked if either one of them had an alibi and, of course, that was me.

The cops didn’t believe either one of them, though, and said it was too coincidental. So what happened? Like Moretti said he would—he paid them off and told them to fuck around somewhere else.

And that’s exactly what they did.

It was all too easy.

And it was another learning experience. Money talks to even the best of men.

Thanksgiving was nearly a month ago now, and Bexley and I have seen each other almost every day since. I take her to the movies, where she ends up all over me and I have to reluctantly take her back home with blue balls so her uncle doesn’t stop her from seeing me. I’ve been jacking off so much lately, it’s starting to become a habit.

She has no idea what she does to me. I know this world is fucked up, but being with her makes me wonder if maybe there’s still some good in it. If maybe one day we could live a good life together. I could save up all the money I make and take her away from here, but then I wonder if it would satisfy me.

To live a clean life—I’m just not sure, and right now, I don’t think I have to be. We’re young as fuck. Who knows what the future holds? I’m happy to be around her a few hours a day, and the other few I do shit that makes my black heart sing.

Like hit people in the face if they don’t pay. “I’ll have the money next week,” Mr. Walsh says to Johnny.

“Not gonna work,” Johnny replies.

“Moretti needs it now,” Carson says. “Or we can’t promise Warren’s men aren’t going to come by tonight and rip this whole place apart.”

“Please, Danny.” The older man looks at me. I’ve known him since I was a boy playing stickball in the streets. I think I actually busted his window one time. Ma gets her handmade quilts washed here.

I tilt my head. “Sorry, Mr. Walsh. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. Gotta pay up. You know that’s the way this works.”

The man starts cussing us in Italian, waving his hands in the air. He can be dramatic all he wants, but he better hand me the fucking money.

Moments later, I’m lighting a smoke as I head out of the Laundromat. “Gotta go,” I say to Johnny.

“Yeah, yeah,” he says as he and Carson walk past the car. I reach to open the door as an all red Cadillac rides by and three men stick their heads out.

“Get the fuck down,” I yell as the guys in the car fire their guns at us. Glass shatters as we cover our heads, bullets flying past us, hitting the car and making it bounce. Carson stands up and fires his gun after them, but they speed off.

“It’s fucking Warren’s men,” he says.

I wipe the glass from my sleeves. “Christ, look at my car.” I lift my hands likewhat the hell?Sirens ring in the distance. “Goddammit. Let’s go,” I say. I open the door and get in.

“There’s glass everywhere,” Carson says.

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