Page 67 of Genesis

“You know Ma doesn’t like you to do that in the house.”

“Yeah, but it’s fucking freezing out.” I rest my elbows on my knees as he walks over to the window and lets it up. Running my hands through my hair, I exhale the smoke after I light it, and he walks over and shuts the bedroom door.

“How’s everything at school?” I ask him.

“It’s fine.” He takes a seat beside me on the bed.

He’s silent for a moment, and so am I, replaying tonight’s events.

That guy’s face when I shot him. Jesus Christ. How that shit doesn’t affect a person just a little, I don’t know. It needed to be done, though. It was him or me, simple as that. I take a drag from my smoke, looking down at the floor as the cold breeze comes in through the window behind me. Shit, this isn’t worth the cigarette. I stand with my jeans still undone, hitting the smoke hard one more time before I toss the thing out the window and slam it down.

“I always knew you were getting into some bad shit,” Paul says. “I saw it in you when Dad was alive. You were always near him, always listening to the shit he had to say about life. All his genius Irish philosophies. And then, one day Johnny’s dad just burned up in his house, and you two changed.”

I watch the back of Paul’s head as he speaks, wondering where he’s going with this. Wondering what all hereallyknows. I had the idea he was too busy with his studies to pay attention to Johnny and me, but I’m thinking I was wrong.

“I know you had something to do with that,” he says, looking back at me. It was done nicely, though. You two really made it look like an accident. Like the man just drank himself to sleep with a lit smoke and boom, just like that, he was gone. So conveniently for Johnny,” he adds.

“What’s your point here, brother?” I ask, walking over and leaning back against my dresser.

He shakes his head. “My point is, I want better for you, but I know it’s who you are. It’s in your blood.”

“Is it not in yours? You’re going into fucking politics. That’s the devil’s playground.”

He chuckles. “You’re not wrong.”

I cross my ankles, sliding my hands into my pockets.

Paul looks at my chest. “That’s some bruise you got there.”

I shrug. “It’ll fade.”

He nods, rubbing a hand over his watch. “Samuel is not like us, brother. He’s too good. He’ll have a good life, an easy life. But you and me, we chose paths that’ll kill us both. Me,” he lifts a shoulder, his lip dipping at the side, “probably with a heart attack and you from a bullet. The less he knows about this shit, the better. I’ll talk to him, but this will be the last time. You need to move out. You need to stay away from here as much as you can.”

“Okay,” I agree.

“As for Bexley,” he says, standing up, crossing his arms over his chest.

My heart thumps an extra beat; my eyes tighten.

“She called earlier. I’m not sure where she was, but I know she wasn’t at home, and she doesn’t have a cell phone, right?”

“No.”

He nods. “She was upset, Danny. Like really hurt.”

She was upset.Why?

“You know in the end, you’re going to crush her. Why don’t you stop it now before you get in too deep?”

I smirk sadly. “I think it’s too late for that, Paul.”

He sighs. “You love her?”

“You know I do.”

“Nah, we all love her. I mean, do youloveher?”

“Yeah.”

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