Page 1 of Fearless
Prologue
RORY
AGE SIXTEEN
"My mom is going to fucking kill me."
"At least you'll be put out of your misery," Jandro grumbled next to me. He shifted uncomfortably, straining at the handcuffs holding his wrists behind his back. "Tia Ana is gonna make damn sure I suffer if I get home. And if not her, my sisters will."
"Hey!" The sheriff's deputy in the passenger seat of the van slammed his baton against the partition separating us from him. "Shut the fuck up back there, fucking delinquents!"
"Fuck you, mall cop," I shot back, straining against the bite of metal on my own wrists.
"Watch your damn mouth, son. You want to spend some time in the hole?"
"You busted us for smoking weed and skateboarding in an empty pool. Don't try to fucking scare me!"
"Rory," Jandro hissed under his breath.
"What?"
"Ever think shutting your damn mouth might be a good idea?"
"We're minors, Dro. They can't do shit to us."
"Unless they want to try us as adults," he kept whispering. "In case you haven't noticed, we're close to the border and I'm kinda brown."
I bit the inside of my cheek. Fuck, I hadn't even though of that. Jandro was like a brother to me. It hadn't occurred to me that he might have a completely different experience when it came to cops. As lame as these stupid deputies were, they still had guns, batons, and pepper spray. Assuming the news reports weren't faked, law enforcement had been targeting Latinos and other minorities for decades. Especially since that law passed that officers of the law couldn't be charged with murder. That was some bullshit.
"You speak perfect English though," was all I could think of to reassure Jandro. "No one's gonna mistake you for an illegal."
He gave me a scathing look. "Maybe not,ifI get the chance to open my mouth before they pop a hundred caps in my ass." He sighed as his head tipped back to lean on the van wall. "And if they raid my aunt and uncle's place? What then?"
I swallowed dryly. His aunt and uncle were kind, albeit simple people. They spoke only broken English but welcomed me into their home like a son. I liked hanging out there because it was more low-key than my house with my mom and three dads hovering all the time. Plus, Jandro's sister Angelica was pretty, and I wanted to kiss her next time I went over.
I'd never see any of them again if the cops raided Jandro's house.
"Sorry, dude," I muttered. "I'll shut the fuck up."
"Why thank you," he declared sarcastically. "I swear to God, you'll be the death of me one day."
"Noelle tells me the same thing, especially after I lit that firework right next to her face," I snickered. "She's started calling me Reaper."
"Huh," Jandro snorted. "You could make that your road name. It actually fucking fits."
The deputies pulled up to the county jail and hauled us out of the back of the van by our arms.
"Hey, wait a minute." I struggled to catch my footing with how hard these assholes were shoving me. "We're sixteen. Why aren't we at the juvie hall?"
"It's packed full of other lowlifes like you. You dicks are overflow." A hard push slammed into the center of my back. "Move."
We got stripped of all of our belongings, then our fingerprints and mugshots taken before being shoved into an iron-barred cell not much bigger than a bathroom. At least the handcuffs came off then.
"Hey, don't we get a phone call or something?" I asked the deputy locking our cell door.
The fat, bald dipshit lifted one shoulder in a shrug before grinning snidely at me. "Maybe. If I feel like it on my next shift."
"You piece of shit! We have rights!" I called after him as he left the room.
