Page 1 of Jackson's Redemption
1
Marana,Arizona
Fifteen years ago
Jackson
It was ridiculously hot. Too damn hot to be running, but my only other choice was going home and that wasn’t an option. I could feel the sweat dripping off me. I considered taking off my shirt, which was sticking to my skin, except there were enough girls hanging around after class to stop me. No one wanted to see my bony chest.
The track, however, was mostly empty and that’s how I liked it. I could run, do my thing, think without all the chaos that always seemed to be swirling around me.
I went through my mantra like it was a set of rosary beads.
Finish high school. Then community college. Then I apply to Arizona State.
Get my degree. Become a geologist. Maybe go on to graduate work.
Get out.
Away from this town, my parents, my brother. Away from all of it.
Finally, the heat got to me and I stopped. I put my hands on my knees for a second to catch my breath. I was out of shape and I had gotten to the point that it was starting to bother me.
Because you spend all your time sitting on your ass reading those books.
A common refrain from my alcoholic father.
You’re weak, bro. You make this family look weak. We can’t have that.
That from my brother, Marco. Who, at this point, I was pretty sure was a member of a gang. Or if not an official member, then he was doing work for them running drugs.
I didn’t want anything to do with that shit. That life. I only wanted out.
I started to walk to get my heart rate down. It was weird. Like my body didn’t fit me anymore. I had grown another two inches and I couldn’t eat enough to keep weight on me. Not that there was ever an abundance of food in the house.
Mom was working to support us, but what she brought home from her waitressing job wasn’t enough to feed the four of us. Fortunately, her job came with a lot of leftovers. My job at the gas station was enough to keep me in clothes and school supplies. Any extra money I earned I gave to Mom to help with the bills.
These days, Marco had a surprising amount of cash that he was flashing around. Although it’s not like he cared about helping out Mom. If anything, he was just helping to support our father’s booze habit.
I puffed out a breath. I didn’t want to think about all that shit. I could get lost in all of it, if I let myself.
Finish high school, community college, Arizona State.
Then my life would finally be my own. I would leave Arizona and find some place up north where it wasn’t always so goddamn hot.
I stopped and turned around to get my gear and head home. That’s when I saw her. It was like getting punched in the balls. That sensation where all the air leaves your body in one big whoosh.
She had on a tank top and running shorts. Her legs went on for-fucking-ever. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail that bounced around her shoulders as she ran.
Kate Fucking Lazio. She’d been two grades ahead of me in school. Now she was a sophomore at Arizona State—no doubt home on break. I had no idea what it was about her, but from the first time I saw her, I thought…
Her.
Which was ridiculous. She was so far out of my league as to be in another stratosphere. But any time I saw her, I thought of her as this ideal woman. Strong, fit, class president when she was here. Now she was getting a degree in criminology.
Her father was the chief of police. A leader in the town, although according to my brother, he was crooked. Not that I believed anything Marco said.
She was stretching with her back to me and I tried to look away, pretend I couldn’t see her perfect ass in those jogging shorts. There was nothing to be done about it. I felt myself get hard and I turned away from her.
