Page 116 of Vengeance & Sin

Damn it.

Zander’s going to be pissed, well, maybe.

No, Spencer is going to be pissed.

I sigh as I pull into the garage at the house and start grabbing our bags from the market. I make my way in the house, it’s quiet, but I know they are both here. Zander will be leaving soon to do some more work at the shop, but his appointment isn't for another hour, and he’s never anywhere early. Spencer is probably still elbows-deep in research.

I put everything away and look at what we have regarding ingredients to decide what to make for dinner before I start cleaning the fruits and vegetables we just got. It’s safer to stay busy for the now.

Ispent last night with Jade in her room as she poured over books trying to get caught up with the workload that her first week of school has given her. Schoolwork isn’t something I usually enjoy, but I’m quickly discovering there isn’t much I wouldn’t do if it meant doing it with Jade.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so on top of my homework in my whole life. Shit, the only reason I’m doing the whole college thing is that Froggie required it. To move up, we need to show that we can handle the city, which requires skills to bring to the table. Rick has always had a knack for business. His need to run, control and understand things is a massive help with almost every part of what we do for Vengeance, not to mention his ability to command a room.

Spencer has his tech and hacking. He’s been playing with that shit for as long as I can remember. Honestly, I’m not sure he gets anything out of his classes anymore. He’s so fucking smart it’s sickening. Yet, he still goes.

On the other hand, I’ve always been good with my hands, picking locks, fixing cars, and pickpocketing. Originally, I wasn’t sure I would be able to find something for me in the classes, but automotive seems to be doing it so far, and it only helps me in the garage, so I can’t even complain, though I do anyway.

Not to mention being on campus allows us to watch, and gathering information never hurts. We overlook the drugs and guns here, we might not let them leak into the city streets, but we allow them nonetheless. We get to see whose connections reach where while also having our hands in every bit of the wealthy lives around us. If something changes, we know it.

Froggie needs us to be there, and so we are.

I’ve spent most of my morning looking into Trent’s dad's bike, the Beast, as he used to call it.

The Beast is a 1942 Crocker V-Twin Big Tank, and it is by far the oldest and most badass bike I will ever get to work on.

Trent’s dad is who started my love for cars and bikes. He had been best friends with Rick’s dad since high school. They both grew up right here in Oakbrook with the rest of our parents. They went to college and joined the police force here in the city right after. According to them, they both found love and settled down without even looking. Then they started families, and boom, Trent and Rick were built-in best friends, and since we were like a package deal with Rick, all four of us were inseparable.

Trent’s dad loved old cars; they had a five-car garage, and he always had it full of parts and cars he was fixing up.

The summer after seventh grade, Rick and Trent both tried sports. Trent found he was great at football, and Rick discovered sportsmanship wasn’t his strong suit. Later he got into kickboxing and MMA, but he still finished that first season. Coach was pissed when he didn’t play the following year. Rick is good at damn near everything he does and while he was great with football, nobody can make that guy do anything he doesn’t want to, trust me.

With them gone at practice and Spencer busy with his computer shit, I had a lot of time on my hands. Which more often than not gets me in trouble even to this day, that summer wasn’t an exception. Spencer tried to keep an eye on me, but I quickly found out how to give him the slip.

One night, I found myself down with Jake and his dipshit friends at the old warehouse, back when Sin still ran the city and well before we even had dreams of joining into that life. That night, I got my first real look at the underground. We went down there to buy weed, Jake wasn’t supplying back then, but he was always the guy with the connection. I tagged along because I had nothing better to do. Even if I didn’t like Jake, it was better than sitting around bored while I waited.

I watched two fights while he picked up, and by the time the second match was over, I was damn near drooling over the idea of being in the ring. I had always had a violent streak, hell all of us did when tested but I was much quicker to snap than Spence or Rick. My mouth often got me in trouble but knowing that I could back it up made it all the sweeter when people took in my lean form and thought I could be taken down easily.

They always underestimated me.

Rick might be our trained fighter in the group, but he’s all brute strength and hard edges. Nobody would look at him and think they could bury them.

Spencer is a good fighter, too, but his skills are all about his speed and ability to read people. He’s quick as a whip which you wouldn’t ever think possible with his size. So while he can hold his own well enough, most of his skills are behind the scenes.

My lean form allowed me to be quick and agile, one of the reasons I’m good at recon has also made me lethal in a fight, but beyond that, I wasn’t afraid to fight dirty. But nobody ever understood that until it was too late, and I was more than okay with that.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was in the ring with someone at least twice my age and size. I don’t even remember the fight. It’s a blur of fists and blood. I only recall Jake pulling me off the guy who lay unconscious beneath me while I continued to beat his face in. The only reason I knew he was alive was the shallow dip of his chest as he exhaled. Other than that, he could’ve passed for dead.

I was fourteen years old when I almost killed that man, and I’ll never forget it. The rush it brought me to feel his life being entirely in my hands, to know I could kill him if I wanted to. The sticky warmth of his blood that covered my hands and the thick metallic smell it left in the air made me giddy even thinking about it now.

He had broken my nose, and I hadn’t even felt it. The sting of it should have been killer, but when I reached up to reset it, I couldn’t keep the manic grin off my face.

We made it two blocks before Trent’s dad rolled up, and Jake and his guys split. It was stupid to run with who our parents were; we hardly got in trouble, nothing more than a slap on the wrist because money can buy anything in this city. Corruption at it’s finest.

Apparently, someone had called the cops on something in the area and he had been the one to answer, putting me in his crossfire.

Lucky me.

I got a half-hour lecture about the choices I had been making, and while I respected him, I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. I had never really done great with authority figures. My parents were fucking wastes of space, but Trent’s dad and Rick’s parents had always accepted the fuck up that I was, so I made sure not to lash out at them. So I got in the car and let him talk until he was done, without a word.

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