Arthur picked up his cell phone and made one single call. “Begin the process,” Arthur said into the receiver. “She is ready.” The Illusion Of Poverty To understand who I really am, you have to go back. Not to my broken marriage. Not to the day I met Kevin. But much further back. Back to…
“Listen to me very carefully, Bear. If you attempt to ride your noisy little toys onto the highway this Saturday, I will have eighty of my best deputies in full riot gear waiting at the county line. I will impound every single motorcycle. I will arrest your members for unlawful assembly, disturbing the peace, and…
Beneath the heavy gang tattoos and the terrifying reputation, I saw the exact same helpless, trapped look I saw in the mirror every morning when I had to face Brad Miller. I dropped my muddy backpack in the gravel. “I am not leaving you!” I yelled. My high pitched voice cracked over the hiss of…
He paused, looking around the room at the older guys. “These men taught me. They gave me a purpose. They gave me a family when I could not even recognize my own.” Bill stood up slowly from his barstool. His weathered face looked thoughtful. “The girl wants to understand us. Maybe that is not the…
On Tuesday morning of the second week, the bus stopped at the intersection directly in front of my garage. It caught a long red light. I was outside rolling a custom bike into the morning sun. Lily watched me through the bus window. She saw the vest. She saw the ink. She knew what every…
“Zenith Innovations, you say? Fascinating.” “Don’t you patronize me!” she shrieked, finally drawing the attention of the lead gate agent, a harried-looking man named Michael, who came rushing over from the podium. The quiet morning atmosphere of gate B24 had evaporated, replaced by the tense, suffocating energy of a public spectacle. Travelers lowered their newspapers,…
“Can I help you two?” I asked, wiping my hands on an oily rag. “This is exactly what we are talking about, Arthur,” Brenda shrieked, waving a manicured hand at the muddy field. “This is a civilized neighborhood now. You cannot have monster trucks and tractors tearing up the earth and blowing toxic smoke into…
Tonight, I was about to find out if Samuel was right. At eleven thirty, I was scrubbing the back grill when I heard the sound. It cut through the roaring storm like a sharp blade. It was the deep, aggressive rumble of motorcycles. Not just one motorcycle. It was multiple heavy engines revving in tight…
The trucker muttered a curse word, walked to his rig, and drove away without looking back once. I looked down at the biker. His chest had completely stopped moving. His face was the color of ash. I thought about my grandmother. Years ago, she had collapsed on a busy city sidewalk. People had just walked…
That night, he threw me out. He brought Victoria to our apartment, packed my clothes in a trash bag, and told me I was no longer part of his world. The headlights of a sleek black car cut through the darkness, pulling up right to the curb where I stood crying. Ethan stepped out. He…
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