The Boys Who Loved Me - Krista Wolf Page 0,59

close to saying more.

I didn’t press. Instead I melted into him, letting my hand wander its way across his thick, warm chest.

“We can still do ‘lunch’ you know,” I said slyly. “I can pick up some food, we can eat it real quick… and then the two of you can spend the rest of your lunch break wearing me out.”

A sudden sparkle in his eye told me he wasn’t opposed to the idea. He slid his ungloved hand downward, letting it settle heavily over my ass.

“And who’s to say you wouldn’t wear us out?” he asked gruffly.

“Well that’s always a possibility too,” I winked back.

Forty-One

ADRIAN

The day I met Ross was the day my life ended, at least the life I knew. I didn’t have time to regret the decision. That would come later, during years of self-reflection and regret. During long nights of going down roads that dead-ended in ‘what if’ and ‘could’ve been’. But those dead ends were unavoidable now, and my regrets amounted to nothing.

My father’s words rang loudly in my mind, exactly as he’d told them just a few weeks prior. I’d had time to digest them. To unpack the tale he’d tried telling me all these years, and ultimately gave up on, out of respect for my own selfish wishes.

Ross ran a small crew, doing small-time jobs. He was a little older though — too old to be running petty theft. Too slow to be doing the more physical jobs that might get him caught. These things should’ve been obvious to me, but they weren’t at the time. They should’ve been my first warning to just walk away.

I’d sat in the prison, watching him talk. Listening to every last thing he had to say. If it all sounded a little too well-rehearsed, it’s because it was. He’d been wanting to get the story off his chest for almost twenty years.

At first things were good. The jobs were simple, the pay good. We hit targets at night, when no one was round. Took things that no one would miss, at least until long after we’d left the scene.

I’m ashamed to admit how much I liked it. It felt exhilarating, getting away clean. Passing that point in time where something that belonged to someone else suddenly and irrevocably became mine.

My father’s eyes had crawled my face, searching for a change in my expression. Looking to see if he were being judged, or even worse, shut out completely. I’d given him nothing, except my attention. Which was fine, because he’d asked for nothing else.

Eventually the jobs slowed down, and the pay thinned out. My wife — your mother — was already on my case about it. She never knew exactly what I did, but she never pressed too deeply either. There were things she didn’t want to see. Things she’d rather remain blind to, as long as I was bringing home cash enough to pay our bills.

Over time, I eventually wasn’t. I borrowed for a while, but that only led to bigger problems. I got in with the wrong sort of crowd, and ended up owing some bad people a lot of money. Even worse, your mother wasn’t happy anyway. No matter what I did, she always wanted more. No matter what we had, she always needed to push the envelope.

I explained to Ross that I needed more. I had an ambitious wife, a hungry child, a rent payment to make. When your mother threatened to leave, so did I. I told Ross I was going to work somewhere full time. A real job. A real salary, collecting an actual paycheck…

But Ross only laughed at me. He pointed out numerous times where we’d made as much in a single night as I could make in a month. I still wanted to go back to cutting meat. I was great with a knife and everyone knew it, but deep down in my heart I didn’t want to work for someone else. I had ambitions of my own. I wanted to open my own shop…

When Ross came to me with our last job, I couldn’t say no. We were doing a big safe in a tremendous house, tucked away in a rich neighborhood so dark and quiet no one would ever know. There was cash to be had. Jewelry. Bullion. It sounded too good to be true because it was too good to be true. Only when you’re that young and stupid — not to mention that desperate — you don’t