“That’s not true, Maddie,” I sighed as she glared at me.

“Well, why don’t you think about it and decide what you want to do. Because this limbo isn’t going to work for me.”

“Wait, what?” I frowned, confused. Why was it getting so difficult already?

“I’ll be seeing you, Logan.” She reversed out of the driveway and I watched as she pulled into the street and left. My heart was pounding and I realized that I didn’t have her phone number. Shit! I rolled my eyes as I walked into the house, I would just have to wait for Maddie to contact me. She’d likely call me in a few days anyway, once she realized that I didn’t have her phone number. She couldn’t stay away from me. I laughed as I opened the door and walked past the living room without thinking about my dad. I was about to walk up the stairs when I heard footsteps behind me.

“Whoa, Logan. What are you doing?” Jared slapped my shoulder and his eyes were burning into mine. “I thought you weren’t coming home tonight? What happened with Maddison?”

“I changed my mind, and Maddie went home.”

“What? You let her go home? Fuck it.” He shook his head. “Tell me what happened, man. What’s the plan?”

“There is no plan, Jared,” I answered him wearily.

“What?” His eyes narrowed. “I know you’re not going to let this opportunity go.”

“There is no opportunity, Jared,” I hissed at him angrily. “Maddie has nothing to do with this.”

“Dad had a fit tonight.” Jared placed his hand on the wall. “He hit Vincent.”

“What?” My heart started pounding. “Why?”

“He told him to get some beer. There is no beer, and we have no money.”

“Fuck, is he okay?”

“He’s fine. He didn’t even hit Dad back.” Jared’s face looked violent. “If he ever tries that shit with me, I’ll punch him the f**k out. I don’t give a shit.”

“Where’s Vinny?” I sighed, worried.

“In the kitchen. We’ve been talking about you.” He looked down. “We’re kinda hungry.” His voice was low and his heated animation was gone.

“Why didn’t you buy any food?” I frowned as we walked to the kitchen.

“I gave you all my money.”

“What?” I bit my lip.

“I gave you all the money I won on the races, and Vinny threw in his last hundred as well. We knew you didn’t have the rent money.”

“How did you know?” I was mad at myself for not having hid it better.

“We just knew.” Jared looked at me with concern in his eyes. “We’re worried about you, bro.”

“Why … oh, shit.” I walked into the kitchen and saw Vincent’s black eye. “You okay?” I stopped short of running up to him and checking it.

“I’m fine. He can still sock a man hard.” Vincent made a joke, and I half-smiled back at him. My blood was boiling as I stared at my brother, and all I wanted to do was go into the living room and shout at my father.

“We need to talk, guys.” Jared’s voice was loud, and I turned to look at him. He looked like a man. I realized that his boyish charm was gone and he was now a hardened man. I felt disappointment seep through my body. I had failed my mother. Everything was shit. I had done nothing to improve our situation.

“What’s up?” I frowned at him. I wasn’t happy that he was now trying to take control of family situations.

“I want everyone to know that I can’t live like this anymore.” Jared looked at Vinny and me with a hard look in his eyes. “This is shit. Dad is a f**king drunk who thinks he can say and do what he wants, and we never have enough money for anything. We can’t get jobs in this godforsaken town and Logan won’t even make the man responsible for it pay. This is a joke.” He shook his head and looked at me. “I love you, man, and I know you’re trying, and I know you made a promise to Mom to look after us, but you need some help.”

I stared at him silently, not sure what to say. I was upset that I hadn’t been able to fulfill my mom’s last wishes. She had trusted and believed in me and I was failing her. I looked over at Vincent to see what he had to say. He looked at me sadly and nodded slightly before speaking.

“We need to do something big.” He stared down at the textbook in front of him. “And I don’t mean calculus big, either.”

“What are you guys thinking?” I asked pointedly. I knew better than to just assume they were just thinking about this for the first time. They had probably been plotting for a long time.

“Jared has an idea.” Vincent nodded towards his brother, and I looked over to Jared, who was staring at me with a defensive look.

“Don’t shoot me down right away.” His eyes bore into mine. “Listen before you say no.”

“Why do I feel like I already want to say no?” I groaned.

“I was hanging out with Joey, and he …”

“NO.” My face turned red as I shouted. “Hell NO.”

“Logan,” Jared sighed. “Just listen.”

“Joey is bad news.”

“Let him talk, Logan,” Vincent spoke up. “I don’t particularly care for Joey either, but this sounds like a pretty good idea.”

I glared at Vincent for being a traitor and then looked back at Jared. “Go on, then.”

“There’s some guy in town who has a Bugatti,” Jared talked quickly. “A two-million-dollar Bugatti, and he’s going out of town in a few weeks.”

“So?” I shook my head annoyed. “You know we don’t steal big money cars, we have no way to sell them.”

“Here’s the deal.” Jared leaned forward excitedly. “Joey has a buyer, he knows someone who is interested in buying it. A million dollars in cash.”

“But it’s worth two million.” I stared at my brother, starting to feel slightly excited.

“It’s all cash and a done deal.” He grinned at me. “This is the answer to our problems! One million dollars in cash. Can you even count that high, smarty-pants?”

“There’s only one problem.” Vincent ran his hands through his hair. “The car is in a garage and a keylock won’t work.”

“I can get in any car.” I shrugged, thinking how I would break into a Bugatti. “But if it’s in a garage, it’s a no-go.”

“All we have to do is break in to the garage as well.” Jared looked annoyed. “I’m sure it can’t be that hard.”

“We don’t break into houses.” My voice was firm. “You know that, guys.”

“It’s not a house, it’s the garage.”

“The garage is part of the house.” I shook my head and my voice was resolute.

“Maybe we have to start playing by some different rules.” Jared turned away from me and looked at Vincent. “Who’s ever heard of thieves with an honor code? And who only takes Japanese imports? Give me a f**king break, it’s not doing anything to help us.”

“Jared, this isn’t the road we want to go down.” My voice was soft as I walked up to him. “I don’t want you guys involved in this shit. Let me think of something,” I pleaded with him, hoping he would realize what a big deal it would be for us to break into a garage. Theft was a slippery slope, and I was scared that if we did this, they would think that it was okay to break into houses or even into stores. And that was when people started getting hurt. That was when knives and guns came out. I was scared and panicked. I didn’t want anything to escalate. And I knew I was running out of time.

“Logan, listen to me.” Jared turned around and looked at me with wild, passionate eyes. “I get it, I really do. I know you have always looked out for me and Vinny. I know that you don’t want us involved in this life. And I understand. Bro, we both understand, but you gotta admit, it’s not going so well for us. This is one deal. We steal this one car, and we’re set. We don’t have to steal anymore. Not one single car unless we want to. And we can move. We will finally have enough money to send Dad to rehab, pay for college for all three of us, and we can get the shit out of River Valley.” He grabbed my shoulder and stared at me for a few seconds. “This town is toxic to us, bro. It’s time we finally packed up and left.”

“What do you think?” I looked at Vincent to get his opinion. Jared had a point. A million dollars was a lot of money. I’d be able to go clean, and I’d be able to ensure we all stayed clean. We could get help for Dad and move and maybe buy a small place so we didn’t have to worry about rent. And then maybe I could find a real job somewhere, start to lead a somewhat normal life. I could be someone Maddie could count on. I could take her out on a nice date and do things with her that normal couples did.

“I think it’s a good idea, Logan.” Vincent looked at me seriously. “We’d have to study up on how to get into a Bugatti and how to break into a garage, but I think we can do it.”

“We would also have to figure out the mechanics of the ignition.” My voice was firm. “We can’t expect to just find a spare key, and something tells me that fiddling with a few wires is not going to do what we want.”

“Joey has someone who can teach us,” Jared interrupted me eagerly. “If we want to, of course.”

“I just don’t know,” I sighed. The idea itself was attractive, but knowing Joey was involved made me very hesitant to get involved. I just didn’t trust him. “You guys know how I feel about Joey. This just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing we should get involved with.”

“Joey is fine,” Jared sighed. “Come on, Logan.”

“What does he get out of it anyway?” I shook my head. “Why is he brokering this deal?”

“He gets a hundred grand,” Jared mumbled. “But it doesn’t come from our million. The guy buying the car will pay him.”

“But we don’t know who’s buying the car?” I cleared my throat. A knot was beginning to form in my stomach. There were too many unknowns and I was starting to get a bad feeling about everything.

“Just trust me please, Logan. I trust Joey. I think it’s going to be fine. We need this, bro.”

“What do you think?” I looked at Vincent again.

He nodded slowly. “I think we should do it.” His eyes looked calm and serious. “I say we do this deal and we walk away from the car theft business forever and never look back.”

“Okay.” I nodded and sat down. “Let’s do it.” I ignored the qualms and fears I had over getting involved in a deal like this. Jared was right, playing it safe and doing small deals wasn’t helping the situation. We needed something big to happen, and we needed to get out of this lifestyle. I didn’t want to be the guy who wasn’t good enough anymore. I wanted to make a future for myself.

“For real?” Jared grinned at me.

“Yes,” I sighed. “I hope this isn’t going to be a big mistake.”

“Trust me, bro. This is the best decision you’ve ever made. We’re going to be set from here on out.”

“I sure hope so.”

“I think it is going to change our lives, right, Vincent?”

“I don’t know.” Vincent frowned. “There are some things I don’t want to change.”

“What?” Jared looked at him like he was crazy. “Are you f**king joking?”

“No.” Vincent’s voice was soft. “I hate that we’re poor and that we worry so much, but we have each other. We’ve always had each other. We’ve always been close. I just don’t want money to come between us. I don’t want everything to change.”

“Dude, it’s one million dollars, not a billion.” Jared burst out laughing. “We’ll be set for now, but not forever.”

“I don’t want the money to come between us.”

“It won’t.” Jared shook his head. “We just have to decide how we’ll spend it.”

“How do we decide?”

“Hey, guys,” I interrupted them. “I agree with, Vincent. We can’t let this money divide us. We all have to be on the same page as to how we are going to split it and spend it.”

“I figure you can be in charge of the money.” Jared’s tone changed. “You’re the eldest, you’ve always had our back. I trust you. Right, Vincent?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan. You’ll be in charge of the money, Logan.”

“Are you guys sure?”

“Duh.” Jared grinned and sat down next to me. Vincent sat down as well, and we all just looked at each other for a few moments. This was the biggest decision of our lives and I think we all realized just how much our lives would change based upon this decision. We had all talked about the positive change, if everything went well. But I knew we all realized that maybe everything wouldn’t go as planned. Maybe it would all go horribly wrong. Maybe one of us would get caught. Or all of us.

“We need to talk worst-case scenario.” I pursed my lips and looked at them, feeling overwhelmed with emotion. These were my two baby brothers, and as I stared at them, the feeling of love washed over me, and I couldn’t believe just how much they meant to me. “I don’t want both of you in this with me.”

“What are you talking about?” Jared frowned. “You can’t do this alone.”