by Jessica Wood
“Wow.” Her eyes widened. “That’s pretty big.”
“Yeah.” I smiled down at her. “I tell him that one day, he’ll become a Supreme Court Judge, and then for sure everyone in the country will know the Martelli name.”
“Logan Martelli, car thief and brother to Supreme Court Justice.” Maddie grinned. “It does have a certain ring to it.”
“Yeah, it does.” I felt sad for a moment as we spoke, and the reality of everything hit me once again. It all seemed like such a pipe dream. If something didn’t change soon, there was no way Vincent would even get his AA degree, let alone make it to law school. I sighed as I remembered my mother’s last words to me. “You can change your destiny, Logan. You must take care of Vincent, Jared, and your dad. You have to be there for them, Logan. Promise me that you’ll be the man I know you are.”
I’d nodded and cried, but her words had always stuck with me. My life was dedicated to making sure that Vincent and Jared weren’t trapped in the same life I was. And that was why I had never left River Valley or left my dad to fend for himself. Even though some days all I wanted to do was run away and start a new life.
“You okay, Logan?” Maddie caressed my face. “You look deep in thought.”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I grabbed her knee and squeezed. “So anyway, before my mom died, Vincent came up with this idea that we should perform a skit for my mom.”
“A skit?”
“Yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “Have you ever seen The Sound of Music?”
“The movie?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Do you remember the lonely goatherd scene?”
“Hmm?”
“High on a hill was a lonely…” I started singing, and Maddie burst out laughing.
“I do remember that.”
“So we performed that song for my mom in the hospital,” I groaned.
“With puppets?”
“No.” I laughed. “With GI Joes, and socks, and pieces of string.”
“Wow, I would have loved to have seen that.”
“It was pretty funny. None of us really knew the song, but it was one of my mom’s favorite movies, so we tried.” I laughed as I remembered her huge smile as she watched us messing up the song and dancing around her hospital room. “And then Jared decided that we should do the can-can, and we flung our legs up and down like a bunch of Vegas showgirls.”
“While singing the lonely goatherd song.”
“Oh, no, we had moved on to do re mi by that point.”
“Oh, wow,” she giggled. “I would have paid good money to have seen that.”
“I’m sure you would have.” I shook my head in mock embarrassment and shuddered. “Holy hell, we must have been a sight to have seen.”
“I bet your mom loved it, though.”
“Yes, yes she did.” I looked out the window and pictured my mother’s face. “That’s the only reason the nurses let us continue. My mom was overjoyed to see us all together singing and dancing. I think at that moment, she realized that we were three brothers who would let nothing part us. She was able to die knowing that while she was leaving us, we would always have each other and we would always be there for each other.”
“You really love your brothers, don’t you?”
“I’d die for them.” I stared into her eyes earnestly. “I would do anything for them. They are everything to me, and my goal in life is to see them succeed.”
“That’s a pretty important goal.”
“It’s one I’ve dedicated my whole life to,” I said seriously.
“At the cost of your own?”
“I don’t know.” I turned away from her, upset at myself for my answer. I was upset because things had changed now. I knew she would want to be my world if we became serious, but I knew that I could not give her that promise until I knew Vincent and Jared had their lives in order. I was mad at myself for wishing that it could be different, and that I could put myself and Maddie first.
***
“I had a nice day.” Maddie leaned up and kissed me as we stood next to her car door. It was close to ten p.m. and we were finally back at my house and her car.
“So did I.” I combed her hair away from her face. “I had a really nice day.”
“Though I wish we had Bonnie and Clyde’d it for a week or so.” She smiled wistfully. “That would have been awesome.”
“Not so awesome if you didn’t have your birth control,” I joked lightly, not wanting to know how big a part that small fact would have played in our trip.
“Oh, yeah, oops.” She slapped her hand against her mouth. “I totally forgot about that, I’m such a ditz.”
“Good thing I remembered.”
“You’re my hero.” She kissed me again.
“I wouldn’t say that exactly.” I shook my head, feeling uncomfortable at her words. I already felt ashamed of myself for even thinking about going along with Jared’s plan.
“Logan Martelli, you never let me say anything good about you.”
“When there is something good to say, I will let you.”
“I hate that you don’t see how great you are.” Maddie looked sad. “Forget the fact that you’re a car thief, which isn’t really all that bad. You’re a good person.”
“A car thief isn’t as bad as a murderer maybe, but it’s still bad, Maddie. I could go to jail. It’s not like I’m borrowing flowers from the park or something.”
“You don’t have to be a car thief.” She pursed her lips. “I’m not going to say it again after this, but my dad could …”
My blood boiled as she mentioned her father again. It was getting harder and harder for me to listen to her go on about her dad being this great guy, especially when she talked about him helping me. All it did was add salt to the wound. And I sure didn’t want to start thinking about how much I hated her father right now.
“Let’s not talk about it tonight.” I kissed her hard. “Don’t you worry your sweet head about anything.”
“Logan, no man is an island.”
“And no woman can fix a man. I am who I am.”
“Do you want to come over tonight?” She looked at me hopefully. I shook my head. “Can I stay over?” I froze at her words; there was no way I wanted her to come inside of my house. I was embarrassed at how shitty the house looked inside, and I was scared for her to meet my father, and I didn’t really want her around Jared, either. There were just so many things that could go wrong if she came inside. “I guess your silence is a no.” She pulled away from me. “Fine, call me when you want to see me.”
“Don’t be like that, Maddie.” I grabbed her shoulder and she shook my hand off.
“Whatever, I’m going home.” She yawned. “I’m tired, I need to go to bed.”
“I wish I could be in that bed with you,” I said softly and gave her a half-smile. She looked at me dismissively and got into her car.
“I’ll see you whenever.” She closed the door and started the engine with me standing there, staring with my mouth slightly agape. I wasn’t used to Maddie treating me like this. I knocked on the window and she rolled it down slowly.
“Thanks for spending the day with me.” I leaned in to kiss her cheek, and she turned to me with eyes flashing.
“I’m mad at you, Logan Martelli.”
“I don’t know what I …”
“Oh, shut up, of course you know why I’m mad. You don’t trust me. You won’t tell me why you hate my dad, you won’t let my dad help you, even though I can tell you don’t love being a thief, and it doesn’t seem to be paying you that well. You won’t let me meet your brothers. Maybe you’re ashamed to be dating me? Or maybe you don’t want to bring me into your small microcosm because you don’t really like me that much. Maybe you just like having kinky sex with me, but you don’t really want to date-me date me.”
“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 t
his 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 fuck 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 fucking 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 fucking 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.
