“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.
“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 fucking 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.”
“Jared’s right. It’s all of us or none of us.” Vincent’s voice was firm. “You don’t have to risk your life for us anymore, Logan.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We know everything you’ve done for us.” Vincent leaned towards me. “And we appreciate it. We’ve been selfish. It’s not fair to you. If we do this, it’s all of us. I won’t accept it any other way.”