Michael pushed Javier out of the way and crawled under the fence. Tobias had already ditched them, running down the hill. Rumor was Tobias had a thing for pretty boy Josh, but Josh didn’t swing that way. Michael guessed Tobias had gotten over his crush at the prospect of freedom. As Josh slid under the fence, Michael took off down the hill.
The juvie facility was just outside of Denver in a town at the base of the Rocky Mountains. The facility was exclusively for high-risk teenage boys with mental health issues or drug addictions.
Michael didn’t think he was as bad as most of the other kids there. He wasn’t exactly sure what Javier had done to get locked up, but Tobias and Josh were both there for assault. Their treatments were more intense than Michael’s.
Javier caught up with him and Josh a moment later. Tobias was nowhere in sight since he’d disappeared into the trees. Michael wasn’t sure if the guards would be permitted to hunt for them outside the facility property. It wasn’t as if they were real cops.
The whole place was a joke. The inmates all wore navy polo shirts and khaki pants like they were in a fancy private school. Michael had been given two plants his second day in there to care for. They weren’t going to con him into thinking it was a fun place to be and he’d always hated nature.
“Where you heading?” Javier asked him as they hid behind a cabin about a mile from the facility. Sirens blared in the distance and Michael knew cops would be combing the mountain for them.
“My cousin’s house in Aurora,” Michael told him. “Just gotta swipe a car to get there. How about you?”
“Gonna go crash with this girl I know in Colorado Springs.” Javier threw Josh a wary glance. “How about you, Larsen?”
“Excited to see my girlfriend,” he said, a lustful gleam in his eyes. Someone was getting laid. Michael would get that need taken care of after his cousin hooked him up with an A-Bomb. “How about you give me a ride after you steal that car, Mike?” Josh asked.
Michael nodded, like he’d turn down the guy that was crazy enough to almost kill a guard. “No problem.”
They left their spot, keeping hidden behind the abundance of trees in the area until they hit a more populated area. Michael hotwired the old Chevy parked in the back of a bar.
As he worked, he heard Javier ask Josh, “So, is your girlfriend hot?”
Michael couldn’t see Josh’s face, but his voice sounded strange as he said, “She’s perfect.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Do for this life as if you live forever, do for the afterlife as if you die tomorrow.”
-Ali ibn Abi Talib
CALEB
“If you really wanted to welcome me home, you’d let me borrow your girlfriend for the night,” Ian said when Gianna and Cece left the room to grab snacks in the kitchen.
“You’re about to get your ass kicked on your first day out of juvie,” I warned him.
“As if you didn’t deserve it for that picture you sent in Gianna’s care package? What did you write on the back? Oh yeah, all night long.”
“Shut your mouth,” I snapped. “I don’t want Gianna to hear you.”
“Hear what?” Dante asked as he plopped down on the other end of the couch.
“About how Caleb bragged about banging Gigi to torture Ian while he was still locked up,” Taye said from behind me. Crap, I hadn’t known he was standing there.
Dante’s eyebrows rose as he shot me a look. “Are you stupid, man? You won’t be banging anything but your fist if she hears you.”
I scowled, eyeing the doorway to the kitchen. “I’d never disrespect Gianna by giving details.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Ian said, a grin spreading. “You remember that girl, Kalani, who was from the girl’s cell block?”
“The one with tattoos on her hands?” I asked, trying to remember what the rest of her looked like.
“Yeah,” Ian confirmed. “We were able to sneak off a couple times to fuck.”
I reared back in disgust. “Holy shit, man! I can’t believe you’d touch any of those nasty chicks.”
“Desperate times,” he said vaguely.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Cece said as she came into the living room carrying a bowl of chips in one hand and a container of dip in the other.
Gianna walked in after her with plastic cups and soda. “Me too, Ian. I thought Caleb said you had a crush on some girl who wrote you letters.”
“I don’t have crushes,” Ian told her.
“Where the heck are Jared and Gage with the pizza?” Taye complained.
The two of them had left almost an hour ago while we waited at Gianna’s mom’s house. My dad and her mom had taken off for the week to Las Vegas. It wasn’t lost on me that almost a year ago Gianna and I had run off together on a trip to Vegas.