Darkness Before Dawn Read Free Page A

after a couple of seconds of us looking at each other. "Benny and Alex are just more fucked up than the rest of them."
    "Well, you kidnapped me," I retort with a raised eyebrow.
    "No, I didn't. I watched you, I didn't actually take you," he replies slowly.
    My mind drifts back to that day. I was in the park enjoying the spring breeze while reading Cole's letter. Text messaging Cole and getting his response before getting up and walking away without a care in the world, then hearing gunshots at a distance and people screaming.
    "Did you kill my bodyguard?" I ask quietly. Every time I replay what happened in my head, I wonder what the hell happened to him. Those shots I heard must have been aimed at him.
    Dean exhales and shakes his head. "Bruce? Contrary to what you probably think of me, I don't kill for anybody."
    I avert my eyes from his and let his words saunter in my head for a while before I look at him again.
    "How do you know his name?" I ask quietly.
    "I know everybody in your life, Blake," he replies slowly.
    I'm not really surprised by that. He did follow me around, after all. He was bound to see me with everyone I was around, but I wonder just how much he knows about me that he's not letting out. He may know more about me than I do. In fact, I know he does, and although that scares me, I think I'm more terrified of finding out more information about myself. That's what got me here in the first place, my constant need to solve this puzzle. I decide to steer this subject in his direction instead.
    "Are you like...a mobster?" I ask, my eyebrows knitting together.
    His laugh answers my question. "I...oh shit, I don't even know how to...you don't want me to answer that," he says in between laughs.
    His carefree laugh makes my blood boil and the fact that I keep staring at his mouth while he does it makes me even angrier.
    "Who's Sarah?" I ask, cutting his laughter short. He narrows his eyes at me and leans forward. I instinctively clutch on to the sheets under me and rock my body back. He looks from my hands to my face and shakes his head, his eyes full of remorse.
    "I would never hit you, chick. I swear I won't. Sarah's...she's just an ex-girlfriend of mine. Long story," he says quietly before leaning back.
    "Forget I asked," I mumble. It's not like I want to make small talk with this criminal.
    "It's cool. Like I said...you really shouldn't be here, but I don't know how to get you out. Shit is really fucking complicated around here, in case you haven't figured that out yet."
    "Why can't you...can't you sneak me out while he's away?" I ask, trying not to sound as hopeful as I feel.
    "Hell no. I wanna help you, not get myself killed!" he scoffs.
    I blink at him. "They'd kill you? But you just said they're your family!"
    A bitter laugh escapes him before he says, "Yeah...family. Family means everything and nothing to people like Benny. These people have your back until you fuck up, chick. It's an eye for an eye out there. You cross them—you die."
    I get lost in a trance, pondering his words. I wonder who has the vendetta against my supposed family. Is it Alex or is it Benny? And who's ultimately in charge of my fate in all of this? I know that if Benny is the one in charge, I am royally screwed because he clearly hates me beyond anything I've ever seen before. He acts as though I killed his dog or something. Alex doesn't like me either, he'd rather not look at me at all. It just doesn't seem fair that I would have to pay for something that people I don't even know did to them over twenty years ago. Not only that, they seem convinced that my father, who is supposedly alive, and his people, are going to want me back. But why would he? Why would any of them want me back? If they did, wouldn't they have looked for me years ago? I mull over these thoughts as I drift to sleep, hoping I'm wrong and that they do want me and do believe I'm alive. Because the only thing I know without a doubt is that whoever they are, they're the