A Fighting Chance by A.J. Sand Read Free Book Online Page A

comfortable and normal. Yet a growing hollow feeling in my stomach tells me that nothing between us will ever be the same again. I bolt the door shut and take my seat across from Henry.
    “This is a nice place. Nice school, too. Seems like you’re doing well here.”
    “Alert the media…it’s a scientific breakthrough. The fuckup gene can apparently be suppressed,” I say, letting sarcasm spill all over my words.
    He snorts. “And, damn, that’s a hot ass slam-piece you’ve got, son.”
    “Don’t call her that…and don’t ever call me that again.” I lunge for him and collar him out of his seat.
    “I’m sorry…hey….I’m sorry…just trying to break the ice, kid. I thought you would laugh. You know she’s gorgeous, right? And you were sitting there”—he gestures at my empty chair—“like you had a stick up your ass.”
    I have to remind myself that Henry’s not worth a lot of things, including my aggression, or any of my feelings, really, so I release him and he sits. “How am I supposed to act when my so-called father can fly thousands of miles because he needs something from me, but couldn’t make a ten minute drive to my mother’s funeral?”
    He lifts remorseful eyes up to me. “I wanted to, Jess, but Barbara threatened me with a divorce and sole custody of HJ. I’ve been to her grave a few times to put flow—”
    “Just tell me why you’re here before I get really angry.” He hasn’t even attempted to find out anything about me or my life before now, so I doubt he’s ever been to my mom’s grave. “Who did that to you?” I tick my chin up at his hand.
    “Punishment for late payment on a debt I owe.”
    I chuckle. I can’t even muster up an ounce of sympathy. “Let me guess, it wasn’t a Bank of America teller?”
    He inches his hand across the table , as if he wants to touch me, but he pulls away suddenly. “I was trying to do a good thing and I got screwed. I gave up gambling, honest. I had been on the right track since I got released.” Shortly after Mom died, Henry went to prison for his role in an intricate car theft ring. “I met a guy in the joint who got out around the same time I did, and he said he had a brother who was starting a business and looking for some investors. The brother seemed legit and he showed me paperwork…the articles of incorporation. He said he’d pay me a fee for finding investors. I called up some old friends and raised the money, but it turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. He used that money to fake investment returns for the investors he already had. I’m on parole. One dumb thing and I’m back in to finish the sentence, so I needed a way to pay everyone before they went to the cops.”
    “Oh God.” I bury my face in my hands for a second. “And you borrowed from the people who did that. ”
    “Yes.” He nods with urgency, his jaw clenching. “ The brother fled, my friends who invested won’t give me the time of day, and I don’t really have a way to pay back the people I borrowed from—”
    “I don’t have it, just so we’re clear. I can’t—no, I won’t— pay this off for you. Maybe you should go to the police. I think severed fingers are more than enough to get someone to help you.”
    “This was just to intimidate me.”
    What the fuck will they do when they really want to scare him then? “That’s some intimidation…”
    “They don’t care about the police, and I can afford to lose a few fingers. They’re probably not going to hurt me anymore. I can’t pay them if I’m dead. They know that, so they’ve started going after what I can’t afford to lose. A guy showed up to HJ’s school while he was waiting for Barbara to pick him up, and asked him…” Henry’s jaw trembles and he’s forced to pause. “If he thought people went to heaven after they died. Henry Junior said yes…and then he asked him, ‘What about kids?’ Fuck, Jess, he’s ten. And they’ll kill him. They did that with another guy. They