Devil on Your Back by Max Henry Read Free Book Online

forget.”
    “Fucking a piece of trash will make you forget this?” Her glassy eyes turn to a rainstorm, anger sending the droplets over her cheeks. “Is that really how you’re going to play this?”
    A moment of silence passes between us.
    “He’s your son,” she whispers.
    “What else do you think I should fuckin’ do?” I holler at her.
    She takes a step back, stamping her hands on her hips, her beautiful face contorting with disbelief. “You assholes are so fucking unbelievable!”
    “What the hell, woman?” I step toward her and lean down so our noses are level. “Who the fuck are you to me to think you can tell me what I should be doing?”
    “A friend,” she utters.
    “I don’t need friends,” I growl.
    “Just like you don’t need to do a thing about your son?” she asks. “You’re just going to step back, fuck a whore, and ignore the fact Carlos has an order on your kid?”
    “The kid hasn’t spoken to me in eighteen years—why would he need me now?”
    “Every child needs their parent,” she mumbles.
    I laugh bitterly, crossing my arms over my chest as I pace into the parking lot. Her small footsteps near, and I spin around, only to receive the full force of her swinging palm. My cheek stings, and the rage inside me reaches a dangerous crescendo.
    “I don’t believe in laying a hand on a woman, but if you so much as fucking touch me again . . .”
    “You’ll what? Hit me? Push me around for telling you the truth?”
    “How would you know what the truth is?” I roar. “You. Don’t. Fucking. Know. Me.”
    “Who. Fucking. Does?” The muscles in her neck stand out like ropes on a ship straining in the storm. Her fists are balled tight at her side, the knuckles white—so much rage contained in such a tiny package. “Do you have a single fucking person who gives a shit about you? Anybody who cares? I bet not, and you know why? Because you’re a selfish fucking asshole who would rather ignore the facts than lose face trying to do something about it.” She shakes her head, grasping those golden locks of hair in her hands. “Fucking man up, Vince. Man up and do something about it before you fucking regret it.”
    “He’s better off without me fucking the situation he’s in further,” I argue. “I’ve tried to help him before.” I tried to ‘man up’, as she put it, and that got me nowhere but further from him than when I started.
    “Why would he be better off?” she presses.
    “Because I ruin things, okay? I couldn’t help Julia, and all I did after she left us was get so lost in my own selfish misery that I ruined his life too. All I’ll do if I try to help now is squash any chance he might have at getting out of this by complicating things.”
    “Who’s Julia?” she asks, confused.
    “My dead wife,” I drop, flinching as her face softens.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
    “Don’t be,” I snap. “She’s none of your concern.”
    Sonya takes a step back, and her arms cross over her body. She drops her gaze to the ground, and a part of me wants to hold her and apologize. I’ve dreamt of getting close to her since the day my sorry ass was dragged in here, and this is how it finally plays out? Life really has a thing against me.
    “How the hell do you expect him to have a fighting chance if he doesn’t even know they’re coming for him?” she asks, cocking her head to the side and lifting an eyebrow. “Huh?”
    She has a point; the boys probably don’t even know what’s going on, from what King told me. Hell, they’re probably blindly oblivious that a crazed kid is on the way to start what his father will probably finish. Maybe I can’t stop the carnage by calling off Sawyer, but I can sure as fuck give Alice a heads up.
    If he’ll listen.
    “Shit, you’re right. He might not want a thing to do with me, but I can at least warn him.”
    Sonya slaps a palm to her head and sighs. “Now he gets it.”
    “Woman, you’re a