How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

America’s richest men. You grew up in a mansion in Connecticut. And yet you’ve chosen to live on the streets. You must imagine the hardship will toughen you up. But do you honestly believe that a few months on the Lower East Side can teach you everything you need to know? The place is a theme park for tourists. You’re just part of the show. You’re not really dangerous. You pick a few pockets, throw a few punches, then hurry home to your sweet little girlfriend.”
    He’s talking about Joi. I feel a jolt of fear for the first time in months. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
    “No, I suppose she’s much more than that. Have you told her why you’re here? Does she know who you are? Does she know who your father is?”
    He doesn’t expect any answers. He thinks he already has them. “What’s going on? Is this some sort of sick game?”
    “Call it whatever you like, Flick,” Mandel says. His smile has vanished. “But you wouldn’t be here right now if I wasn’t on your side.”
     

CHAPTER SIX
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    HOW TO LEAD A LIFE OF CRIME
    I f I were still in school, I’d be a senior. I spent the first nine grades at a Connecticut prep school that’s a household name in the households of millionaires. Then a teacher asked too many questions about my bruises. She was fired, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy my father. I had to be punished as well. So he enrolled me at a crappy public school a few miles from my home. The teachers there had more kids to monitor, and they weren’t the most inquisitive bunch. But eventually even they started to notice. When my face was rearranged right before Christmas break in my sophomore year, some anonymous Good Samaritan phoned the police. The cops bought my dad’s story that my broken nose, fractured cheekbone, and black eyes were all the result of a bicycling accident. Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe he just paid them enough to not care. Either way, the unwanted attention convinced my father to send me to boarding school. He chose a military academy in the swampy, malarial lowlands of Georgia.
    At first I resisted. If I’d wanted to leave, I could have just run away. I’d packed my bag a hundred times over the years. I’d decided where to go and how to get there. I was fully prepared to disappear. But I didn’t. I stayed. Every time I set out on my own, I thought about my mother and brother. And what might happen if I left them behind. As a kid I’d always dreamed that the three of us could escape together. But by the time I hit high school, I knew there was no chance we’d ever succeed. It made no difference where we tried to hide, my dad was always able to find us. I doubt he’d have bothered looking for me. But he wasn’t willing to let Jude go.
    Everyone knew I’d be safer in Georgia—even at a school famous for turning young men into half-savage soldiers. But with my little brother trapped in Connecticut, I wasn’t about to be shipped down south. In the end, Jude was the one who convinced me to leave. It took several days of pestering before he found an argument that made me take notice. Jude said Mom would be happier if I was out of harm’s way. The thought had never occurred to me—that my mother might be better off if I wasn’t around. That it might be a relief to wake up each day knowing that she wouldn’t have to stand between me and my father’s fists. And then I realized I’d be doing Jude a big favor too. He was fourteen years old. He deserved to enjoy what little was left of his childhood. He needed time off from saving me.
    So I left. And for a while, I was sure it had been the best decision of my life. I loved the fierce Georgia heat. I loved that my school days never brought any surprises. And I loved learning to be a warrior. Because even then, I planned to fight back. By the spring of my junior year, I held a Graduate rank in Krav Maga, and I was the school’s undefeated boxing champ. I was certain I’d be invincible by graduation. Then, on the