Ten (My Brothers Best Friend) by Ker Dukey Read Free Book Online

with his father pulling every string he had, it was in a cozy detention center. They had recorded our phone call and had photo evidence of me accepting the drugs - bastards. They kept me for fucking weeks, trying to get me to give up my uncle. Offered me the same deal as Jonah, only I wouldn’t have anyone to pull strings for me so I’d end up in the same place as my uncle anyway, and known as a rat. I’d have lasted a day, tops. Either way, my life was over and so was Jonah’s, no matter where his Dad got him sent. Ratting on a Moore is unforgiveable, and if you’re a Moore, you take the time.
    So they used me as an example, and because I wouldn’t give up my uncle, I got the full ten-year sentence. I was eighteen and tried as an adult, which meant I was being sent to the same federal prison where all the sickest and dirtiest criminals were placed, including my father.
    My whole being crumbled into dust when the judge read out my sentence, the life I saw for myself dissipated, and if I wasn’t so numb I may have cried like a fucking baby. The words of support from my family as I was carted away were what I’d expected from them.
    “Don’t let them break you, boy! See you on the other side.”
    Yeah, thanks a fucking lot. Bye hockey scholarship, and the love that once beat so strong for a girl I couldn’t see myself living without turned to stone inside my, cold, frozen chest.

Present day
    E very muscle aches. I feel like I’ve been thrown from a rollercoaster and then trampled by a stampede of elephants. The twin mattress of my old bed didn’t help. Pushing back the covers, I assess the scrapes decorating my knees. I didn’t even make it into the shower last night. Instead, I shed the spoiled clothes and crawled, naked and fragile, straight under the sheets. Dreams of him haunted me and I kept waking myself with my own sobs.
    Wrapping the sheet around myself, I make it to the bathroom to shower, and for the first time, I see myself in the mirror. My hands tighten around the towel and I have to look away.
    My hair is matted with dried blood from the cut that occurred on the fall inside the bar. My eyes are swollen and blotchy from crying, and the right side of my face is purple. I can’t believe this happened to me. I need to erase this whole trip. I need to erase my love, my feelings. I need to erase what we were to cope with what we are now. Nothing.
    After scrubbing away the thoughts of last night, I drag myself from the warm heat of the shower and dress in jeans and a tee. I need to focus on the reason I’m home, and that’s to pack up Dad’s house and make arrangements for his funeral. I didn’t tell Mom I was coming, she doesn’t even know he’s died, but she’s on holiday in Rome with her new husband, Rick. She spent years single and pining for Dad, but eventually her heart healed and she moved on. Maybe that will happen for me too.
    I begin with my brother’s old room. It’s like stepping into a time machine. Everything is exactly how he left it. Nothing has been changed or packed away. Clothes lie tossed on the floor, a magazine lies on the end of his unmade bed. There’s a musky smell to the room so I open the window and decide that most of this stuff can go straight in the trash. I’ll donate to Goodwill the things that are still good.
    Memories flicker in front of me like a movie when I find a box of pictures under his bed. My brother wasn’t really one for sentiment so it stumps me at first, and then emotions take hold of me and my eyes blur as our teenage years play out in front of me.
    “Get on, Alex. You’re coming with us today,” Jonah informed me, and every nerve ending buzzed with electricity.
    I was allowed to go with them to the watering hole. I was already in my two-piece in anticipation as Dalton had told me the night before he was going to tell Jonah to let me come along today. Jonah had been more laid back lately about me coming places with them, and I didn’t question