Lennox Read Online Free PDF

upper lip at me and looks away.
    “And we both know there’s more to it than all of that. I
think I’ve paid more than my fair share.”
    “Lennox.” There’s a warning in her tone, but I’m
in no mood to heed it.
    “Yeah, I’m fucking going there. Who the fuck says you get
to walk away? Who says you don’t get to deal with this, too?”
    “I do.”
    My blood runs cold at the sound of that voice: smarmy and cold and
powerful all wrapped into one golf-tanned package. Amber and I both
turn toward the deck stairs, where Alexander Cartwright is watching
us, a sly grin perched on his Botox-smooth face.
    I take a step back. Alexander steps down onto the deck, moving slowly
and methodically, like everything is an artfully shot movie, starring
him. In a way, it really is. He smiles at me, revealing a flawless
row of white teeth, and squints because the goddamned flawless sunset
is getting in his eyes.
    “Hello, Mister Cartwright.” I stand my ground, but
there’s way too much eagerness to please in my voice. I hate
it. I thought prison had scoured away every last bit of submission in
me, but here I am, rolling over and showing my belly to this asshole.
    “Lennox.” He nods. “What seems to be the problem?”
    I clench my jaw.
    “Because where I’m standing . . . things
look pretty good for you right now.” He laughs to himself. “You
have your freedom, after all. That’s a big one. And you have a
place to stay with your grandmother. It’s good to be close to
family.”
    I glance toward Amber. She’s curled up in a ball on her deck
chair, trying and failing to look calm.
    “I’m glad your grandmother was able to keep her home
after all,” Mister Cartwright continues. “That you didn’t
force her to deal with excessive legal costs with some kind of . . .
spurious innocent plea.”
    I narrow my eyes at him. “A lot of good it’ll do us if I
can’t find work. No one will touch me now, not with my rap
sheet.”
    It’s on the tip of my tongue, the urge to once again come
crawling to Mister Cartwright, begging for a handout. Please, Mister
C, just give me a job. Make the gossip stop. Give me my life back.
    But I won’t. I can’t. People may think I’m a lot of
horrible things, but a beggar isn’t one of them.
    “I’m sure you’ll find something,” Mister
Cartwright says. He gestures toward my bared forearms. “Maybe
you should talk to the friends of the nice men who gave you those
tattoos.”
    I cross my arms. My ink is none of his business. He has no claim to
the story it tells.
    Mister Cartwright shrugs and turns back toward the house. “Anyway,
it’s not my concern.”
    “No,” I say sharply. “It isn’t.”
    He glances back, one eyebrow arched.
    “You don’t owe me,” I tell him. “Not
anymore.”
    He laughs again. “Yes, well. My daughter is rather whimsical in
her tastes, isn’t she?” Amber ducks her head, eyes
squeezed shut. “But there’s nothing I can do to change
what’s been done. And neither can you.” He starts back up
the stairs. “Have a good day.”
    And just like that, I’ve been dismissed. Amber won’t meet
my eyes, so I turn without a word and head back to my piece of shit
car. Seething. But I’ve got nothing and no one I can take it
out on.
    Cartwright’s right. He’s right, and it fucking burns me
up to know how right he is. I made my bed, and I have to lie in it.
If I’d only had the guts to stand up for myself . . .
But it’s too late now. Far, far too late. There’s nothing
I can do that won’t make things worse for everyone.
    The engine fights me the first couple of times I turn the key, but
finally, it whines back to life, and I start my way back down from
the Cartwrights’ mountain. It’s almost five. I could go
back to AJ’s, get that new timing belt from him that he
offered.
    But I’m done with taking handouts.
    As soon as I’m at the base of the mountain, I pull over to the
shoulder, whip out my crappy pay-as-you-go phone, and