The Original Bad Boy

24| Grind and Whine

"The original bad boy . . . Needs a home."

24| Grind and Whine

I consider running away from the scene and calling the cops the right reaction to a dead body.

Unfortunately, the Ruthless Rebels labeled searching through the pockets of the dead person and checking whether or not he had anything of value on him the right reaction.

I stay in the back holding on to Ben whose face had paled at the sight. Arsen didn't bother comforting me rather he helped his buddies search for more valuable things.

I had never seen this side of him before.

This hungry thief side.

My hearts breaks watching him scavenge the dead body with a peculiar thrill in his eyes. When he comes up with a few hundred dollars from the guy's socks, everyone gives him an impressed look. Except for Ben and I.

I stare at him with the utmost pain and disappointment. He notices it too and doesn't maintain eye contact for long.

"Let's get out of here," Leo says finally.

Ned, who is a certified moron in the group, advances towards a safe. From where I stand, I know it's password protected and requires a handprint or something. Ned tries to unlock it with whatever code come to his mind.

"Dude, let's go," says Arsen.

"Wait, lemme see if I can open—" Before Ned can finish his sentence, an alarm blazes overhead.

A chain of curses break through the room and everyone runs for their life. Arsen and Ben both help forcing me out of there as if I'd be stupid enough to wait for the police to show up.

As soon as we step out of the house with the loot, we hear police sirens.

Arsen jumps on his bike and urges me to jump on. I glance at Ben who jumps on a bike of his own. He gestures me to join him.

Conflicted, I look between the boys for a second before getting on the back seat of Ben's bike. I don't have the heart to look at Arsen nor the time. All of us separate on the road to not give the cops any reason to find a group of bike riders coming from or following the same route.

"Where are we going?" I finally yell to Ben from the back seat of the bike.

"The guys have a rendezvous. We'll be there in a minute!"

As told, we reach the rendezvous within the next sixty seconds. It consists of a dirt ridden alley with roaches and rodents thriving in the darkest corners. The rest of the guys apparently arrived for us already except for Arsen who pulls up with me and Ben.

"That was epic," Ben says in amazement.

Though the thrill exhilarated my nerves, it felt wrong.

My parents didn't raise to start breaking into people's homes as soon as I became an adult.

"Good escape, guys," Ned praises.

Leo slaps of the back of Ned's head in response. "We might've been able to collect more stuff had your dumbass not started messing with the safe."

"I almost had the code!" Ned whines.

"Shut up," says the rest of the gang in unison.

Ben and I stand awkwardly next to Arsen. I wonder how often Arsen actually talks to his people.

"Let's head inside, shall we?" Leo asks us, his eyes halting on me longer than they should. "Time to show us your wild side, Cruz."