Disclaimer: I'm a poor girl. My friends are all rich except for me. Two of my closest for example. One is the youngest of a mafia/business tycoon family. The other is at nearly pro snowboarding level and is worth more than most people will make in their entire lives. And neither is legal yet.

So seriously don't bother to sue.

Also there's a guy currenly semistalking me. It's really not cool. By on the bright side my ex has stopped trying to annoy me, and I'm talking to one of the few guys I have respect for again. It's nice.

This has been a brief glimpse of my life.

I opened my eyes slowly looking up into Jack's face. He looked so relaxed in his sleep, other than a slight clench in his jaw. Bad dreams possibly? AS long as I didn't wake him I was happy. We had gotten to bed late. I had decided to stay over because I knew he wanted to talk to me about things. Plus I didn't want to sleep alone tonight. I shifted over to my side looking at the small shelves behind the headboard of the bed. They were cluttered with small boxes, guitar picks and notebooks.

An arm snaked around me grabbing hold of a small green box to my right. "Looking for something?" Jack's eyes looked slightly cloudy as if he were still half asleep.

I eased myself into and upright position so I could talk to him. "No, I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't don't worry." He was carefully sprinkling tobacco onto a rolling paper. He slid his tongue along the paper and tightly rolled his cigarette. Reaching into the box he grabbed an old fashion lighter. It had an old fashion rose emblazoned on the front of it. It reminded me of pictures of WWII vets showing off their tattoos. Jack expertly flicked it open to light the tip. I watched his fingers spark the flint. I don't know why I was so mesmerized by his fingers at this moment. Maybe it was watching those slender fingers up close. Or the way the small light lit up his features in the dark room. The tip caught and was softly glowing red. He took a long drag and slowly released the smoke from his lips. Even something as simple as taking a drag of a cig was made incredibly intimate with Jack.

I leaned my head against his shoulder watching his face and tracing his jaw line. "What are you thinking about?"

He looked into my eyes and brushed my hair from my face. "Just thinking about how bad things have to get before they turn out better."

I looked at him blankly. He smiled sadly and flicked the ash from the cig into he box and put it out. He replaced the box behind him and brought me down into a laying position. "You know I was in foster care before I got to Evelyn. From the age of three until the age of thirteen." He smiled. "The number everyone thinks is so unlucky was the luckiest number for me. It was on my thirteenth birthday I got here."

I nodded. "I remember going with Evelyn to find balloons. She said she had a new boy coming and it was his birthday. I remember you getting out of the car. I'd never seen a boy look so scared."

Jack frowned. "I was terrified. I'd been in so many foster homes." He seemed to look through me. "So many bad places."

I reached for his cheek brining him back to me. "Jack, you never told me what happened. You don't have to tell me, but I know bad things happened. I'm just glad Evelyn found you."

His eyes focused back on me and the present. "I was in bad shape. Every bad foster house you could ever think of? I ended up there. I know the other guys went through a lot of foster care, but they caused trouble. I went through so many foster houses because the people who were suppose to take care of me ended up getting arrested or just tired of me." He absent mindedly stroked my arm looking ahead of him. I had my chin on his chest and watched his face. He was going to a bad place but he looked as though he needed to get it over with. "I'd been to every abusive house. I was beat at some houses molested in others, sometimes both. I don't need to go into details. Some scars heal but the memories are never gone. The last house I was at they beat me within inches of my life. The people's oldest daughter had just left for college and came back that weekend to get the rest of her things when she found me curled up in my room bleeding bad. She rushed me to the hospital and kept me with her for a full week after. Then she brought me into the system and demanded a background check on my next house. She didn't want to leave me but she was just getting her life back together. She knew her father was verbally abusive but she didn't realize he had escalated. Her mother was a small sheltered woman who was too afraid of her husband to do anything. I ended up with Evelyn after that." I saw tears in his eyes. "I never tried to find my real parents. Evelyn was always enough."

I leaned forward kissing the tears that escaped the corner of his eyes. I couldn't say anything even if I knew what to say. He knew what I meant and gave me a gracious kiss. I had missed this for so long, the understanding we used to have. We didn't need words; it was the presence of the other that got us through.

He rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hands and smiled. "How about a better topic. I don't do this usually." He ran a hand down my arms and traced the outline of a raised scar on my side just above the boxers I had borrowed. "Still have it?" He sounded upset trying to get a better look.

I pulled the sheet down looking at where he was tracing. The scar was circular and was covered by a tattoo. The fact the scar was raised gave a bit more life to the tattoo. A plain black tribal sun with long jagged rays swallowed the scar into its center. Back when I was sixteen I went to a party with my friend Ryn, short for Kathryn. We were dancing and having a great time occasionally getting threatening looks from Rob and the guys because they didn't think our dancing was appropriate. But they were my brothers so nothing I did was appropriate. An ex-boyfriend of mine, Rudy, came over to me completely wasted. He started yelling at me saying how I was a slut and should have known better than to break up with him. Never mind that he had lied to me and had never broken up with his girlfriend, Rita, before asking me out. So naturally I slapped him and went back to dancing. He grabbed me and hit me with his bottle. It shattered and it decided to stab me with the broken bottle. The guys flew at him a second after he had stabbed me and nearly killed him if it hadn't been for the sirens down the street. Someone had called the cops telling about the party. We ran like hell out of the house and over to Ryn's place. Thankfully it was only two blocks down and although I struggled and complained I was secretly grateful my brother was carrying me. As soon as it had healed Rob took me to get my first tattoo. I decided if I had to live with the scar it might as well look decent.

I moved his hand from it and smiled. "It's a part of me. I wouldn't trade it for anything."

He shook his head and stroked the bar skin of my back. "You and your memories. You hold on to them way too tightly."

I smiled. "They're what make me me."

Jack got out of bed taking me out with him. "Come on. We need to get dressed and downstairs incase something happens." He frowned. "I don't think Jerry would intentionally do something that would hurt mom. But something is still really wrong."

We were all watching an early Christmas movie. Amazing. Only a few days after Thanksgiving and the holidays were back in swing. Jack was laying down the length of the couch and I was laying across him head on his chest. He had an arm draped over my shoulder while his other hand held the remote as he pointed it at the television messing around with the color. Ebenezer Scrooge turned into a smurf one second and then turned into negative exposure making him look like he belonged on one of those channels that flickered porn on ever few seconds late at night. Angel and Sofi were falling asleep on the other couch and Bobby had run over to my house to find beer.

The door opened as I was closing my eyes. Angel sat up and Jack carefully moved me off of him so he could stand. Sofi had woken up and shook her head at me. We both knew this wasn't going to be good. She took her cell out and entered 911 onto the screen for quick access just incase someone lost their tempter. It was one thing when the Mercer's went after someone. It was something completely different if they went after each other, especially if it was concerning Evelyn.

Jerry stood in the middle of the hallway looking at his brothers. "What?"

Angel stepped forward. "You know what you did Jerry." He took out the envelope out of his pocket and threw the money on the ground.

Jerry's eyes bugged out of his head and he started shaking. "NO! You don't know who you're fucking with." He glanced around and stood stiffly. "Where's Bobby?"

At that second Bobby rounded around the corner and slammed Jerry onto the ground. "What are you hiding, Jerry? What the fuck is wrong with you? If you had something to do with what happened, I swear to God, Jerry, I'm gonna kill you right here and now!"

Angel and Jack jumped forward pulling Bobby off of Jerry. Angel stood forward holding his place making sure there was no jumping forward. "Bobby chill. Let me talk to him." He turned to Jerry pointing at the money. "We know you got caught up with the gangsters of the neighborhood."

Jerry pointed a finger at Angel. "Y'all think I had something to do with Mom getting killed? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders back. "Well it doesn't look good. With you going to cash Mom's life insurance check without telling us."

Jerry threw his hands in the air. "Mom took the policy out for the girls. Man, I didn't have anything to do with that. Come on.

Bobby jammed a finger into Jerry's chest. "You made the payments! Good timing, Jerry. Just when it seems like all is lost for you, Mom gets shot by some gangsters and now you hit the fucking lottery!"

Jerry threw an empty beer can on the stairs at Bobby. "Y'all tripping because I made insurance payments? I paid all her bills! Where the fuck were y'all?

How many years did l have to take care of her my goddamn self? Y'all were around doing nothing! Bullshitting! And you gonna tell me I killed her? Come on, man!"

Angel pushed Bobby down in one of the chairs before he could run at Jerry. "So why would you pay off a killer like Sweet? And what the fuck did he do for you, Jerry?"

The doorbell rang and I got up to answer it. Jack was already at the door. He opened it and a snowball appeared on the doorframe near his head. "What the fuck?"

A figure had his back to us with his finger in the air. "You're mother was a whore." His voice was muffled.

Jack swore. "Kid I don't know who the fuck you are but if-"

His words were cut off as the figure bent over to make a snowball. He threw it and it hit Jack square in the eyes. Jack swore and covered his eyes. He wiped it off and ran down the stairs. "I'm going to fucking kill you."

I saw a glint on the back of the figure's pants. "JACK NO!" I threw my head inside. "SOFI CALL 911!"

The figure turned around with a long barreled gun and pointed it at Jack.

"JACK!" Bobby appeared at my shoulder but it was too late. The gunman shot Jack in the shoulder. A red stain immediately started to cover his white shirt. He fell to his knees as a van gunned around the corner people jumping out with machine guns.

I went forward but Bobby grabbed me by my waist and pulled me back. I struggled as bullets ripped across the front of the walls breaking the glass and riddling the walls.

I crawled toward the door and Bobby grabbed my ankle. "Luce, don't fucking move."

I tried kicking out of his grip. "NO! I'm not leaving Jack out there."

"Give us a second."

"We may not have a second!"

"Lucia!" His tone was angry. "He's my fucking brother I'm not going to leave him out there. I know you love him but I'm not letting you get shot up too. There's nothing so important that you can't wait a second."

"Bobby you don't understand. I can't let Jack die. I'm fucking pregnant."

A/N:

o.O

Oh yes it's a cliffhanger. I know I'm evil.

You're just going to have to wait and see as Jack's life hangs in the balance.

I know I'm going to hell and everyone is cursing me out, it's okay.

ONLY two reviews, which upsets me even if they're from my two favorite readers. Jeeze people I know you read it, I like criticism along with reviews. I like knowing what people think.

So special thanks:

Sadvirture: As always I love getting your reviews. And it's not the chapter sorry. Next chapter, you know if they make it out of the house.

xNegAttentionx: I know I'm mean and you're most likely hating me after this chapter more than the last one. And yes I'm not letting anyone know his fate. YET. The rest of the story really depends all on next chapter. You know how it goes. I love long arse reviews, really I do. Thanks for letting me know I'm doing my job right.