Wild Aces (36 page)
Authors: Marni Mann
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Bestselling author Marni Mann knew she was going to be a writer since middle school. While other girls her age were daydreaming about teenage pop stars, Marni was fantasizing about penning her first novel. She crafts sexy, titillating stories that weave together her love of darkness, mystery, passion, and human emotions. A New Englander at heart, she now lives in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband and their two dogs, who have been characters in her books. When she’s not nose deep in her laptop, working on her next novel, she’s scouring for chocolate, sipping wine, traveling, or devouring fabulous books.
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Also by Marni Mann
The Unblocked Collection (Erotica)
Episodes 1–5
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Pulled Beneath
Drew travels north to settle her grandparents’ estate, but she finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn’t expect to find was Saint, whose reputation is as tumultuous as his past. With Saint’s scars so deep and Drew’s so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds, or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?
Pulled Within
Rae Ryan has lived in a storm over which she has no control. Plagued by nightmares and a terrible family secret, she carries her scars as much on the inside as she does on the outside. Can she survive the storm and become a part of the light she so desperately desires? Or is she destined to remain pulled within?
The Memoir Series (Dark Fiction)
Memoirs Aren’t Fairytales
Leaving behind a nightmarish college experience, Nicole and her friend, Eric, escape their home of Bangor, Maine, to start a new life in Boston, Massachusetts. Fragile and scared, Nicole desperately seeks a new beginning to help erase her past. But there is something besides freedom waiting for her in the shadows—a drug that will make every day a nightmare.
Scars from a Memoir
Two men love Nicole; one fills a void, and the other gives her hope of a future. Will love find a way to help her sing a lullaby to addiction, or will her scars be her final good-bye?
Preview of
Prisoned
Releasing Summer 2016
Garin
Sixteen Years Ago
“Sorry I’m running late, guys.” I unzipped my jacket and tossed it on the bed before I sat on the floor between Kyle and Billy. “Let me see what you all got tonight.”
“It wasn’t a good one for me,” Kyle said.
She was still wearing her jacket, rubbing her arms like she hadn’t warmed up yet. I reached behind me for my jacket and rested it over her lap. She was always cold. I figured that had something to do with her being so skinny.
And that had something to do with her mom not having enough money to feed her and her brother. My ma was no different. Billy’s too.
She wrapped the jacket around her legs. “Thanks, Garin.”
I smiled at her. “Tonight was real good for me.” I grabbed the cash and change from my pocket and dropped it on the carpet. “Three-hundred and forty eight dollars.”
“Damn,” Billy said. “I guess you did do good.” He pushed the coins around in the pile. “Lots of panhandlers tonight, huh?”
Panhandlers bought their drugs with change. Most of the time, they’d just give me the cup they used to collect with and I’d hand them a balloon. After a few deals, I’d have to book it to Mario’s store and unload all the cups. The change was too heavy for my pockets and it made my jeans sag too low.
“You shoulda seen all the junkies lined up in the alley,” I said. “It was a steady flow the whole night.”
“Any of the hookers try to give you head?”
I didn’t look at Kyle when I answered. “Not tonight.” I hated when Billy said that kind of shit in front of her. “I wouldn’t let them touch me, anyway. Half of them don’t even have teeth.”
“I hear that means they give better head. All gums and suction, can you imagine?”
“Fuck no. I don’t want to imagine.”
I felt Kyle’s eyes on me, but I still didn’t look at her. “How’d you do tonight?”
“I couldn’t find nothing to pawn besides a CD player that I only got eight bucks for and two drills that were so rusted I only got four. Fucking winter, people keep their shit all locked up cause it’s so goddamn cold.”
“So twelve?” I asked him.
He threw a wad of cash onto the floor. “Sixty two. I got fifty bucks for the tires.”
“Tires?” I asked.
“You’re gonna lock your car up so I can’t steal nothing, then I’m going to take your tires so you can’t go no where.”
“Oh my God,” Kyle laughed.
I punched the top of his shoulder. “That’s messed up, you know that, right? I’d beat your ass if you stole my tires.”
Billy would steal anything. Didn’t matter if it was your prized possession or the tires right off your car. He didn’t care and he had no fear.
None of us did who lived in The Heart.
Except for Kyle.
“You mean your ma’s tires since your ass ain’t even old enough to drive,” Billy said.
“Neither are you,” I shot back. “But yeah, whatever.”
“Those fuckers can try to beat me all they want, but they’ll never catch me. I’m way too fast for them.” He grinned with so much confidence…and I believed him.
“Garinnnnn,” Ma yelled from downstairs.
“What?” I shouted back.
“I’m going out. Make sure you get your ass to school in the morning. I better not get another call from them, telling me you’re skipping again. You hear me?”
“Yeah. I hear you.”
Kyle was smiling at me.
The last time I’d skipped school, we’d ditched together. We’d smoked a joint and hopped into a cab and got dropped off at Mario’s house so we could go swimming in his indoor pool. That was after I’d taken her shopping for a bathing suit. Her bikini had a hole right in the middle of the ass so she wasn’t comfortable wearing it. I, on the other hand, would have been real comfortable with her wearing it.
“How much did you make tonight?” I asked her.
Her hair had fallen into her face. As much as I wanted to, I didn’t tuck it behind her ear.
She held out her hand and slowly unfolded her fingers. In the middle of her palm was a few crumpled up dollars.
“I’m not as good as you guys,” she said. “There’s no beach goers this time of year that I can sell bottles of water to, no tourists walking the boardwalk. And when I stand outside the casinos and ask the people coming out for taxi money, they ignore me.”
“Then make ’em look at you, Kyle,” Billy said. “Stick out your tits, hike up your skirt, and show ’em what you’ve got.”
“Shut it, Billy!” The look I gave him told him I was playing around. “You want some dude to grab her off the street and rape her? Because that’s what will happen if she does that.”
“Damn, Garin, you’re right. I wasn’t even thinking. Course I don’t want nothing like that to happen to Kyle.”
She dropped the cash onto my jacket and buried her hands underneath it. “It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it, Billy.”
“You’ve been trying real hard, Kyle.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. “I don’t know what else to do to make money.” Her voice was so soft. “Garin, you’re so good at dealing and you make a ton doing it. And Billy, you’re the best hustler I know. You could steal a diamond off a woman’s finger and she wouldn’t even know. I can’t do that. I can’t do anything…”
“Bullshit,” Billy barked. “You’re smarter than me and Garin and got more talent than the two of us combined. Those things you create on the computer ain’t like anything I’ve ever seen.”
“You mean my designs?”
“Yeah, those.”
“But they need so much work and I need to practice more. The only time I can work on them is during Mr. Gunther’s second period class. Unless Mom plans on getting me a computer and we all know that isn’t going to happen.”
“Well, whatever, they’re good. Real fucking good.”
“He’s right,” I said once Billy had redeemed himself. “You’re too good to be hustling on the streets and definitely too good to be dealing. You just figure out how to make some legit cash and leave this kind of stuff up to us.”
She finally tucked her hair behind her ear. “But it’s not fair that you guys pay for everything. I’ve got to help out some how.”
We didn’t give her all that much. Food mostly, some clothes, a few bus rides around the city. I was happy to do it all. I’d buy her food every day if she’d let me.
“You do help,” I said.
“How?”
“Yeah, how?” Billy asked.
I gave him another nasty look to shut him up. “Just trust me, Kyle. You do.”
“How ’bout you take good care of us when we’re still living in The Heart and you’re out there doing something real important with your life.”
“Maybe you’ll still be here,” I said to Billy, “but I won’t. Once I turn eighteen, I’m getting the hell out of Atlantic City. Mario is going to let me work in Vegas.”
“And I’m going to college,” Kyle said.
Both our heads jerked toward her.
The kids from The Heart didn’t make it to college. Most didn’t make it to their junior year of high school.
“That’s…”
“A good goal to have,” I finished for him.
“Well, I’m going to try to get there, at least. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. Somehow, I have to make it happen.”
“We’ll make sure it happens. Won’t we, Billy?” When he didn’t respond, I kicked him.