Free The Starkest Truth (A Breaking Insanity Novel Book 2) by Courtney Lane Page A

I can get you help. I can get you out of here.”
    “He’s not going with you to slum it in the projects.” My father reached inside his desk and pulled out his checkbook. He angrily scribbled on the pad, ripped off a check and threw it into the air. “Your severance pay. If I see you here, or near my cousin’s son again, you’ll wish you’d never met me.”
    I pulled back my arm and shook my head at her. “Told you. No one can fucking save me.” I stormed down the hall, but stopped walking when my father called my name from behind me.  
    “You better turn around, Ethan. If you think you’re going off to do a job for Vic, like you’ve been doing, you sure as hell won’t. I’m not bailing you out of jail every time your stupid ass makes a mistake on a job you never should’ve been given in the first place.”  
    Keeping my eyes to the ground, I turned around to face him.
    “You think you can be me?” Marching forward, he balled up his fists. “You’re not fit to spit-shine my shoes.”
    I looked past him, watching Lupita as she disappeared down the hall.
    Fuck it, and fuck him. “You’re always acting like you’re so fucking bad. Charlie and Vic are your bosses and they have more power than you. If they say I’m good—better than you—the fuck do you look like?”
    Raising his hand, he backhanded me. I met the wall, face first. “What the fuck did I tell you, you piece of shit? When I’m done with you, you won’t have any goddamn teeth left in your mouth.”  
    His punches came harder, faster, until I was beaten down to the floor. He spit on me, landing his saliva on my swollen eyelid. “If you’re not man enough to make Thaddeus stop, no one will. He fucks you because you’re a pussy. He fucks you because you’re nothing. Find your goddamned balls and do something about it.” He kicked me in the ribs. I knew something cracked. I should’ve felt it, but I barely felt any of the pain anymore. I don’t feel anything after what Thaddeus had done, and kept doing to me. “I rue the day I ever stuck my dick inside your mother. You are an utter disappointment. You’re a worthless piece of shit she should’ve aborted.” He kicked me one last time before he walked away.  
    I didn’t cry anymore. There wasn’t a point. If I cried, he would’ve made it worse. I stared at the ground as the blood trickled out of my nose, feeling…numb.

    Lupita never cashed her severance check. Two days later, it was all over the neighborhood—she was found hanging by a belt in her closet.

GETTING OUT OF bed, I clutched my ribcage. Felt like my heart was damn near beating out of my chest. Since I couldn’t stop thinking about having a kid with Nikki, I couldn’t stop thinking about the family I’d rather forget.
    I glanced over my shoulder, swearing the woman could’ve slept through a World War. She slept the entire ride from Manhattan back to Rochester and hadn’t woken up since. Might’ve fucked her a little too much and a little too hard on the weekend trip.
    I studied the bedroom of my house. Even in the dark, it all looked grimy. Everything looked so goddamned dirty. The second I ejected out of bed Kifo took my place, laying almost on top of Nikki.
    I headed two floors down to my work-out room in the basement; it was repurposed into my space when I moved into the house in early April of last year. I needed a place to stay before Mrs. Givens used her connections to get me into the house next door to Nikki.

    Starting with metabolic resistance training and ending with high intensity interval training, I finished my daily two-hour routine. With my body completely shredded, I was finally calm enough to clean. After hitting the shower upstairs, I started with the bathroom.
    “What are you doing?”
    I looked up from my sitting position on the edge of the tub to Nikki standing in the doorframe. She peered at me through hazy eyes and yawned. She was wearing a white second skin T-shirt and a pair of