she asked, and the question had so many answers I didn’t even know where to begin. Every one of them would send her running as well. If there had been a way I could have kept her from knowing the truth I would have. “When I was seventeen I joined a local gang run by a guy named Giles Crowley. My brother had been involved for a year before me and he wasn’t coping well. We were close. Our parents abandoned us when I was four, and growing up in care I always felt it was my job to protect him. I joined to shoulder his responsibilities.”“You grew up in care?” Alaya interrupted, and I peered up at her through my eyelashes, shrugged, then returned my gaze to my hands. I got over what my parents did a long time ago. It took years, but I’d dealt with it in my own way so now I could talk about it with no bitterness. “My parents just decided they no longer wanted us one day. They couldn’t cope.”“That’s terrible, Cole. I’m sorry.”“It’s not a big deal.”Her expression held the pity she didn’t voice like everyone else when they found out about my past.
