Fractured Promises by Lauren Ruiz (ap literature book list txt) 📕

made a business in robbery, and now there they all were.
“Our next hit will be First National Bank of America. It will not be as easy as all the other banks that we have been to. There is a police station right down the block, but this bank is very important. It has more cash in there than a king has gold. If we pull this off, we will be better known than any other robbery group in the world.” River announced, more excited about her new journey through her bank robbing days.
River was a well tanned pretty girl in her twenties with a strong jaw, and soft yet rugged looking shoulders. Her light brown hair was the same color as her eyes. She had muscle on her that would make any other woman proud.
She had fought through so much in her life that Clark and some of the others were surprised that she wasn’t dead yet.
Clark had heard about her when The Strikes had hit a nearby town over in Ohio. He had heard about them all over the news, but at first, he wasn’t very interested in them.
But when he had searched them up on the internet, he had found that they were very well known. The police have been trying to track them down for over two years now, and they would occasionally be close to getting them behind bars, but they barely ever succeeded.
When they had caught a few boys about a year ago, the boys would not give up their team just because they had been caught, and the others hadn’t been.
There was nothing but loyalty in their group, that if one of the members were to ever go against them, they would eliminate him.
They had never done it before, but Clark knew that it had to happen someday. Not everything was perfect and there had to be a time when everything around them will collapse.
“But what if the cops get there on time to catch some of us? What will happen then? If we do get this money, then some of us might not even be able to spend it on ourselves or on our own families. Where’s the good in that?” Pauli, Clark’s first partner asked.
“Whatever happens happens.” Clark said, getting annoyed.
Pauli looked stunned at Clark’s comment. Clark was the nice guy of the group. And the tone in his voice actually made everyone feel a new respect for him.
“See, Queen knows what he’s saying.” River said with a grin.
“Besides, if some of you guys do get caught and put on bail, we could pay for that right River? And if not, you’ll get the share that you come out of the bank with. It’s fair, don’t you think? You get what you got.” Clark said. He looked at River then, and waited for an answer.
He was afraid that some of the guys would get caught, or worse: killed.
In his months there, he had become close with most of the crew members. He didn’t want to lose any of them.
But Clark and the others had chosen to lead this kind of life, and because of it, they would have to pay a price.
The frown on most of the men’s faces told Clark that they were thinking the same thing as him.
There were over thirty people in the room. There were about twenty-seven men there, including Clark, and five girls, including River.
Clark wasn’t even as close to the people at school as he was with The Strikes.
The thought of Ohio and everyone that meant something to him hit him hard. He hadn’t meant to think about them, but he had.
And he knew that was a mistake.
Every time he thought about them, the more he wanted out of The Strikes. But they were his family too, and they needed him.
There lives were at stake here.
“You all right there Scout?” River asked Clark, when she saw the shadow cross his face.
Even when he didn’t have a smile on his face, Clark was too handsome and sweet for his own good.
And whenever his dark side would come out, River would feel a new ounce of attraction and admiration towards him.
He was only eighteen, and she twenty-four, but she still thought him handsome; any woman would.
She would never start any kind of romantic relationship with him; he was like the kid brother that she had lost eight years ago to her.
Clark nodded somberly in response.
The crew had given him the nickname “Scout” because he was such a good kid that always wanted to do the right thing.
They still didn’t understand what a good kid like him was doing with criminals like themselves. If any of them were able to choose to be like someone and have their kind of life, they would have chosen to have a life like Clark’s when he was back in Ohio.
They all knew his story of being heartbroken and even Lilly Ferguson, a pretty redhead in the group who was a year older than Clark, offered to “take care” of Zoe for him.
He had just laughed and said no. He would never want to cause heartbreak in her life on purpose.
“There will only have to be eight guys to go into the bank all right? It’s a big bank, and there are no girls allowed to go on this one ok?” she said as she looked at Lilly and her twin sister Cassia, and Brooke and a small girl named Star who reminded him so much of his little sister Peyton.
Since they weren’t needed, they said their goodbyes to the rest of them and left together so that they could go get something to eat.
“When are we going to the bank?” Sinbad asked. Sinbad was the kind of guy that Clark would never want to get into a scuffle with.
He was large and bald, with tattoos that covered up both of his arms. He was at least thirty years old, and had been sent to prison so many times that he himself had lost count. Sinbad was 7’2 in height, and because of his appearance and the tattoos of red teardrops on his face, he was feared in prison, in the streets, and everywhere else he went.
“In twenty days. Clark, do you think you will be able to come?” River asked him.
He ran his hand through his hair and thought.
“Twenty days?” Clark asked, still trying to figure out whether he could do it or not.
River nodded.
He was quiet for at least another full minute, until River held up her hand and said, “You can think about it. Just have an answer for me ten days before we go.”
“Who else will be going?” Sinbad asked in his deep voice.
“I’ll have that answer for you in a few days. My new partner, Braylon, and I will scout out the bank before we do anything rational. You can all leave now.” And with a wave of her hand, River walked off with a man that looked unfamiliar to all.
Clark just stood there for a minute before he left.
He had been in Michigan for three days now, but he didn’t want to go home. He didn’t want anything else to do with Ohio.
In every corner there was a memory placed there for him.
But he knew he had to go back.
He had to finish high school. He didn’t want to be with The Strikes for the rest of his life. For him, it was just temporary. He was only going to be involved with them until he graduated high school and moved out of the state of Ohio for good.
As Clark walked to his Impala, he sighed.
He was going to have a long drive home.
He had thought about going to a motel to stay there for the night, but he knew that wouldn’t be right because he knew for a fact that he had to go home.
“Ring, Ring, Ring,” the annoying squeaky voice he had set as Arianna’s ringtone went off.
He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and stared at the screen.
Should I answer it? He thought in his head.
He let his heart decide.
“Hello?” he asked, anxious to hear what she was going to say to him.
He had been gone for three long agonizing days. He wasn’t expecting a pleasant hello, and he didn’t get it.
“Really, you’re saying hello? What’re you, some kind of idiot?” Arianna said sourly on her end.
Arianna had been pacing back in forth in his loft, deciding whether or not to call him. Every time she would call or leave a voicemail or a text message, they would all go unanswered.
For a minute, she looked into the telescope and stared out into the galaxy.
What she wouldn’t do to be out there right now…
But even staring out at such a breathtaking sight, she couldn’t stop thinking about her best friend. She was sick and tired of worrying about him. She didn’t even know if he was still alive and that killed her.
She flipped open her phone, and speed-dialed Clark’s number.
She was astonished to hear his greeting.
In spite of her bitter tone, Clark laughed.
Arianna’s heart jumped at the sound of his cackle.
“Why are you laughing Clark? Damn, you have no idea how pissed off everyone here at the farm are, including me.”
Clark stopped laughing and said, “I understand. But I’m coming home.”
Arianna slightly shook her head. If someone had seen her, they would have thought that she had water in her ear, and she was shaking her head to get it out.
“You’re what?”
“I’m coming home.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to and I need to. I can’t be away from you and my family for much longer.” Clark said honestly. He was missing them to death.
“Can you tell me where you are?” Arianna asked, hopeful that he would give her an answer.
“No.” he said as though it were obvious.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” he repeated.
“Are you almost here?”
“No.”
“Can you stop saying no and give me a straight answer? I think I deserve that much since the morning I found you and your car gone.”
That hit him hard.
“What do you want to know Ari?”
“I want to know what you have been doing. Where you have been going, and who you been with.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything other than I’m not that far from Ohio.”
“Are you driving?”
“No shit Sherlock.”
“No, I mean, are you driving right now?”
Clark pressed his foot on the gas peddle, and his car shot forward even more. Hearing Arianna’s voice was making him want to go home faster.
Every time he ignored Arianna’s calls and message’s, he felt so guilty. But if he had heard any of their voices, he knew he would have gone home in a heartbeat. That was the last thing he wanted to do.
“Yeah, I’m about twelve hours away though.” Clark said honestly. When he saw the McDonald’s down