EXCERPT "It’s only going to be a matter of time before someone finds us. We have to keep moving," I tell them. “And go where?” Brax asks, lifting his battered face. I shrug. “Anywhere is better than here.” “Come on, Justice. We have no money. We don’t even have clothes,” Brax sniffles. “What the hell are we going to do?” “We do whatever necessary to survive,” I say, looking into his weary eyes. “We can’t go back. Look what almost happened to you. Hobbs is most likely dead and they aren’t going to believe a couple of troubled kids. Who knows what we’ll face next. The system has fucked us long enough. Living on the streets is better than where we’ve all been.” They both remain silent but I see the look in their eyes, the same knowledge I have burning in my mind and heart. “I say we make a pact right here, right now. We do this on our own. No more beatings, no more pain. We watch out for one another, take care of each other.” “Like family,” Knox says. I nod. “Like family.” My eyes search theirs in the quiet dark. “Are you with me?” I ask, extending my hand in the middle. Knox doesn’t hesitate. “I’m in.” Both of our eyes shift to Braxten who still looks scared. “We got you, Brax,” I promise. “We’d never let anything happen to you.” He places his beat-up hand on ours. “Family. Forever.” That day we became more than friends.  We became brothers.  For the next year we lied, stole, and did whatever necessary to survive. Until our travels brought us to the Mississippi Delta. There we hid out on a farmer’s land, seeking shelter on a rainy night. The owner was a lone man named Thatcher Creed, the first adult to ever show us any kindness. Instead of calling the police when he found us, he took us in and raised us as his own. Thatcher Creed gave us something we’d never had but always longed for.  A real family.