Read Finding the Magic (Tom Kelly's Boys Book 1) for Free Online

bench. The soil was sandy, and I wondered as I sat in it if that was why the ivy didn't grow there. I leaned over to look through the hole. I blinked, trying to focus and feeling frustrated at the shrub that was obstructing my view. I didn't remember there being so much of that yesterday and I wished there was a way for me to get into their backyard with a weed wacker.
    I waited patiently, and sure enough the wind carried the branches here and there, and I was able to get a clearer view. A clear view didn't make male models appear, though. All I could see was an empty backyard.
    I had been staring at that empty backyard for the better part of a minute when it hit me. I had been awake for over an hour, and I hadn't thought about the concert. I stood up and sat on the bench, and for the next few minutes, had the same wave of sadness hit me. I sipped on my coffee trying to talk myself out of the same doubt and fear that had been plaguing me since December. It was getting easier, but it wasn't easy yet, and I was thankful for the distraction that lay on the other side of that wall.
    I was looking directly at the back door of the Richie's house when it opened. Steven came out wearing some saggy athletic shorts, an oversized T-shirt, and a flatbill cap turned to the side. I smiled as he approached thinking he actually pulled off the look.
    I smiled at him until I realized he wasn’t smiling back. In fact, he was pinning me with a stare. "What are you doing back here?" he asked. His tone was hushed, but his expression was verging on murderous.
    I gave him an offended look. "I thought it was okay to drink your coffee outside in Miami," I said.
    He sat by me and glanced at me with narrowed eyes. "I saw you looking through that fuckin' hole just now, and you can't be doing that."
    I got so nervous that I denied it even though he'd seen me, and that was ridiculous. "No I wasn't."
    He made a tisking noise and pointed toward the wall with his thumb. "You don't want to mess with those motherfuckers," he said. "The sonna va bitch who owns that house is a fuckin' pirate—and I'm not talking about Pirates of the motherfuckin' Caribbean either."
    At first I was embarrassed to have been caught, but now I saw it as an opportunity to see what he knew. "Megan said you saw something that made you think that," I said.
    "Shiiiit."
    I smiled at how gangsta and dramatic he was, and he saw me smile out of the corner of his eye.
    "Don't be a little bitch. It's not fuckin' funny," he said. "Those motherfuckers will kill you without batting an eye. I saw them beat the shit out of a guy one time, so I found out who they were. The front of their house is around on Oleander. Supposedly they have some furniture business and another fishing business that is a front for their boats."
    "I thought you said they weren't like Pirates of the Caribbean."
    "They're not. But they still use boats. Otherwise they wouldn't be called pirates , they'd be called motherfuckin' mafia or something. I don't even know. They're ruthless."
    "And you gather all this from a fight you saw in their backyard?"
    "Not just that. My friend Alex knows someone who knows one of them and he said Captain Tom, the guy who owns the house, cut a guy's head off one time in a fight, then he kept the skull and brings it wherever he's doing business so that everyone can see what happens when you fight with him."
    I laughed out loud at how wide-eyed and freaked out he was.
    "Go ahead and laugh," he said. "I'm just warning you that you might see some shit you don't want to motherfuckin' see if you look through that hole."
    We were both quiet for a second before he continued. "My sister probably showed it to you so you could look at the guys, but she has no idea who she's messing with. Just listen to me when I say you would not like the results if they found out you was spying on them."
    "Is Captain Tom in his twenties with long, blondish hair?" I asked, still curious.
    He cut me a glance like I was