Read Raw Vengeance (The Rich Fordham Series) for Free Online Page B

nerve endings. Two thugs down, two to go. Sixteen-year-old Jamal reached into his jean pocket for a knife, but Dan released a blow to his kidney. Jamal’s knife dropped to the ground as he doubled over in pain.
    Jadyn, Labron’s younger brother at sixteen and the omega of the group, never had a chance to react. Instead of fighting, he put his hands up in a show of surrender just as Dan was about to unleash hell on him.
    “ Hey, assholes,” the manager broke in, “cops are coming for your asses.” Jadyn flew out the door.
    The three boys were writhing and moaning in pain, but Dan didn’t give a damn. He looked over to see Tyler’s mouth hanging wide open in a state of shock. “Come on, man,” he said as he waved Tyler to follow. “Cops will be here in less than two minutes. Time’s a-wasting.”
    Tyler prepared to deliver a savage kick to Deon’s ribcage when Dan stopped him. “Hey! This isn’t the time, man; we’ve got to go,” he ordered as he pulled him by the arm. Tyler put up a fuss at the realization his tormenters could be overtaken so easily. The two ran at breakneck speed until they were inside of the Escalade. Tyler took the wheel again and sped off like a bat out of hell.
    “ Where’d you learn to fight?” Tyler asked in between breaths.
    Dan smiled. “It was nothing. Remember I said my dad found work out here? He was a cop back in Seattle and was laid off due to budget cuts. Chicago is the only place where he could start his own security consulting firm. He taught me those moves when I was five, and he insisted I practice after I came out.”
    “ How’d that go?”
    “ What—coming out or learning how to defend myself?”
    “ Both.”
    “ I know some jiu-jitsu, basic grappling techniques, and how to subdue a threat in as short a time as possible. Coming out was much more difficult. When I finally told my parents about five years ago, they said they already knew. I have two older brothers, and we all play football, and I play tight end or wherever the coach wants me. The toughest part is not telling any of the guys I play with. I’m sure they have no idea. I’m one of the biggest guys on the team, and I don’t act like the stereotypical gay. I don’t have a lisp, and I’m not into drama,” Dan said nonchalantly.
    A flood of emotions overwhelmed Tyler. Confronting the thugs had scared the hell out of him, but on the other hand, he felt high from actually doing something about it. The lights and siren of a lone cop car blazed past them in the opposite direction. One look in the rearview mirror, and he could tell they weren’t being followed.
    “ What about you? You’ve come out, right?”
    Tyler heaved a heavy sigh before answering. “My mother is a bitch, plain and simple. She’s a self-promoting, self-righteous, egotistical sadistic bitch.”
    “ So you’re saying things could be worse,” Dan said sarcastically.
    As an only child, Tyler had never been afforded the opportunity to openly discuss his sourness toward his mother or his treatment for being gay. “Several years ago she sent me off to ‘gay camp’ where they tell you how God wants you to act and be. How am I supposed to change me? Why am I supposed to conform to what everyone wants? Why do they give a damn? People like my mother are so obsessed about two boys kissing that they forget I’m a person. They talk to me like I’m not real, like I’m some sort of aberration. I do well in school, don’t do drugs, I don’t hurt anybody, and as Mr. Johnson says, I’m a good kid. But no, they get hung up on how gay I am. I don’t visit gay clubs or dress weird or talk funny. These people and my mother are the biggest bigots and hypocrites.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “Aw, fuck it, I don’t want to talk about her anymore. She hasn’t told me she loves me since my coming out, and that was four years ago.”
    They sat in silence for the next fifteen minutes. Tyler was caught in a whirlwind of thoughts,