Tangled Up in You Read Online Free Page A

off and headed out the back door. The cold morning air brushed his face and neck as he stuck a key in the deadbolt and locked it behind him. Right out of high school hed left Truly to attend Boise State down in the capital city. But after three years of aimless pursuits and a rotten attitude, hed enlisted in the army. At the time, seeing the world from the inside of a tank had sounded like a real smart plan.
    A red Dodge Ram was parked next to the Dumpster and he climbed inside. Hed certainly seen the world. Sometimes more of it than he cared to remember, but not from the inside of a tank. Instead hed viewed it from thousands of feet in the air within the cockpits of Apache helicopters. Hed flown birds for the U.S government before getting out and moving back to Truly. The army had given him more than a kick-ass career and a chance to live a good life. It had taught him how to be a man in a way that living in a house of women had not. When to stand up and when to shut the hell up. When to fight and when to walk away. What mattered and what wasnt worth his time.
    Mick started the truck and waited a few moments for the vehicle to warm up. He owned two bars, and he figured it was a very good thing that hed learned to deal with belligerent drunks and assorted dipshits in a way that didnt require throwing fists and cracking heads. Otherwise, hed get little else done. Hed be in one fight after another, walking around with a black eye and busted lip like he had growing up. Back then he hadnt known how to handle the dipshits of the world. Back then hed been forced to live with the scandal his parents had created. Hed had to live with the whispers when he walked into a room. The sideways glances at church or the Valley Grocery Store. The taunts from other children at school or, worse, the birthday parties he and Meg had not been invited to. Back then, hed handled every slight with his fists. Meg had retreated within herself.
    Mick flipped on the headlights and shoved the truck into reverse. The Rams taillights lit up the alley as he looked over his shoulder and backed out of the parking space. In a larger town, the salacious lives of Loch and Rose Hennessy would have been forgotten within a few weeks. Front-page news for a day or two, then eclipsed by something more shocking. Something bigger to talk about over morning coffee. But in a town the size of Truly, where the juiciest scandal usually involved such nefarious deeds as a stolen bicycle or Sid Grimes poaching out of season, the sordidness of Loch and Rose Hennessy had kept the town talking for years. Speculating and rehashing every tragic detail had become a favorite pastime. Right up there with holiday parades, the ice-sculpting contest, and raising money for the towns various causes. But unlike decorating floats and instituting after-school just-say-no-to-drugs programs, what everyone seemed to forget, or perhaps didnt care about, was that within the wreckage that Rose and Loch had created, there had been two innocent children just trying to live it all down.
    He shoved the truck into drive and rolled out of the alley and onto a dimly lit street. A lot of his childhood memories were old and faded and thankfully forgotten. Others were so crystal clear he could recall every detail. Like the night he and Meg had been woken up by a county sheriff, told to grab a few things, and taken to their grandmother Loraines house. He remembered sitting in the back of the squad car in his T-shirt, underwear, and sneakers, holding his Tonka truck, while Meg sat next to him, crying as if their world had just ended. And it had. He remembered all the squawk and adrenaline-laced voices on the police radio, and he remembered something about someone checking up on the other little girl.
    Leaving the few city lights behind, Mick drove through the pitch-darkness for two miles before turning onto his dirt street. He drove past the house where he and Meg had been raised after the death of their parents.