Page 1 of Burdens

PROLOGUE

NOAH

Fuck.

I gripped my steering wheel tighter and tighter until the strained skin of my knuckles turned white and the leather on the sides burned my palms. I tried to take a deep breath and release the tension building in my chest, but it was in vain.

“Fuck, fuck,fuck,” I groaned, the echo of my frustration bouncing within the confines of my car as I slammed a fist on top of my dashboard.

My entire life was a lie.

I’d spent years putting on a facade, building up walls constructed on well-thought-out and fabricated lies. I’d spent my whole life hiding who I truly was, where I came from, and everything that tied me to my past.

And for nearly thirty years, I’d succeeded.

Until today, when my past came crashing back like a tidal wave, erasing all my lies and leaving me with only one truth.

I had to rid myself of my father permanently.

I’d stopped wanting him dead a long time ago, but he’d left me with no other choice. In the aftermath of what had justhappened to Jamal’s wife, things would stop adding up and someone would find out the truth about who I really was.

And I couldn’t do that to Jamal. I couldn’t have him find out that the person responsible for all his pain and suffering was none other than my own father.

I always thought I’d have more time, that there would be a perfect moment for me to tell him. I kept promising myself I’d wait until he was older, until he was more mature to understand why I’d kept the truth from him.

But the next thing I knew, my lies had become a habit and had erased all of my previous promises. And now, I couldn’t bring myself to deceive him. He’d already lost so much. I didn’t want to be another person on that list.

I’d never felt more ashamed of where I’d come from than that day and that was already hard to beat. So it hadn’t been long before every word that came out of my mouth was false whenever he asked about what had happened to his parents, or asked me wheremyfamily was.

But that part of my fabricated life had always been easy to explain because the truth always worked in my favor. The only family I ever had was forever gone.

Selfishly, I’d always hoped that one of my father’s countless enemies would just put a bullet between his eyes and rid me of the weight I’d carried with me over the last two decades.

To my dismay, no one had.

Now the truth had to come out, but I wouldn’t let it happen until the source of all my burdens was six feet underground.

The only thing my father had failed to do to me.

I brought my hand up, my fingers brushing against the small raised scar at the base of my neck, a reminder that he’d almost succeeded.

Images of my father teaching me one of his lessons assaulted me at every turn. His hand was raised high and onits way to strike me when I felt my bed shift. My eyes squeezed shut at the sore pain radiating across my cheek. The cool tip of his knife was pressed against the base of my jugular, but this time…

I could feel it. Feel the skin there break under the pressure of his blade.

Wait, that never happens.

My father was an abusive asshole, but he’d never actually cut me.

Tomorrow was my twelfth birthday and I was to be initiated into the cartel. He wouldn’t jeopardize that since I was his only heir, to his dismay, of course.

My confusion was short-lived when the tip pressed harder against my skin before I felt it pierce the flesh and a sharp pain radiated throughout my body.

The tendrils of my nightmare dissipated and my eyes shot open, snapping to the ones of the person looming on top of me.

The person trying to kill me.

The basic fight training I’d gone through kicked in and I brought my palms up, hitting him in the face. My sudden attack caught him off guard and his serrated knife cut across my skin, drawing blood before it fell on my pillow, next to my head.