Title:
Going the Distance
Release
Date: TBD
Author: Christa Cervone
Synopsis:
A murderer’s child…A foster child…A troubled
teen…Gabriel ‘The Saint’ Vega has never had an easy life. Being shuffled from
one foster home to another after his father murdered his mother, he found
himself in and out of trouble with the law. Never giving a damn about himself,
let alone anyone else, his life was spiraling out of control; fast. Until one
man and one sport changed everything.
Frankie Carbone taught Saint how to handle his anger and rejection; by fighting it out in the ring. On his way to stardom, Saint finds himself pushed into the spotlight and into the arms of more women than he can ever imagine; he’s completely content with one night stands and random sex.
Then Salem Harris comes walking into his life and changes his game plan. Saint finds himself wanting Salem in all the ways that scare him. She is off limits; taken. But that doesn’t stop Saint from going after what he wants, and he wants her.
Frankie showed Saint a new way of life with Boxing, but will Salem give him the one thing he's never known – love? Will Saint find himself fighting for the one thing he thinks he doesn't deserve or will Salem end up breaking his heart? Gabriel ‘The Saint’ Vega has had to fight for every good thing he's gotten in his life. Can he go the distance?
Frankie Carbone taught Saint how to handle his anger and rejection; by fighting it out in the ring. On his way to stardom, Saint finds himself pushed into the spotlight and into the arms of more women than he can ever imagine; he’s completely content with one night stands and random sex.
Then Salem Harris comes walking into his life and changes his game plan. Saint finds himself wanting Salem in all the ways that scare him. She is off limits; taken. But that doesn’t stop Saint from going after what he wants, and he wants her.
Frankie showed Saint a new way of life with Boxing, but will Salem give him the one thing he's never known – love? Will Saint find himself fighting for the one thing he thinks he doesn't deserve or will Salem end up breaking his heart? Gabriel ‘The Saint’ Vega has had to fight for every good thing he's gotten in his life. Can he go the distance?
Prologue
“In the case
of the Commonwealth vs. Josue Vega. How
do you plead?”
“Not
guilty,” I hear our father say in his thick Spanish accent.
The cameras begin
to flash and I hear reporters talking into their microphones, although I can’t understand
what they are saying.
“Order in the
court,” the judge speaks loudly as his gavel hits the desk; making my little
brother, Jason, jump.
“It’s ok, Jase,
we’re safe now,” I say, trying to comfort him.
The two of us sit quietly in the second row of the hot, crowded courtroom
as we watch our father plead ‘Not guilty’ to the murder of our mother. I’m just as scared as he is but I don’t want
him to know that. I’m his older brother and
he looks up to me, so I am trying to be brave.
“Your
Honor, my client asks to be released on bail.
He has two little boys he needs to care for while the trial is ongoing,”
says the tall man who is standing next to our father.
I eyeball our
father and notice how disheveled he looks.
His hair is a mess and his clothes are the same ones he’d been wearing
two nights ago. Jase and I were awoken
this morning by a loud banging on our door.
It was the police and they were looking for our father, but we hadn’t
seen him in almost two days.
The last time I’d
seen our father was the night he and our mother had gotten into an
argument. They were yelling so loudly
that they actually woke me from a sound sleep.
I could hear our mother screaming, “How could you? He’s just a little
boy…” and that was the last time I heard our mother’s voice.
“Your
Honor, the Defendant is being charged with murder. I insist he be remanded to the county jail
for the duration of his trial,” a voice says loudly from the other side of the
courtroom.
The
judge looks over at us and I can see the pity in his eyes.
“Mr. Vega, I have
to agree with the District Attorney,” the judge’s voice is stern. “You’re standing trial for the murder of your
wife. Bail is denied, and you’re to
return to the county jail for the remainder of your trial. Bailiff, please remove the Defendant and have
him taken into custody.”
I
hear chatter erupt from the back of the courtroom. I turn around and see the reporters talking
and the cameras flashing again. Spinning
back around, I see a man in what looks like a police uniform handcuffing my
father, then leading him out of the courtroom.
Jase covers his face with his hands and begins to cry, “Why are they
taking Papi?”
“It’s
okay, Jase,” I whisper. “We have each
other. Remember, we’re Blood Brothers.” Jase wipes his tears away with his hand and
forces a smile.
“Blood Brothers” was something I’d come up
with when we were out playing on the playground. It was one of the few times our father had
actually offered to take us somewhere. We’d
been cooped up in our small, dingy apartment all winter long, and it was
finally a pleasant Spring day. Jase and
I were running around playing tag. Our
father had told us several times to stop running, but lo and behold, right
after his final warning Jase fell and skinned both of his knees. Our father glared at us, just waiting to hear
Jase cry. I knew what was coming next,
he’d ‘give him something to cry about.’
That had been one of our father’s favorite lines; especially to Jase,
who was extremely sensitive and cried over almost everything.
“Come on Jase, don’t
cry,” I whispered to him, as I looked anxiously over my shoulder at our father. Jase’s body began to shake as he tried to
hold his tears back and the blood from both his knees began to run down his shins. I glanced back at our father, who was now standing
up, and I knew I had to act fast.
I reached into my back
pocket and pulled out an old pocket knife that I had found lying on the sidewalk
one day after school. I’d been keeping
it a secret from Jase because I knew he’d want to play with it and would end up
hurting himself.
“Hey Jase, look what I found a few days
ago,” I said, showing him the knife.
His eyes grew wide, “Woah,
where did you get that?” He said in awe.
“I found it a couple
of days ago.”
“What are you two
doing over there?” Our father said loudly, making Jase jump.
“Nothing Papi. I’m just tying Jase’s shoes,” I answered
back.
“Hurry up! I’m ready to leave,” he snapped in response.
Opening up the blade
as fast as I could, I took the tip and pressed it down onto the pad of my
thumb.
“Gabriel,” Jase gasped. “What are you doing?”
“I wanna show you that
you don’t have to cry every time you bleed,” I explained as blood began to pool
up on my thumb. “See, I’m bleeding and
I’m not crying.”
“It’s like we’re Blood
Brothers,” Jase smiled at me as he blinked back his tears.
“Yes. Exactly, Jase, we’re Blood Brothers,” I
smiled back at him.
I look over at Jase now and notice that he’s
trying his hardest to hold back his tears.
The two of us sit quietly as we watch our father being taken away. I finally feel safe. He and our mother are out of our lives
forever; they can’t hurt us anymore.
I’ve actually dreamed of this day; Jase and me, living with parents who
actually love us. I saw it in a movie
once; a little girl who didn’t have any parents was living in an orphanage and some
rich guy adopted her. They lived happily
ever after and I’m hoping that’s what’s going to happen to us.
“Gabriel?
Jason?”
I hear a kind voice say. “I’m
Debbie and this is Dave, we’re going to take you to where you’re going to be
staying.”
They’re
dressed up in fancy suits and I wonder if they’re going to be our new
parents. I can’t help but smile at the
thought. They look so nice; they can give
us a happy life. I know they can.
“Jase,
shhhhh…stop crying,” I nudge him. “Look,
I think this is our new Mom and Dad,” I whisper.
The
last thing I want is for them to think Jase is a crybaby. He is, but I don’t
want them changing their minds about us.
“Come
on boys, we’re going to get you situated in your new homes,” Dave says.
I
look up at him, confused, “Homes?”
“Yes,
you and Jason are being placed in foster homes,” Debbie replies.
“You’re
not our new Mom and Dad?” Jase asks sadly,
through his tears.
“Oh
no, Jason,” Debbie says sincerely as she crouches down in front of Jase. “We work for the Department of Social
Services and we’ve been sent to bring you to your new homes.”
Debbie’s words
make Jase cry even harder and I feel so sorry for him. In his five years of
life, he’s never known a parent’s love. Sometimes
at night, when we can’t fall asleep, I tell him about movies I’ve seen on
television; how the families are so happy.
The mom makes the family dinner, and the dad comes home from work and
plays baseball with the kids. Jase always
gets excited as I tell him about the movies.
I promised him that someday it will be like that for us; that one day Mami’s
medicine will eventually make her better.
I didn’t mean it to be a lie.
When Mami was
sick, she either slept all day or she was throwing up in the bathroom. Every morning, I heard her making a phone
call for more medicine. About twenty
minutes after she got off the phone, there was a knock at the door. It was usually a man dressed in dark, baggy
clothes that brought her medicine. After
that, she disappeared into the bathroom.
Sometimes she came right out, while other times, she stayed in there for
close to an hour.
Most
mornings, it was me who got us ready for school. Some days, if we were lucky,
there was actually food in the house; but only if Mami had felt well enough to
go grocery shopping. Other days, we went
to school hungry. Mrs. Gibbons, my
teacher, occasionally brought fruit in for us.
She slipped it to us in the hallway and always reminded us not to tell
anyone.
Mrs. Gibbons was
the nicest teacher in the school. She always asked about Jase and me and she
made sure we ate lunch every day. Sometimes
during class, I’d daydream that Mrs. Gibbons was our mom. But then the dismissal bell would ring, snapping
me back into reality. I always hated the
end of the day; that meant that school was over and it was time for us to go home.
Jase and I would
take our time walking home from school because we never knew what we were
walking into when we got there. Was our
father going to be there? If he was
home, what kind of mood would he be in?
Would he and Mami be fighting?
More often than not, they’d be fighting.
Papi would be yelling at Mami because the house was a mess and dinner was
not made; it was always for the same reason.
“I work all fuckin’ day, the least you can do is clean this fuckin’ pigsty
and make dinner,” he’d yell, raising his hand to her.
Depending on his
mood after hitting our mother, sometimes he’d take his anger out on us next. The two of us would huddle in our room,
trying to keep quiet, but he’d burst through the door yelling, “And you
two! All you two ever do around here is make
messes and eat! It’s about time you
start helping out.”
Some nights we
were lucky and he’d just leave after he yelled at us; while others, he’d
physically pick us up, drag us into the living room, and make us start
cleaning. “And get me a fuckin’ beer too,
you little piece of shit!” He’d yell at
me. “I don’t know why your mother even
wanted you in the first place. You’re nothing but a waste of space and money.”
I’d
encourage Jase to clean as quickly as he could so that we could go back into
our room and wait for our father to pass out on the couch. This had become an almost daily occurrence
for us.
“Gabriel
and Jason, it’s time to go,” a voice says, snapping me out of my memory. “Gabriel, you’ll be coming with me and Jason
will be going with Dave.”
“What
do you mean I’m going with you and Jase is going with Dave?” My voice begins to
tremble. Once I realize what’s happening, I begin to scream at the top of my
lungs, “You’re not taking my brother from me.
I’m all he has!”
Debbie
tries to soothe and calm me down, but this only makes matters worse. I begin kicking and punching her as I yell in
Spanish, “No me puedes quitar a mi hermano, puta estúpida!”
Before
I know it, I’m taken away kicking and screaming. Dave grabs a hold of my feet while another
man has my torso. Jase is crying
hysterically and there is nothing I can do.
I watch Debbie escort him out of the courtroom and realize that everything
that I’ve ever known is gone.
Author Bio:
I was born and raised in Western Massachusetts and I'm a married mother of three who married her high school sweetheart, Frank. I don't really have too many hobbies. I like to watch my kids play sports. I do photography on the side (weddings, families, babies etc). I'm Minion & Adam Levine obsessed. I enjoy listening to all different types of music, Maroon 5 & P!nk being some of my favorites
Achievements -- I was on the Top 20 Erotica as well in being on
the Movers and Shakers List on Amazon with "Broken."
I'm currently working on her second novel titled "Going the
Distance" which will be released Fall 2013 as well as a third novel titled
"Saved."
Social Media Links:
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ChristaCervone
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