Chapter 1

My name is Vincent Blanton but almost everyone calls me Vinnie. I am 28 years old, or as my older brother used to say, 28 going on 18. He used to say that and for the most part he wasn't wrong. I took me a long time to grow up. Not physically, but emotionally. I'm probably still going through that, but things are a lot better today than they were a year or two ago. Just to fill in the background, I'll tell you a little bit about my life to date and then I'll tell you the reason for this story.

I was never much of a student, unlike my older brother, Tom. I scraped through high school by the skin of my teeth and I'm not sure they didn't give me a diploma just to get rid of me. I wasn't really interested in getting any more than the absolute minimum education for the least amount of work and that's what I accomplished. I'm a pretty decent athlete, but again, I just didn't have enough interest to concentrate on that either. It was too easy, I suppose. The one thing that I did concentrate on was having a good time. I picked up that interest when I was about sixteen and it stuck with me until just a year or so ago.

For me, a good time was hanging out with the guys, drinking a few brews, now and then smokin' some dope and, of course, getting it on with the ladies. I'm not an ugly guy, about six foot and 185 lbs with dark hair and dark brown eyes. I've had more than one girl tell me I look sexy, so I've pretty well assumed that's the case.

Life was pretty good for me. My old man owned a construction and renovation company that did a lot of high priced work and we lived a pretty good life. When my brother joined the company after he graduated from technical school, I was already a crew chief and he came on to head up the second crew. It meant we were able to take on more work and that meant more money in the pot. That was fine with me.

I admit I was a little pissed when Dad made Tom the head guy and I had to report to him. After all, I'd been there longer and I thought I was doing a good job, so I should have been the guy. The truth is, Tom was better organized and had a lot more know-how than I did, but I just couldn't admit it to myself. When he brought in another guy to run the second crew and then started ragging' on me about how this new guy was getting the work done quicker and smarter, I was really pissed. I guess I was pretty unhappy and I think that led me down the path that got me in all the trouble.

I was just showing up to work to get a paycheck. As far as I was concerned, I'd do what I had to do and no more. At night, I was out with my boys and we were working over the night club scene downtown. In the meantime, my brother got married and took off for Europe on his honeymoon, and that's when the shit really hit the fan. My Dad had a stroke and there was no one around but me and Robbie, the other crew chief, to run things. When the little guy started giving me my assignments, that's when I knew I'd had enough.

Like my brother, I owned a share in the company, a one-quarter share. It was probably worth a lot of money but I didn't know how much. About the time my brother was talking about getting married to Jenny, I met a girl I really liked. Her name was Marcia Raymond and she was a beauty. She really liked me too, or so I thought. She liked to go to the casinos and play blackjack and poker and stuff and I liked being with her, so we became a couple.

I guess I was gambling a bit more than I realized and I was running short of cash now and then. Marcia said she knew a guy who would lend me some dough until I could get even again and that's when I made the biggest mistake of my life. I went along with it and borrowed ten grand from this guy Tremblay. I figured my luck would change but it didn't. The next thing I knew, I owed this guy close to fifty grand. I was in shit up to my neck and I needed to find a way out.