33

How do I begin to tell her what happened? I guess I should start at my own stupid move. I take her hand and we face the ocean while I think of the right words. When I feel ready, I tell her about my involvement in an illegal business where people wanted me dead because of my a few dealings that went array.

I invested in a few merchandise and some people got overambitious and wanted to steal from me. After getting the feds involved, that's when things turned ugly because I was now called a 'snitch'. And then they were onto me.

They wanted to take Karina away and sell her to a strip house as payback. Little did she know that those four men found out where she lives and threatened me to get her to come out into the woods with me or else they'd set the whole apartment building on fire, and all the other innocent tenants would pay with their lives.