BooksBarbecue
Back The Game
Chapters (68)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. NOW
  4. One
  5. BEFORE
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. NOW
  26. Twenty-One
  27. BEFORE
  28. Twenty-Two
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. Twenty-Seven
  34. Twenty-Eight
  35. Twenty-Nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-One
  38. Thirty-Two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. Thirty-Four
  41. Thirty-Five
  42. Thirty-Six
  43. Thirty-Seven
  44. Thirty-Eight
  45. NOW
  46. Thirty-Nine
  47. BEFORE
  48. Forty
  49. Forty-One
  50. Forty-Two
  51. Forty-three
  52. Forty-Four
  53. Forty-Five
  54. Forty-Six
  55. Forty-Seven
  56. Forty-Eight
  57. Forty-Nine
  58. Fifty
  59. Fifty-One
  60. NOW
  61. Fifty-Two
  62. Fifty-Three
  63. Fifty-Four
  64. Fifty-Five
  65. AFTER
  66. Fifty-Six
  67. Acknowledgements
  68. About the Author

Mark listened as Natasha began to sniff and chuckle, trying to ignore the knot in his stomach that began tightening. In her place was another woman. And another. A long line of teenage girls and, then, women in their twenties. All who had laughed at him. All who had dismissed him easily.

And he didn’t care.

Because he was better than that.

He watched the rope around her neck pull her back, saw her face contort in dull pain.

He couldn’t ignore the anger, but he could beat it.

He was aware of more breathing, of more eyes. There were faces appearing in the darkness, but he ignored them.

They weren’t alone there.

Fifty-Five

The feeling of anger dissipated, but Mark still felt bitter and desperate. He was a young boy again, being talked about behind his back. A lonely teenager, shunned by the pack.

Then, that feeling was gone. Years of hurt, blinked out with experience.

He was better than this.

He wasn’t going to let John see that.

He had one chance.

‘It doesn’t matter who you are now,’ John said. ‘You’ll always have the same thoughts as you did then.’

‘You don’t know a thing about me.’

John chuckled softly, then sniffed. Beside him, more people appeared. More boys. They were as young as John and one significantly older. Mark ignored them. The light from the phone in John’s hand drifted across Mark’s face for an instant.

‘I know more than you realise. We all do,’ John said, the phone in his hand revealing the five men who now stood in line with him. ‘I watched you, looked into your past. You shouldn’t be surprised the amount of information we were able to gather about you. I’ve seen who you were when you were my age. You were just like me. Like all of us. You’ve changed a bit now, but it doesn’t matter, does it? You’re still the same person you always were. You sleep with women and then discard them just as quickly. Why do you think you do that?’

Mark shifted closer to him, his insides churning as the words hit home. ‘I grew up. That’s all. I became a man and things changed.’

‘Oh yeah, a new man,’ John replied, his voice breaking a little as he spoke. ‘They’ve convinced you that’s what you had to be. You discard them because you still want to punish those girls from back then. All those who turned their back on you. Going to the gym, getting your hair cut, paying over the odds for clothes… these are all the things they want us to think make a difference. It’s not true. What makes a difference is getting rid of them. That’s how we punish them.’