Joey's Mistake — Walter Rice

Max and Joey were friends, and they started stealing cars in high school. Then after graduation they went separate ways.Max made a good living repairing all kinds of cars, but he still got a thrill, and extra cash, from taking them away from their owners.Joey, meanwhile, steered himself to a normal life. In addition to a good job not involving cars, Joey had something else: Max’s secrets. The question was, could he keep them? And what if he didn’t? That might be a problem that Max and Joey would both regret.Some mistakes are immediately apparent, but others take years to make themselves known. Welcome to the world of Max and Joey.Words: 4,500Excerpt from Joey’s Mistake --“It wasn’t just the money, though I did need to repay a loan I had to get to buy new tools and supplies for my shop. Do you have any idea what a hydraulic lift costs? But to your moonlighting question, there was another aspect. There was this, uh, drive to push on, test my limits. Man, I didn’t need booze or weed or nothing, I was juiced enough just moving those cars.”“Some might say you were addicted to taking other people’s cars.”“Yeah, maybe. But I don’t think that’s quite the word. Addicts can’t step away on their own. I could have stopped at any time. But getting paid top dollar for enjoying my own thrill show, that was an unbeatable combination.”