Page 35 of Johnny

alone.”

I toss and turn in my bedroom down below, just listening to the slosh of waves against the hull of

the boat because the sea seems agitated now. Like it can sense the disruptions in my life and now it’s

feeding off my uncertainty and distress. My body is still buzzing from the interaction with Johnny

Boston up above, the brutal reality of my situation suddenly clear.

I don’t wanna think about it. I don’t want to think about the lab, or the dungeon, or the prisoners, or

the jobs I’ve been a part of, or the mansion I grew up in, or any of it. So I push the future aside and

think about the man up top instead.

Boston. I’ve heard of him the same way I’ve heard of Charlotte Kane. They are both important

families in our world. Though for different reasons.

I know of Johnny Boston, but that’s about it. He, like everyone else in the Way, is just another cog

in the machine. Bostons are Way bankers. Kanes are Way contributors.

My family, the Machettes, are researchers and would be one rung above bankers and two above

contributors.

So I outrank Johnny Boston.

Not that it matters. One’s importance in our world is often overestimated.

But he’s different than me and all the people I have known in my short twenty-five years of life

because he’s a public persona.

Of course everyone who came to Osprey Cay for the brothel had a public life outside their white-

masked secret one. But the Bostons are different. They are the face of the Way should any of our

secrets ever go public.

Not that anyone on Earth would believe the crazy shit we’re a part of. They wouldn’t. But even so,

it’s never a bad idea to have a convenient scapegoat.

If the Way goes down, the bankers go down too. That’s why we have them. That’s how this works.

And the world loves a fall guy. They love to tie up messy situations with a neat little bow. They love

to point fingers at one man—just one—and say, “That’s the bad guy.”

Of course, behind every public face of guilt there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of others

who took part in the same sick debacle. But that’s the point of a fall guy, right?

He gets crucified while they go free. Live to plot another scheme.

I don’t know what influence Johnny wields when he’s in his element, but it doesn’t matter because he’s not in his element. He’s out here and not wherever he’s supposed to be, doing whatever it is he