Family comes first

Chapter 1: Teach em' young

I was 7 when I first realized that my family weren't good people. It was sometime in June, the last day of school to be exact. Due to that my mom was letting me stay up as long as I wanted. It was pretty late around 10 pm...well I guess looking back on it it wasn't that late but come on I was 7 that was like 3 am to me. Anyway I was watching tv in the living room when I heard the front door open. My mom came out from the kitchen saying "Liam where have-" then when she rounded the corner she just went silent. Hearing that my big brother was finally home I excitedly got up and ran to him. I couldn't wait to tell him that I had passed 2nd grade, couldn't wait to hear him say that he was proud of me. I mean of course I did. He was my big brother. My idol. It's not like I had a father and he was the closest to it. When I ran to the entry way I saw him standing there in his favorite green sweater though it wouldn't be held against you if you couldn't tell that it was green that night. Every fiber was stained red with blood. I looked up at my mom who just looked disappointed then back at Liam. As soon as he saw me he got a scared look on his face and quickly turned around and shut the door. My mom sent me back to the living room to watch more tv. I heard him reenter through the back door a few minutes later and rush upstairs to shower. I was only 7 but I wasn't exactly naive. I didn't think it was ketchup or something like that. I knew it was blood I just couldn't understand where it had come from because he looked fine. I never found out what happened until years later. About 2 years ago actually. Apparently he had just got back from massacring an undercover cop that was watching us. I never did get to ask him if he was proud of me or not as I didn't see him for 7 years after that. He got picked up for manslaughter not too long after that. My family told me that he got a DUI which given how much he drank sounded believable to me but my 7 year old mind didn't put together that 7 years was a bit much for blowing a .09. At 14 I committed my first crime. Knocked over a gas station with Liam and my other brother James. Thinking back on it I didn't care about the money. Didn't think about getting caught. I just wanted to impress Liam. It was only 2 years later that I took my first life. Me and Liam were burglarizing some random guy's house. At this point Liam had given me a handgun to use on jobs. He made it clear using it was to be a last resort and it was first and foremost a scare tactic but it was loaded nevertheless. I was upstairs searching through some drawers when I heard someone shout "HEY". The Casey blood in my veins kicked in and on instinct I raised the gun and fired before my head had even fully turned to look at the schmuck. Me and Liam hauled ass out of there. Never even ended up taking anything. That's all in the past however. Let's get to what you're here for. The antics of the Casey crime family. 

Me and Liam were sitting in the living room drinking when James came in and threw down what looked like white play-dough with wires protruding from it.

"Fuck is that?" I asked.

"A bomb" James replied casually.

"Oh what the hell" I said pushing back in my chair.

"Where the hell did you learn to make a bomb?" Liam asked leaning over and inspecting it.

"Oh come on. We're Irish it's in our blood innit?"

"That's racist" I joked.

"You cant be racist against your own race"

"Yes you can numbnuts" Liam chimed in.

"How ya figure that?" 

"Take the slaves that fought for the south in the civil war"

"Yeah but-" I interrupted James.

"Both of you shut the fuck up. Why do you have a bomb?"

"For a job"

"We could extrapolate that jackass. What job do we need fucking plastic explosive for?" Liam asked.

"The laundromat" James began snapping his fingers and thinking. "Uhh Queen Clean"

Me and Liam both stared at him dumbfounded before Liam broke the silence.

"You wanna blow up a goddamn washing machine and run out with our pockets jingling full of quarters?  

"No" James said as he reached into his pocket producing a pill which he quickly popped into his mouth.

"That shits gonna kill you" Liam said lighting a cigarette.

"Hasn't killed me yet don't see why it would now"

Liam just bent over and rubbed his forehead.

"Well the fuck are we doing at a laundromat?" I asked.

"Right, the owner Mr. Wong doesn't trust banks. He keeps his life savings in a safe in the back of the store"

"You know this how?" Liam asked.

"My friend works there"

"Well a bomb going off in the middle of the city is gonna make the cops run. Do you have an exit plan?" I added.

"Well that friend who works there just so happens to live across the alley so we can duck into his apartment"

"Right because when the cops come door to door to see what people know about an explosion and see a notorious family of crooks not 50 feet away holding a duffel bag they wont question a thing" Liam said.

"...we'll hide in the bathroom"

Liam shot a glance at me.

"Riley what do you think?"

"Well it's better than most of his plans. What if this burns the notes?"

"It wont trust me. My friend sent me a pic of the safe. This is just the right amount to get through the safe. Shouldn't even leave residue."

"Were you high while you made it?" Liam asked.

"If I made it while going through withdrawal it would have exploded by now"  

Liam paused.

"Fair point. When does it close?"

"In 2 hours"

"Ok we'll leave in 3"

We passed the time with a poker game and after a while it was time. I grabbed a duffel bag and put 3 balaclavas inside. We did our usual routine when pulling a job and walked about 5 minutes to a nearby apartment complex to steal a car for the job. Liam slid the jimmy bar into the window and popped the lock. We all got in while he hot-wired it. He turned it on then we drove to the laundromat. Liam stopped about a half a mile out. 

"Why we stopping here?" I asked.

"Well if our escape plan is to run 50 feet then we don't really have time to ditch the car then do we?"

"Ah"

We continued on foot the rest of the way until we entered the alley. We dawned our masks and Liam picked the door and we entered the back office. James stuck the explosive on the safe and we retreated back to the alley. It went off sending a huge plume of smoke out of the door.

"Oh fuck" Liam said through a coughing fit. 

We went back into the office which was quickly soaking due to the bomb setting off the fire sprinklers. Even though James was high off his ass he get the bomb right and it only blew off the lock of the safe. 

"Riley bag it up. Don't let the bills get wet" Liam told me.

I did so then we quickly went through the back door of the apartment building and to James' friend's place. We sat down and began counting. Almost 20 grand. A nice little haul. We split it four ways and laid low until morning.