With me in tow, he walked up to her side while she was ordering coffee at a counter in a local diner. He looked her over head to toe until she turned his way. “Hello,” he said with his usual deep, velvety voice. Her eyes smiled openly and her knees went weak, forcing my father’s hand to take hold of her bare arm. “Hmmm, you are so soft, I could caress you all night and never get tired. Maybe you will let me sometime,” he said, letting her go and leaving her with a simple goodbye, “Absolutely beautiful.” She nearly knocked me down trying to get to him before he walked out the door. Rianne, we visited her often. She was nice to me, but I was indifferent to her until I met Ryan.
I remember hearing him cry as a baby, even seeing him a few times as a child, but it wasn’t until I was ten that I understood who he was. He was nearly six then, shy, skinny, and hard to ignore by then. I tried. My father told me to watch him while he entertained the boy’s mother, but he wouldn’t sit down, he just continued to pace with his raggedy bear in his arms and whimpering for his mother. I finally asked him if he liked cartoons, and he nodded, yet he still continued to ask about his mother.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Ryan,” he said, hugging his bear with its one eye hanging down the side of its face and seemingly longing for Rianne as much as Ryan was, considering its sad state. “When will they come out?” He asked grabbing my shirt sleeve to make sure I don’t ignore his question. I tried to tell him they would be done soon, but he went back to waiting for his mother at the edge of her door like a lost puppy. I huffed at him and told him to stop being such a baby and to get over it. My indifference to his issue was not appreciated. Ryan dropped the bear from his face and turned to me with churning fury in his eyes. The first time I have ever saw his anger, but it was certainly not the first time I had ever seen such a display.
“Who is your dad?” I asked him and watched him point to his mother’s bedroom. I shouldn’t be surprised, but the thought of having a younger brother is not something I had ever considered. He didn’t understand, but I did, and from that moment on I took it upon myself to teach him what I knew and make sure no one would ever hurt him, which means keeping him a secret from our older brother.
Ryan and I had plenty of time to get to know each other. My father and I visited them often, allowing Ryan and I to grow together and become true brothers. Some of our favorite memories are when we were left alone. We always left the cramped apartment to entertain ourselves, but most of the time I walked him to the store on the corner where the owner was easy to manipulate. She gave us so much candy and cookies that we had a hard time eating it all.
One time when we returned to the apartment, Ryan came back home with his pockets full of sweets and looking absolutely ridiculous, for he is still trying to hide what he had stuffed tight into his mouth when his mother catches us. It wouldn’t be so bad except he gets sick seconds later, spewing all the evidence out all over the floor in front of everyone. Of course, my first response was, “I don’t know where he got that.” Neither Dad nor Rianne was happy about the situation. I assumed his mother would yell at me, but instead she approached me and put her hand to my forehead.
“I think he had too much too. Let me make him a bed,” she said.
“No, he is coming home with me,” my father said taking my hand and pulling me away from her.
“Don’t be silly. He won’t make it that far, not without throwing up. Unless you want to take care of a sick child, Dante, I suggest you leave him here. I already have one sick little boy keeping me up tonight, and one more won’t make much of a difference.” She didn’t wait for him to speak before she took my hand, found me some clothes and told me to change. My father refused to leave me, but he allowed this woman to clean me up and put me into bed, tucking me in tightly after she gives me some medicine and puts a cold cloth to my head.
“If you get sick, yell for me, but you should feel better in the morning.” Rianne said fingering my hair to the side and smiling at me. “You look so much like your father, another heartbreaker in the making for sure.” With another kiss to my head, she checked on Ryan once more and left us to sleep.
I told myself I didn’t like her. I complained about having to go to her house every time my father forced me too, but in reality, I can’t wait to be around her. She would make me dinner, and I would find new reasons for me to, have to, stay overnight. I don’t know if she ever met my mother, but I think she had some idea about her, and she definitely knew my father. Eventually my father allowed me to stay by myself with her.
One night I pretended to be asleep when they finished, and after my father left, she whispered into my ear, “Okay honey, you can go to bed now,” with a kiss to my head, “sleep well sweetheart.” I didn’t know what love was until then, and I loved Rianne.
As much I like spending time at Rianne’s house it made my time at home that much worse. I hugged my mother one time, and she held her arms open and looked down at me as if I were some kind of alien creature. I never bothered to try again. My mother went through life with no emotion, and she never cried, never got angry, never seemed to care about anything. She worked with numbers and could figure out any equation there was. I could ask her what was 24640 times 52438, and she would tell me as simply as if I had asked her what time it was. My mother works in a big building with a lot of people, doing some secret work that no one could talk about, and she never did.
My mother, Gillian, met my father, Dante, on her way home from work one night. She made a mistake of stopping and buying some soup at a nearby café. Dante was talking to one of the waitresses at the time while she tried to tabulate his check. She became confused and flustered until she said the numbers out loud, prompting Gillian to say the total of his bill for her. My mother cost my father money that day. He said he was impressed, and that was why he pursued her. I don’t believe that, I think it was revenge. She cost him money, and he was going to make her spend her life paying for his. He spent almost everything she made, and usually before she could make it. I never met my grandparents, I assumed that my father was never actually born, but appeared out of the depths of the earth. My mother’s parents were happy to hand her over to my father and rid themselves of her and disappeared soon after my mother and father married.
The only family of hers who stayed behind was her brother, Tanner, who was a drunk and wouldn’t have survived at all if I hadn’t sneaked him food and fresh clothes.
The first time I met Tanner, he showed up on our doorstep, drunk and looking for a place to crash for the night. My father, despite my mother wanting to allow Tanner in, screamed at him to leave. Tanner begged for anything, food, water, clothes, anything, if we could not give him a bed to sleep in. My father was not sympathetic to my drunken uncle, he closed the door in his face. What my father didn’t realize was that Tanner didn’t leave, and instead, he set up a place inside the neighbors’ dilapidated shed. I watched him come and go from there from my bedroom window, and after my father fell asleep, I gathered food, water, blankets, and some extra clothes for him. It was a large trash bag full that I have to drag across the yard in order to get it to him, but when I got there, I knocked on the rickety door like it was any other home.
Tanner scrambled inside, knocking over whatever home life he had setup. He peeked out the door nervously until he looked down at me. “Hello … uhhh … oh, Nicholas. Right?” I nodded, shoved the trash bag inside the shed, and ran back home before anyone could discover I am gone.
My childhood was not one of normality, and my parents were not ones to be at PTA meetings or cub scouts, but somehow I survived. My father even managed to keep me in school up through most of high school, and he only slept with a couple of my teachers in the process. However, that wasn’t entirely his fault. Both teachers had met him prior and requested his presence to discuss my education. My teachers thought I was special, or so they said, and needed more attention in order to develop to my full potential. They eagerly volunteered their time for free,
to help me. As it turned out, they weren’t all that free after all. I couldn’t wait to get older and go to school by myself. High school was even better, because I could talk the teachers out of ever talking to my father and dealing directly with only me. My father had taught me well.
Chapter 5
~Nick~
I am eighteen, I am restless and hungry for something more than what school can ever offer me. I find it easy to decide to leave school as there is no place for me there. My life is destined for something special, but that wasn’t college. I began stealing cars for Harvey Rice before I even had my license. By the time I was sixteen, I was the best he had. I am not officially a part of his crew and neither are my friends. We all are working for him in hopes of getting offers for special positions on his crew, but we have to prove ourselves to him first. Rice is not the most trusting man and especially not of three punk teenagers. I had met Luke Norton, my overzealous friend, while we were both trying to steal the same car three years ago. We nearly got arrested arguing about who had the rights to the steal, a bond that we still laugh about.
My other friend, Elijah Stevens, is my best friend since forever. Our fathers know each other and seem to have some kind of special relationship, or at least special enough that Mr. Stevens took it upon himself to look after me whenever my father wasn’t around. A respectable man, Mr. Stevens, owned his own electronics shop. Mr. Stevens is also the one that helped teach Elijah and me both how to handle every tool imaginable, which is one of the reasons we can get in out of cars with no problem at all. We never let him know that, instead we joke that it helps us get into girls bedrooms without their fathers knowing, which we also have no problem doing, but we don’t need any tools for that. Mr. Stevens also happens to be a great cook and always has homemade meals available for us to eat. He loves to cook, and always makes more than enough for us to eat ten times over. I think he also knows that two growing boys will always come home if we know there will be a huge meal waiting for us and we do, even bringing Luke once we added him to our small crew.
Luke and I are great friends because of our differences, as where Elijah and I are friends because we are so much alike. We have similar interests and similar tastes in women too, something that made for great competitions at times. Elijah considers himself charming and irresistible, and true or not, I consider myself even more so.
My two friends and I spend most of our time working for Harvey, but when we are done, it is all about getting laid. The club we frequent is always busy and always full of women. Luke knows one of the body guards and he always lets us in through the back for an even exchange of what he needs. After we get in, our time there isn’t about dancing nor drinking, but it is all about relieving our stress of the day.
The three of us scatter immediately. Standing quietly in my jeans, t-shirt and my much abused leather jacket, I look innocent enough, but I am nothing more than a devil in disguise. I scan the area until I found the right one, and then I wait until she looks my way. It is a simple strategy, one that I learned from my father. The moment we make eye contact, that’s my cue. She is surrounded by friends, but I stay focused on only her, walking towards her with a hungry gaze. I want her, I want to feel her, and I want to fuck her like she has never been fucked before. Staring deep into her eyes, I hold my hand out to her and simply say, “Hi, I’m Nick.” It works every time, and this time is no different. She takes my hand and I draw her into my arms. With a soft exhale I graze my lips across her cheek. The world disappears around us as she looks weakly up into my eyes, she’s mine. “All I want is to be alone with you.” She hums her address while her friends gasp behind us. “Take me there and I am all yours.” Not even a second passes and we are out the door and on our way. She offers me a drink after we get there, but I shake my head and again hold out my hand to her. “I don’t need anything, but you.” One soft kiss to her lips and her dress unzips, a soft caress of her ass into my erection drives her right into my arms and allows me to carry her to her room and strip her completely naked. She crawls into bed with her bare ass stuck out in front of me, I take advantage and bury my readied dick inside of her. With a sudden gasp, she fists the sheets in front of her and backs her ass up into my hips further. My whole body calms as I rub her ass, massage her breasts, and graze her most tender areas with a light touch of my fingers. Her cry out of joy is so loud I have to whisper some calming words into her ear. She comes all over me, and I do the same for her which exhausts her so much I can barely get her to wake enough to do it again. After the second time, I give her a break and make myself something to eat from her kitchen, while she sleeps.
Sitting in her kitchen with a sandwich in hand I hear her door open and see another girl coming in with someone I know following her in. “Do you live alone?” Elijah says coming through the girls’ door.
“No, I have a roommate, but she is probably sound asleep by now.” Leaning back in my chair, I look around the corner at him and wink, causing him to shake his head.
“Oh, I would say she is certainly sound asleep by now.” He smiles making sure she doesn’t look my way, but up at him.
“So do you want to come back to my bedroom and talk?” she asks him, biting her bottom lip.
“Your bedroom, that sounds dirty,” Elijah says, cozying up to her as she leads him to her room. “Okay, but be gentle with me I have never done anything like this before.” The girl giggles with excitement while Elijah winks back at me nodding.
“Never done this before – dumbass,” I mumble to myself.
“Nick, are you coming back to bed?” Amanda stands in her doorway naked and ready to go again. The night gives me an opportunity to sleep somewhere other than home, something I always savor every chance I get.
By morning, I rush home to clean up and change before I meet up with Elijah and Luke to get back to work. There is a corner store we meet at most days, and today is no different except that my brother shows up soon after I do and before Elijah and Luke. Connor is determined to make me miserable. His hate for me nearly matches mine for him. Catching sight of his car, I step back into the shadows and try to hide, but he knows I am here, and there is little I can do against his crew by myself. Connor’s father has access to more weapons than the military and more drugs than the entire city could possibly do themselves. Connected, yeah he’s connected and dirty as hell. So his stepson, my half brother, is connected by association. Ever since he moved up the ranks, Connor has formed his own crew for no other reason than to help him harass me.
They surround me as they walk up on me with delight. I prepare myself, but before I can decide on who to attack first, a bag is thrown over my head, and the beating begins. I know the beating is over when my brother’s laughter causes his breathing to be labored. They leave me twisting in pain and depending on my friends to help me home.
“You know, Nick, if you would just agree to Harvey’s terms, you would be in his crew, and your brother would not come after you anymore,” Luke says.
“No, he would still come after me. Harvey doesn’t scare him, no matter how much power Harvey has.” My father greets us at the door, shaking his head as his woman of the day dresses herself. “Don’t you dare say a word to me,” I scowl before crawling into bed and hiding from the world.
“Don’t worry, Nicky. We will take care of things for today. I will call you later,” Elijah says, as he leaves me to remove my destroyed clothes by myself.
He doesn’t speak as he stands at the edge of my door, but I can feel his eyes on me. “Just say it! If you have something to say to me then just say it!” I yell glancing over my shoulder at him.
“I have told you already. You’re stronger than him, but you refuse to understand. One day you will get it, but I just hope it’s before he kills you.”
“There were five of them, and they threw a bag over my head. What would you have me do?” I ask him knowing I am right and that he has no clue what he is talking about.
Approaching me, he looks me over and
then pokes me in my chest, “Here, here is where you need to feel it. Concentrate your anger here, and you will understand. You are trying too hard to just get it to come to you, but you don’t want it enough.”
“Oh, I don’t want it enough because I like getting my ass kicked?”
“Nicholas, you have everything you need within you, son. Just believe in yourself.” My father says before walking out of my room with a sigh.
“Gee thanks, Yoda, but what I could really use is a bandage, a cold pack, you know something for my wounds. Useless …” My father was never one to be nurturing, but compared to my mother, he is Florence Nightingale. Whose eyes dart away instantly from mine as she passes my door.
My father walks back into my room handing, me some bandages, an ice pack, and a key. “One day when you’re ready to face who you are, you let me know, and I will take you to where this key fits.”
“Dante?” my mother said, peeking her head back in, but still avoiding my eyes.
“He is old enough, Gillian, unless you want him to continue coming home looking like this?” my father snapped at her. She doesn’t respond to him, but instead quietly goes back into her world. “It is your choice, Nicholas, but don’t take too long, I would hate for you to be killed before you could ever make a decision.”
“Ha ha, asshole!” I yell as he leaves my room with a smile. Damn Harvey is going to kick my ass for not working today. Maybe I can boost some extra cars for the next few nights and make it up.
Chapter 6
~Franky~
I have been working at my father’s shop since I was twelve. I cannot imagine my life away from this place or away from my father, but college looms, and I cannot wait. There is only so much routine one girl can take in her life.
Taking my place at the front of the store, I help the few customers left for the night while my father prepares the daily deposits. Giving me a concerned wave, he hesitates about leaving me briefly until I frustratingly wave him on. We are closing in less than an hour, and the police patrol this area quite regularly at this time of night so there is no reason he should be worried. After the last customer leaves I decide to prop up my text book, wrap my lucky scarf around my neck, and study for my exam the next day until it is time to close. Everything is quiet and working its way to a quiet night, but then with ten minutes left until closing time … he walks in. I am not sure I am going to be able to concentrate for the rest of the night. I am going to have to hope for the best on my exam because there is no way I am getting anything in my head, but him. He’s tall, dark, and deadly handsome so much so that it hurts in a good way to stare at him, Nicholas Jayzon. I don’t see him much anymore since he quit school, but every once in awhile he stops by the store, usually with his friends in tow and always making my father uneasy. “Hoodlums,” my father would say under his breath watching their every move until they would leave. They have never stolen anything and always buy something, but still my father believes they are casing the place. The moment he glances up at me, I instantly look back down at my book.