The nightlife is not what I thought it would be. It should have been smoother than what it is. But it’s fucking hard. Every morning I come home drained, never enough energy to deal with anything. Sometimes I even push Livia away when she wants to fuck. That isn’t who I am.

When I’m there, the buzz is high. Then as the night wears on and the morning comes around, I’m fucked from working fourteen-hour days.

Livia hates it. It’s been almost a year. My nineteenth birthday is pushing close, and Livia and I are still together. I haven’t seen Saskia for almost a year. Livia has made sure she’s never invited her to any family gatherings, and business has been keeping me way too busy to worry about anything.

Saskia hasn’t been on my mind as much either, thanks to work. Though, sometimes I think I see her. A glimpse of her, and my hands start to sweat, and I push through the crowds of the nightclub in hopes that it’s her. It never is. She’d be eighteen now. Finishing up her last year of school. I often wonder how much she’s changed. If she’s still the quiet girl I tried to hate, but couldn’t quite manage.

Tonight’s another night, except tonight my father’s home. Once I started running the business and got full control of it all, he left, and I haven’t seen him since. Except now.

“Quinn tells me you hired your friend, Cane.” Father stands tall, not as tall as me now. But his presence is still overpowering nonetheless.

“I did.”

He shakes his head. “It isn’t smart to bring friends into business, Ryken.”

I scoff at his words as I tighten my watch on my wrist. “Kindly do yourself a favor and fuck off, Father.”

His fingers tap on the coffee table where my car keys are located. “I would watch that mouth of yours, son. And tonight, let your friend run the clubs. Tonight, I need you to come with me. You’ve been doing your training still?”

Reaching for my car keys, I pick them up ready to tell him no. But that word’s never great for me.

“Where are we going?”

“You’re coming to meet my clients. They are expecting you.”

Shaking my head. “No. I told you, I don’t want that part of your business.”

His hand slams on the coffee table. “I don’t give a flying fuck what you told me, you ungrateful fucker. I’m dying, Ryken. Someone needs to take over. It’s meant to be you. It’s always meant to be you. I have orchestrated this takeover, I have molded you into me.”

My mouth hangs slack, and I don’t take in anything else. “You’re what?”

“Dying,” he confirms.

I don’t know how to take those words. How am I meant to take such a descriptive word?

Fuck! I thought he was unconquerable. Surely he’s invincible, isn’t he?

“You can’t be,” I say but it makes no sense.

He steps closer to me. Not touching but close enough that if I lifted my hand just a fraction, it would touch him.

“Everything is sorted. I told you. Now you just have to take over what’s mine.” He steps away to the door, stops, and turns back to face me. “You need to come.”

Quinn steps down the stairs, he looks to me then to my father. “Quinn was a gift, he’ll be your closest confidant. Apart from you, he was my best choice.” He walks out the door as Quinn takes the rest of the steps down. He stops not far from me.

“You knew?” I ask, scratching my head, confused.

He nods his head. “Of course, I did. He’s known for over a year now.”

I punch him, straight in the mouth. Fast and sharp. One jab. He doesn’t see it coming, so he can’t stop me. Blood coats the pristine white floors, but Quinn doesn’t say or do anything. Turning, I walk out to the car where my father is waiting.

Quinn holds a shirt to his mouth, following close behind me. My father looks up from his cell to see Quinn bleeding, then looks back down as we get in, not asking any questions. He doesn’t care. I didn’t kill him, so why bother asking questions.

“I see you two have bonded,” is all he says as the car starts to move. I watch as Quinn wipes the blood away, but it doesn’t stop bleeding.

“What do you have?” I ask him.

He places his cell down and slides it into his jacket pocket. “Brain cancer. It’s already at stage four.”

I want to eye roll at him, but I don’t. Instead, I turn to look out the window. Soon I won’t have any parents. My mother’s gone, and next my father.

Isn’t this shit meant to happen when I’m much older?

“How much longer?” I don’t look at him as we come to a stop. I can feel Quinn staring at me, and I don’t bother to look at him either.

“Two months, max.” The car comes to a halt, and I’m the first to get out. Quinn follows, and when I slide my sunglasses on to look at him, his mouth has stopped bleeding, and he stands tall next to me. Then comes my lying, dying father. The men seem to stand straighter as he walks closer to them. Guys with leather vests stand in front of me, weapons concealed but I can see them. You have to know where to look.

Our laws are strong here in Australia, so we have learned how to get around it all. The man standing in the middle, his vest reads ‘President.’ He’s obviously the leader of the group. He looks to me, not the others, just me. His eyes travel the length of me then go to my father. “This your kid?”

Kid? I laugh at his words, his eyes flick back to me.

“You find something funny in that statement, boy?”

“The person standing behind you looks more like a kid.” My voice is rough, I don’t really care if I piss him off. At the moment, I’m ready for another fight. Perhaps this time with someone hitting back.

“He’s killed more than you know. Would you like to be next on his list?” he asks me as if I’m suddenly scared. I’m not. I don’t really care. My hand moves before I can think about it. It reaches to the back of my pocket, where I pull my gun out, and it shoots, fast and loud, straight at the guy’s foot.

The kid, hey?

Whose smug face is now in agony?

Guns come from everywhere, pointing at my head. My father laughs. Quinn’s gun is out and pointed directly at the President’s head.

“Your son has balls, Anthony.” His gun lowers, then so do the rest of his men’s.

“He’s picked up a few things.” My father laughs, walking up, slapping my shoulder with his hand.

“Now, we need to talk merchandise.” Everyone falls silent as my father speaks. Authority. Power. Control. It leaches from him.

“The Spikes MC expect new merchandise soon.”

My father and Quinn collects the women then delivers to the Spikes MC. The MC then distributes to the buyers that my father has organized. It’s a large business and virtually untraceable back to my father. Dad’s the kingpin. He started it all. Now everyone who works under him is rich and somewhat loyal.

My father’s hand scratches his chin. “I’ll have two by Monday.”

They nod their head. The President then looks back to me. “Will he be delivering?”

All eyes are directed to me.

“He will be.”

I expect more of an argument, but nothing comes. Everything falls silent again, then everyone begins leaving. Until it’s just the three of us standing together.

“It’s time you learn how to collect...” is all my father says as he walks back to the car, leaving me with Quinn.

***

IT’S BUSY, IT’S ALWAYS busy. Livia sticks to my side as I make my way around. She’s now studying to become a lawyer. She didn’t even take a break from school, she went straight into her studies. I see her less and less. We’re both way too busy, but she makes sure to make an appearance on the weekends when it’s just as busy with girls everywhere. Her trust in me is low, not that I expect it to be anything else. But since Barbie, I haven’t cheated on her. No other woman pulls me to do such a thing unless they’re blonde and petite. And Barbie I haven’t seen for a long time.

“Are you coming home with me tonight?” Just before I can answer her, Quinn walks up to me. His hand touches my shoulder, and Livia looks at him with a snide smile on her face. She isn’t a fan of Quinn. Actually most people aren’t for that matter.

“What is it, Quinn?”

His eyes skirt to Livia then back to me. “It’s time.” I nod my head in acknowledgment, knowing what he means. He’s found some women. Turning back to Livia, I lean down, kiss her lips then whisper in her ear, “Meet me at my place later?”

She nods, kissing me again before I pull away, following Quinn outside the club. He opens the car door, getting in and starting it up, and drives for a good five minutes before he comes to a stop. I know this neighborhood, I know it well. It’s where Barbie lives. Her house, or trailer, whatever it’s called, is just in front of us.

“What are we doing here, Quinn?”

He points up, two small brunettes, maybe sixteen, are sitting on the steps of the trailer next to Barbie’s. Quinn gets out first, and I follow. All the lights are out, most people are asleep, apart from these two girls. They look up smiling as we approach them. Quinn pulls out a pack of cigarettes and passes them each one.

“Girls...”

Their smiles are wide and happy. If only they knew.

“We’re so excited.”

He’s lied to them previously. He’s arranged it so they think he’s some big music executive who’s going to take them away from this life. His world isn’t somewhere they want to be. But I say nothing as he works his magic. It’s one of the reasons he’s the best. He does so much background work to get them right where he wants them.

Quinn steps closer to light their cigarettes, while he passes me one of the needles. The other is in his hand. He lights it, then places his lighter back in his pocket looking back to me. It takes one point two seconds to place the needles in their necks and to watch them fall. Our hands catch them, then we pick them up. Putting them over our shoulders, I walk one to my car, carefully opening the trunk to place her in. Quinn does the same.

We hear a door open and we both turn to see who it is. When I do, I’m glad I don’t have her in my hands anymore because that girl would be dropped to the ground.

Barbie’s standing at her front door in just one piece of sheer clothing, looking at me. Quinn goes to step forward. Stopping him, I place a hand on his shoulder pulling him back.

“No witnesses, Boss, it’s our number one rule.”

“Not now, Quinn.”

He huffs loudly, knowing that no matter what, he won’t be allowed to hurt Saskia. I would never permit it.

“Barbie...”

She takes one step down, then looks to where I took the girls then back to me.

“What did you do, Ryken?” she asks. As she says my name, it does the same thing it did to me last time I saw her. It runs through my bones, and makes me want to pin her to a wall and take every last word, every last thing from her and then do it again.

“Go back inside, Barbie. You don’t want to know.”

She shakes her head, her hands drop to the railing on her steps, and I see the outline of her small frame, the shape of her tits that I remember clearly from when I fucked her.

“You’ve changed,” she says, looking at me. Her stare is hard and judgmental. “But I need you to let her go.”

I shake my head at her words. “Go back inside, Barbie.”

Quinn steps up behind me, I can feel him.

Her eyes look at him then back to me. “I’ll follow you, Ryken.”

Turning to Quinn, I point to the car. He looks at her in warning then goes to start the car.

“That wouldn’t be smart! Trust me on this one, Barbie.”

Walking back, she doesn’t say a word, but as I slide in the car, I look up to her. “Goodbye, Barbie.”

She doesn’t move as I drive off.

I keep looking in my mirror expecting to see her following us.

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