The Daughter Of A Criminal

(Lola)

Past...

I stare unblinking into the eyes of my enemy and pull the trigger. The sounds of gunfire reverberated off the walls as I let the bullets fly. Pop. Pop. Pop.

“Triple kill,” the TV announces, but I was already moving before their bodies even hit the ground. I click a series of buttons on the controller with practised hands, where I aim; bloodshed follows.

Two kills away from beating my big brother’s all-time high score with only 60 seconds left on the clock; I failed to notice the bedroom door opening. If I hadn’t been sitting so close to the screen, propped up on my elbows, with the sound of gunfire reverberating all around me, I might have heard him coming. I might have had the time to roll out of the way before he could grab me.

But I had foolishly assumed I was safe. With the Eagles Wing hosting a party in the bar downstairs, the guys should have been too busy sucking face with their latest conquest to bother with me. A mistake I would not make again.

I let out a high pitch squeal as someone ceases my ankles, dragging me backwards with one all-mighty tug, causing my arms to fall out from under me and my skull to connect with the hardwood floor. I had only enough time to turn my head to avoid a broken nose.

Pain like I had never experienced before throbbed down the right side of my face, and even my teeth seemed to sing with agony. I groan, blinking several times in an attempt to clear my clouded vision. Vaguely aware of people laughing nearby, but with the pounding in my head, it was impossible to place who it belonged to or how many people had witnessed the assault.

Before I could recover, the man used his hold on my ankles to flip me onto my back. Then, with a thump that seemed to vibrate through my whole body, he dropped my ankles to the hardwood floor—stealing a gasp of pain from my lips before I could stop it. Fuck.

My attacker crouched down beside me, finally allowing me the chance to register who he was as his pine-green eyes gazed down at me.

My bottom lip quivered with fear as I took in Samuel Waters, my own fucking brother; of course, it was him. Sam had never once tried to hide the fact he despised me, not that his reasons weren’t justified.

If it weren’t for me, Anna never would have had a breakdown and left us. Daddy would have never needed to start the Eagles Wing to support us, and my brothers would never have been forced to join their ranks. Yet simply because I had been born a girl with features resembling his beloved Anna, Daddy had protected me.

“I’ve told you time and time again, little sister, don’t touch my stuff,” he growls, making a shiver run down my spine.

Sam didn’t just intimidate me; he haunted my waking nightmares. Something sinister lurked beneath his tattooed skin that took great pleasure from pain and death, and I wasn’t naive enough to think he hadn’t killed before. Sometimes I could have sworn that dark park of him gazed back at me with hunger.

Not to mention every inch of Sam’s six-foot-two frame was packed with hard-earned muscle, making his easily double my size. Tattoos snaking up his arms and poking out the neckline of his tight t-shirt. Like me, his hair was raven black, but while mine was long and wavy. Sam had his cropped short on the sides and longer on the top, his bottom lip pierced with two black rings.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice barely more than a breath of hot air. I blink through the tears, not bothering to wipe away the snot leaking down my chin. Sam clicks his tongue in irritation.

“Leave the slut, and come party with us, Ghost,” whined one of Sam’s groupies from the doorway.

Ghost was Sam’s biker name; a name given to him to protect his identity should shit hit the fan. Though officially, I had never been a part of the club they had taken to calling me Sissy, everyone except Sam, that is.

My brother ignored the girl’s plea and instead gathered me up into his arms. I scream out, struggling to break free. But his grip was unmoving as iron around me.

“Ghost, stop; you made your point.” A familiar male voice protested. I couldn’t see my brother’s best friend over Sam’s bulking frame, but I’d recognise that voice anywhere. Ace had been my childhood crush since I could remember. Gods, I couldn’t bear for him to see me this way.

“She’s Gunna piss herself”, another girl remarks with amusement.

Sam doesn’t dame to look at me as I thrash in his arms, holding me in such a way to keep as much distance between our bodies as possible, like even touching me repulsed him. The tears fall harder now; how could my own blood hate me so much?

I didn’t get time to dwell on it as Sam’s long strides brought us into the bathroom, and suddenly, I was being tossed into the shower, the thin fabric of my t-shirt ripping in the process, leaving my pastel pink bra exposed.

I yelp, stumbling into the far wall with painful force, catching myself just in time to keep my face from colliding with the cool titles.

Then suddenly, with a flick of Sam’s wrist, ice-cold water crashes down on me, and within seconds I am drenched and shivering, my hair plastered to my head, eyeliner smeared down my cheeks.

Laughter echoes off the bathroom walls, causing me to flush with embarrassment. I count at least six of Sam’s groupies standing in the doorway, including Ace. Oh, gods.

If Sam was darkness, Ace was the light. Long blond hair to Sam’s black, usually tied up in a messy high bun, his jaw hidden by a trimmed, slightly darker beard.

I try to cover my exposed breasts with one hand while using the other to blindly push my way past my brother—no such luck. Instead, he twists me around with one quick move and shoves me back into the wall.

“Please,” I beg, sobbing through the assault of icy water. Sam meets my gaze, a half-smile tugging at his lips. He always liked it when I begged.

He glances at my chest just for a second as if contemplating humiliating me further.

But before Sam could act on his crawl assault, Ace is there. To everyone’s surprise, he swings for my brother. But Sam is quicker; he dodges the blow with inhuman speed, hooking his foot around Ace’s leg, causing him to fall headfirst into the wall. Ace’s nose audibly crunches as it connects.

Sam gets in his face so close their breath mingled, a knife I didn’t notice Sam carrying, pressed to his best friends throat.

“You want her; Ace, is that it? Hu?” Sam demands, practically shouting.

“No, she’s sixteen, for fuck sake. A girl.” Ace assures, his voice was desperate as if he believes Sam might actually kill him for this. For protecting me. But Ace words sting me all the same, any hope I ever had of him thinking of me as more than Sam’s sister crushed to dust.

“Ghost, stop!” Ace current girlfriend sobs…Stacy, was it? Yet nobody tries to pry Sam off, not when there was a knife in play. Ace had toed a dangerous line by jumping between us, crossing his club brother for a female that wasn’t his to protect.

“My Sister isn’t bad on the eyes, though”, Sam continued, his voice like ice. “Got tits bigger than your women. In a few years, she’d be a prize bitch. Why wait? Stake your claim while she’s still pure,” Sam offers.

I swallow hard. I was disgusted and afraid of how Sam was talking about me like I was no more than property to be owned and used. Did I mean that little to him that he’d sell my virginity to anyone who asked?

I needed to get out of here before Sam could think of a new and twisted way to punish me. But my brother was still blocking the shower door, and I didn’t dare draw his attention back to me.

“It would be a death wish. No man in this state or the next would dare. Sissy is a Waters, the blood of the club. We protect our own.” Ace defends. Nobody dares to speak or breathe for a long moment as we wait to see Sam’s reaction. A man renowned for being bloodthirsty and unpredictable, I wouldn’t put it past him to slip his best friend’s throat right here. My brother had done far worse things without reason or remorse.

But no matter how bitter it tasted, Ace had spoken true. Daddy had forbidden me from dating, period. I wasn’t even allowed to have male teachers. Yet somehow, Sam’s bullying had managed to slip the net.

Finally, Sam stepped back from Ace. A thin red line staining the blade and Ace’s neck. “Get out,” Sam orders to no one in particular. Then, without question or backward glance, his groupies leave. While Ace still lingered for a second longer, not for me, I realised but silently asked for my brothers’ permission to leave. Sam nods, barely more than a slight dip of his head as if still debating if he’d made the right call.

Before slowly, his gaze flickers back to me, his face so carefully blank it sent chills through my body that had nothing to do with the cold. I held my breath, not daring to move out of the water spray despite the numbness that had taken over my body.

The bedroom door finally clicked shut, leaving no witness for whatever Sam had planned. I shrink back, pressing myself into the icy titles, watching as Sam takes his time placing the knife back into his belt. Before approaching the shower door, making me shriek in fear.

But Sam doesn’t even look at me as he reaches out to alter the temperature. The water slowly turned from cold to lukewarm; I almost moaned as the warmth hit my icy skin. Then just like that, he left.