I look at Rico and he was once a good-looking Hispanic man with black wavy hair and dark beautiful eyes full of life. Rico has always looked like our dad, where Jen and I got our fair looks from our ma. I always envied Rico for those dark looks but he’s a shell of the man he once was. I know other women always thought my brother was sexy. They hung on his every word, but in my mind, he was and always will just be my brother. My dad was the same way, and I think it’s what left my ma with so many insecurities.
Rico has always been fit and he may not be six feet tall, but he is close. The six-pack he was always proud to show off is gone now and his clothes hang on him. Rico always took pride in his looks, but he doesn’t seem to care about much these days but the power he is hungry for. I think the drugs and alcohol are clouding his judgment.
“Tell our good sister the decisions that you are making for her. It’s time your decisions fuck with someone else’s life besides mine,” Jen says as she slams the refrigerator door.
“Shut your trap, bitch. I should have let Cassius sell your ass ages ago. You’re nothing but a used-up hole now. You’ve put so much powder up that nose that you don’t pull your share and that will be coming to an end. Don’t mess this up for us, Jen, or it will be the last time that you screw up.” I feel sorry for Jen. Rico is being intentionally cruel to her. He knows just how to shove that knife further in. Jen has changed but she still has this need to be needed by our brother. She lives for his approval. I gave up on either of their approval a long time ago. I just want to survive and keep Cage safe and happy.
“I need to get started on Cage’s dinner so he can get in bed for school tomorrow.” That gets Rico’s attention and he walks up to me and just stares down at me. I look him in the eyes. I see nothing of my brother left there. That’s when I make my mistake. I glance down at the floor to get my eyes anywhere but on my brother, and I don’t realize my first mistake until I feel the pain and I bend over to catch my breath and try to keep from throwing up. The pain in my stomach where Rico has punched me has my eyes blurring. I didn’t move and that was my second mistake because Rico kicks me in the leg with his heavy black biker boots. I stumble away from him, but he catches me and throws me against the wall. My body slides down the wall, but I know better than to stay down. I get up the best I can and move as far away from Rico as I can. I hear the bedroom door open. I look that direction. Cage is standing in the door with tears in his eyes as he looks at me. “Look at me when I am before you!” Rico yells at me and then he turns his attention to Cage. “What the hell do you want?” Rico moves to go toward Cage, but I move as fast as I can in front of Cage. I look down at him.
“Go back in our room, Cage, please. Don’t come back out.” Cage grabs my arms. I push him back in the room and shut the door as I feel someone grab my hair. I am jerked back and thrown against the sofa. I bounce back off the cushions just as Rico turns the doorknob on the bedroom door.
“If you want my cooperation with anything at all, you will walk away from that door and take your anger out on me because I swear if you touch one hair on Cage’s head, I will kill you myself and that will end the hell that we live in.” Rico laughs and releases the doorknob. Rico is on me before I can prepare, and my face is left open for him to pummel with his fist and he does.
“Rico, stop! No one will want that little bitch if her face looks like raw hamburger meat. Hit her body not her face,” Jen yells. Rico stops and steps back. I hurt all over and I don’t dare open my eyes or uncurl from the ball I’m in.
“Look what you made me do? It’ll be two weeks before Cassius will look at you. You did this on purpose didn’t you?” Rico is yelling.
“Think, Rico, damn, you say I’m using too much blow and look at you. Beth doesn’t even know what you have planned, you didn’t get to that part,” Jen says.
“Fuck, you’re right. The whole damn reason we’re here. The bitch just drives me crazy with how protective of that kid she is instead of doing what she should be doing by helping us. This is for our family and she has to do her part.” Rico and Jen are both too high to know what they’re saying. I just want them gone. I take my shirt off and try to get my nose to quit bleeding. I walk to the laundry room and slowly open the door. I grab a towel and replace my shirt. I throw the shirt in the trash can and grab a t-shirt off a hanger and put it on. My nose is not going to stop anytime soon. I always bleed a lot from my nose. “Get back in here. We have things to discuss and you are going to need to get on board with our plan. It’s time you help this family. Family is all we have, and this can’t be discussed at the clubhouse or anywhere else. No one knows our plans but us. When this plan goes the way I have it planned out, then the three of us will be set and I’m not cutting the club in on our gains. That means when you’re around Blade, you do not breathe a word of any of this. He’s going to be the one that takes the fall if this falls through and no one will be the wiser. For some reason Blade has decided that you will be the perfect ol’ lady for him. He’s always been on the picky side when it came to his women and not wanting to share them. When Jen threw you under the bus by telling Blade that you were a virgin, he had his mind set. He’s determined to have your innocence.” Rico looks deep in thought. “The thing is that Cassius will only help me take the Troubled Fathoms’ club down if he gets you. Jen was supposed to take that position, but she’s not mother material and Cassius is looking for a woman to give him some children. I need to be doing the same thing when this is over.” Rico’s thoughts are scattered. “The thing is, there is only one you and both these men are important to my plan in different ways. Blade is expendable if I have Cassius’s help and that’s where you come in. Cassius wants a ring on your finger before he puts his first child inside you, and he wants you to come to him of your own free will. He doesn’t want to have to worry about you running off with his offspring. If things work out right, you’ll only have to play the doting wife until the Troubled Fathoms are run out of their territory or Cassius is taken out. I will take his territory either way it works out for me. I will get the power to take out whoever is left standing between the street thugs or the bastards that think they are better than we are.” This is the first I’ve heard any of this. Why would anyone want me? I knew my brother and sister thought I was a virgin but it’s not true. I had sex with one boy that I went to school. He was my boyfriend but after our first date he disappeared. I don’t mean from just my life I mean from everyone. Rico swears he had nothing to do with it, but I don’t believe him for a second. After that, no boy would even look at me in school. I have kept this secret since I was in high school. School was the only place I was ever allowed to go but for some reason Jen talked Rico into letting me go to a high school football game and then the homecoming prom afterward. Rico even let Jen take me to get a nice outfit to wear. It was one of the best nights of my life, not because of the sex, but it was a taste of freedom from my brother and sister. Peter was the only boy that ever paid me any attention, and he made me feel beautiful and like my life could get better one day when I was old enough to get away from my family. I thought that night might be a new beginning, but it wasn’t. The sex was over before it ever felt good. I mean I read about how sex can be good in my romance books, but it was never that way and afterward it was just awkward between us. Now I just hope it doesn’t cause me more problems.