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ChapterOne
PIPER
As I glancearound the room, taking in every aspect of this place, I don’t really know what to think. Although I’ve been here for a while, every time I step into the space, it feels foreign. Not just because it is different from everything I’ve ever known, but because I’m not sure how comfortable I should make myself.
It’s nothing like the home where I was raised. It isn’t opulent or sterile. It’s… a mess. The men here appear to be absolutely nothing like my brother Raul’s men or even Cyrus and his, yet… they are the same in a lot of ways.
They all live on the other side of the law. Their activities illegal, their lives lived in the darkness of the world. Light is something that none of them know. And yet, I don’t feel as if I’m in danger when I’m here, not like the past.
I’m not sure what the future holds for me, but it’s clear it is destined to be here, around these men in some capacity. I’m unsure of how that is and what that means. It should terrify me, but it doesn’t.
At least not yet.
I haven’t been told what is going to happen to me, but there have been whispers, and I listen when I hear them. I’ve known how to stay out of sight and keep my ears open my entire life. Always in the shadows, a listening ear just so that I know how to prepare myself.
A contract.
A promise.
Marriage.
Those are the things I’ve heard, and I have a feeling it’s true and it’s all about me. I know Raul would have no problem handing me off for whatever advantage he could gain. He’s all about what gets him where he wants to be.
Dutch, my other brother, had zero qualms about trading me on my eighteenth birthday, for whatever he got from Cyrus. I didn’t know what awaited me after Cyrus was finished, but I didn’t want to find out, either, and I’m glad I never did.
My brothers are both all about anything that gives them a boost in life. Whatever gets them ahead. It’s not about me. It’s about them. And that is the way it will always be. I’m not sure which one is worse.
Raul is leaving me to these men, without truly knowing them.
But then there’s Dutch, the way he allowed a man like Cyrus to do what he did to me…
My two brothers, the men who are supposed to protect me, they’ve both treated me like nothing more than chattel. It shouldn’t surprise me because my father raised them to be this exact way.
My mother was nothing more than an object to him. All women were, which is what he taught my brothers.
I shouldn’t blame them or be angry with them because it’s just the way they were raised. It truly isn’t their fault. But at the same time, I’m not sure it’s an excuse either. They don’t care if it’s right or wrong. They don’t want to change.
They are happy in who they are, and what kind of person am I for making excuses for men like that?
Their sister.
That’s who.
So, it wouldn’t surprise me if Raul did the same thing with these motorcycle men that Dutch did to me with Cyrus, just in a different way. In his own manipulative way. Because where Dutch is an idiot and an asshole, Raul is cunning.
I think that’s what is happening here.
I’m not allowed to ask any questions, though. I learned that a long time ago, and if I hadn’t, Cyrus made sure to beat it into me in the short time I was with him.
Over and over and over again.
I am not permitted to ask questions of the men in my life. They are in control, and I am to do as I’m told. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Raul is in the conference type room where these men hold all their meetings. The door is closed, and it must be padded or something because I can’t hear what they’re saying, no matter how hard I try.
I’m not sure how long I stand against the wall, trying to blend in with the darkness there, trying to take everything in, straining to hear even a single word from inside that room, when the door opens and Raul stomps out.
He doesn’t leave, though.
