~ E.C. Land
Prologue
Lex
Age 14
The burial for my parents was held this afternoon. I could barely get through it due to the pain in my chest. Unfortunately, I have a little sister to stay strong for. I can’t break. Not now at least because if I do, no one will be there for Anabelle to lean on. She’s just six years old and needs someone to take care of her.
Being that I’m fourteen that person is me at least until they figure out who we’re going to go stay with. There’s a fight going on for who gets custody of us. My mom’s best friend, Lisa, and her husband, Nick, are our godparents, they want us to come live with them. Our uncle Justin on the other hand, demands we come live with him.
Lisa hates my uncle Justin and I’m not a huge fan of him either. Something about him has never felt right to me.
Social services has had to step in, at first I’d told them I wanted Anabelle and I to live with Lisa and her husband Nick. But then Uncle Justin cornered me and said I either live with them or he’d make life hell for Lisa and her family, especially their daughter, Mackenzie, who is also my sister’s best friend. I’d seen the way he’d leer at her and my sister. So, I’d made a deal with him to leave them both alone and I’d tell the social worker we wanted to live with him.
Lisa didn’t like it and neither did the lady who worked our case. But in front of the eyes of the judge they wanted us with family before anyone else.
Tonight’s supposed to be the first night we stay at Uncle Justin’s and I’m dreading it.
“Bubba, I’m cold, can we go home now?” Anabelle asks.
Home?
Neither of us have a home anymore. Never will again.
“We’re going to Uncle Justin’s house,” I mutter.
“Okay, bubba,” she says none the wiser on what our life is about to be like. And I intend to keep it that way. My sister and Mackenzie, I hope neither of them ever go through anything that takes the innocence out of their eyes.
“Alexander,” Uncle Justin sneers out my name as I walk into the house.
“Yes, sir,” I mutter though I really just want to hit him.
“Come here,” he commands.
Doing what he demands, I move toward him. When he points to the seat across from him, I sit.
“Now that you made the smart choice in choosing to stay with me, there are a few things you and I are going to go over. And you will agree to these terms otherwise, I will do as I please.” My gut tightens at the sheer thought of what his words might mean. No wonder my aunt, Lenna, left him taking my cousin, Finley, with her.
“From here on out you will do as I say when I say it. All the life insurance money is mine and the checks that come each month for you and your sister are also mine. When you turn eighteen, you will make sure to continue to pay me every dime I want, otherwise I will take what I want from your sister and that brat of Lisa’s. When Anabelle reaches eighteen, we will reconvene this discussion. I’m thinking at that point I’ll take what I want from one or the other. As of right now, you either pay me or I again will take what I want. Am I understood?” Uncle Justin snarks.
He’s the devil in disguise and I have to agree to this deal of his in order to protect my sister and Mackenzie for the time being.
“Oh, and let me clarify one thing. You speak a word about this arrangement and I will not only take what I want from both those girls I will take it from you as well and then kill the lot of you and that bitch, Lisa.”
“I understand,” I mutter through clenched teeth.
“Good, now get the fuck out of my sight,” he snaps.
Standing from my chair, I walk to the room that would be my prison for the next four years. At least I know he won’t do anything to Anabelle or Mackenzie as long as I’m around. And after that I have until they’re both eighteen. After that I’ll have to find another way to save them from Lucifer himself.
Anabelle may be my sister, but Mackenzie holds a special place in my heart.
She’s my Starlight.
The one who keeps the light in my darkening soul.
Chapter One
Lex
Present day
“When Anabelle reaches eighteen, we will reconvene this discussion. I’m thinking at that point I’ll take what I want from one or the other.”
My body jerks awake from the nightmare I’d been in the throes of. Today is one of the days I’d been dreading for god knows how long.
Anabelle and Mackenzie turn eighteen. It’s ironic really that they share a birthday. But evidently my mom and her best friend, Lisa, who’s Mackenzie’s mom, ended up pregnant at the same time. They had even gone into labor within hours of each other.
After I’d moved out, Uncle Justin had agreed to let Anabelle move in with Lisa long as I continued to pay him. He was fine with this since my band and I all made quite a bit. Considering we have over a million subscribers on the internet and are frequently putting new songs out, we all live comfortably.
Well, Chaz, Tanner, and Hunter do. I on the other hand pinch every little dollar in order to keep my sister and Mackenzie safe. Now that deal is out the window and I have to find out what my uncle will want this time around.
The four years I spent in his house were brutal. No one, not even the men I consider my brothers, know what I endured.
Fuck, I don’t even want to think of those nights I had
