I never thought of myself as being much of afamily man, but when you reach a certain age, things begin tochange and your cravings evolve into something far moreimportant—leaving a legacy behind. Dan announced he and his wife oftwo years were pregnant, and for some reason, that got the ballrolling for me. The idea that I would be Uncle Darren in the nextfive months had me nervous as shit. This would be the first babyfrom our generation, and I didn’t know yet how to correctlyintroduce a child into this life. I knew my mom fought to have mybrothers and I spared, but she never had much control over ourupbringing, and she had even less influence after she died. My dadwas hard as shit on us, but it made me the man I was today, and Iwas good with that.
My dad taught me almost everything I knewabout the business, about life, and how and when to take it. Ikilled for the first time when I was ten thanks to him. I shot adrug dealer who owed my father money right in the head in this veryhouse. I never even blinked. I was calm and collected, and when itwas over, I walked out into the trees and threw up all over thebushes where my father couldn’t see.
Later that night, my dad told me he wasproud of me, and I was ecstatic because that was all I ever wantedto do. Young boys always seek approval from their fathers, and thatwas what my sons would seek from me, so I needed to be prepared forwhen their time finally came … but I needed to tame their motherfirst.
Seven miles later, I finally felt better,got off the treadmill, and headedupstairs for a quick shower. I then changed into a pair of jeansand a black t-shirt and made my way down to the basement to collectmy naughty little princess from her cage. Three hours in thatcold-ass basement should have swayed some sense into her bynow.
~*~
I was fucking freezing and dehydrated ashell. I had been in this tiny cage for God knew how long—hours, atleast. I had been a hot sweaty mess at first, but the cold metalcage saw to change that. I pulled my hair out of my messy knot inhopes it might help to warm me, but it did very little. Eventually, I had fallen asleep, exhaustionfinally taking over as I laid on my side with my arms inside mydress, huddling into myself for warmth. To my surprise, not asingle nail from my manicure had broken. They must have been forgedout of Adamantium or something.
I woke up sometime later to find my body shaking rapidly as it failed to keep warm, and it was so dark, Icouldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face. My thighs weresticky and gross from Darren’s earlier display of physicaldominance. I had never been more grateful for that birth controlimplant from the warehouse than right at this moment.
The whole time, I had been driving myselfcrazy with fear at the thought of being married to this monster andgiving him little baby monsters to raise. It made me sick to mystomach, and I couldn’t stop the tears that fell from mylids in heavy drops. This was notthe life I wanted to life, not the life I thought I was destinedfor. I couldn’t let him do this to me, but I didn’t know what to donow. He was so much bigger and stronger than I was, and no amountof training would matter against him. I would need to figuresomething else out. If I let him think he had broken me, he wouldmost likely speed up the “plans” he had for me, and I wasn’t readyfor that. I had to get my shit together first.
As I buried my freezing cold nose into myclothing, I knew Darren was watching me; I knew there was a camerasomewhere, no way there wouldn’t be. He was probably enjoying thesight of my suffering knowing I was in his control. I wondered howlong he would leave me down here.
During my little confinement, I now hadplenty of time to think and reflect. Though my entire body was soreand my aching core still throbbed, I decided I could either liehere and pity myself or I could plot Darren’s destruction. Theproblem was I didn’t have enough reliable information at mydisposal. I would need to know absolutely everything before I couldstrike.
Darren had family, and he already warned me of the vendetta thatwould ensue should I ever become successful in his death. How thefuck was I going to get around that? I’d somehow have to take hisempire down first and then burry Darren in the ashes. Whateverdecision I made would inadvertently affect my family if I didn’t execute my escape withabsolute success. I couldn’t leave a single stone unturned. Like anentire infestation of termites, every last member of the colony hadto be eliminated. I just had no idea how I would do it.
But, God, what if I failed? What if Darrencaught me plotting or foiled my attempt? How bad would he punishme? I had a strong feeling my family would be the direct recipientof my punishment. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t fail. Ihad to strategize every scenario and plot accordingly. Butin order to do that, I needed toget inside his head. I needed to know everything about him. Ineeded to get him to let his guard down and fall for me. He had tofeel comfortable enough to trust me, to know I wasn’t going to tryto run from him anymore. I would have to make him believe it sothat when the time finally presented itself, when I had all thevariables to the equation, I would strike and succeed with flyingfucking colors.
Some timelater, I heard the door open and I braced my arm over my eyes toshield them from the brightness of the light. Finally,
