“Wait. Is she the person helping you with the company?” Rachel asks.
“Yeah. We work for her, and she gives us the money that we will need over the next few years, as well as living expenses,” Dean says.
“It’s bullshit if you ask me. What's the point of saving the company when we're pretty much selling our soul to the devil,” Axel mutters, shaking his head.
“Why would you say that?” our mother asks.
“Because she makes us do stupid shit and banned us from having sex,” Axel growls, pissed off about everything like always.
“Well, that seems a little childish,” Rachel says. And Dean and Axel nod in agreement.
“Not really; we deserve it,” I say.
“Why do you say that?” my mom asks.
“It’s a long story, but pretty much Harlow didn't move away like we told you,wesent her away. Well, actually Dean did, and Axel let him.” I narrow my eyes at my brother, and he flips me off.
“I was trying to protect her!” Dean says, raising his voice.
“You tossed her into the belly of the fucking beast! Because of you deciding for all of us, Harlow was raped multiple times a day and held against her fucking will for five years!” I bellow, leaning over the table, getting into Dean’s face. At least he has the decency to look guilty.
All three women gasp with horrified looks on their faces.
My mother looks like she's about to ask more, but I shake my head. “It’s not our story to tell, we’ve said too much already. We have no right to even try to discuss the horrendous things she had to endure,” I say, leaving no room for an argument.
THE FUNERAL WAS A SMALL, intimate gathering. A few of his friends stopped by, but other than that it was just us guys and our mothers. After we said our final goodbyes, our mothers took off back home, and we lagged behind, making plans to go out and eat. We invited them to join, but they declined, said they were too upset and just wanted to turn in early.
“Let’s party,” Neo shouts, jumping up onto one of the angel statues in the cemetery, then doing a backflip off of it with a whoop.
“We just buried a family member, you crazy bastard. Now you wanna go out like it's just some regular day?” Axel scoffs.
“Look, life's short. You never know when the grim reaper is gonna come and snatch your grumpy ass up. So, live a little. Plus, don't you want a night out with just us guys? It’s been a while,” Neo is bouncing around, jumping off anything he can.
“Dude, you need to chill. How do you have so much energy?” I ask as we reach the car.
“Well, with Harlow spending more time with Evie and Rosie, it's been a week since my cock has played hide-and-seek with her pussy. I have a lot of pent-up energy, and I need to get it out somehow. Seeing how I don’t want to fuck it out of me, unless it’s with her, that means one thing!” He gives me a manic grin in the rearview mirror as he slips into the back alongside Dean.
“The Devil’s Pit,” I grin back. The Devil’s Pit is an underground club that holds very illegal fights. We started coming here when we were 15. In this type of life, money buys you everything, and that allows us access to a world unlike any other; it helps to throw our last names out there too.
Neo started fighting there any time we came for a visit. We made a deal. If he stopped kicking everyone's ass in school who looked at him funny, then he was allowed to fight at the Devil's Pit as much as he wanted when we came here.
I mean, he still got suspended a few times here and there for starting fights, but it lessened tremendously. It gave him something to look forward to and work towards. Neo needs to keep his beast tamed. Harlow unknowingly provides that for him now. He’s been doing well. The violent tasks and sex with Harlow have been keeping his inner beast in check, while he gets to live and have some of the best sex of his life. Also helps with any pent-up energy he has. They use each other for the same reasons, only he needs her, not the other way around.
THE WAREHOUSE IS QUIET; the only thing you can hear is the sound of the city traffic a few miles away. To anyone else, it's just an abandoned property, but there, deep in the belly of this building, is where all the people who don't feel like they have a place in the world come to get away from their shitty lives.
Neo leads us through a side door, down five flights of steps until we reach a door. Neo pounds on the door and we wait.
“Names?” a gruff voice answers through the little, sliding window.
Neo scrunches up his face. “Since when the fuck did this place start taking names?” Neo questions.
“Since the new ownership. Now tell me your names or piss off.” Neo opens his mouth, probably to tell this guy where to go and how to get there, but Dean steps up.
“I’m Dean Beckett, this is Neo Hendrix, and the two in the back are Axel and Cassius Ledger,” Dean says, pointing to each of us.
The guy behind the door lets out a curse and quickly works to unlock the door. He swings it wide open. I'm guessing from his reaction, he knows who we are, or at least he has heard of our names.
He says nothing as we pass him, and I give him a curious look as he avoids my gaze. What an odd man. But what else do I expect in a place like this?