...14 years ago...

Knox and his brothers sat in silence in the living room.

They were still dressed in black and had hardly spoken since

they’d come home from the funeral. Ma had been silent all

day, while Pop had done everything he could to tend to Ma

and provide her the comfort that she needed.

It wasn’t normal for parents to attend their own child’s

funeral. Especially their nineteen-year-old child. Knox could

feel the tension building by the minute when looking around

the room. Each one of them felt helpless and guilty.

Pop walked in, still wearing his suit. He looked exhausted,

as though he hadn’t slept since the day that they had found

Celeste’s body. Not that any of them had slept, really. They

all seemed to just be going through the motions.

“Boys,” Pop said roughly, “I know how much you all loved

Celeste. We’re family, and no matter what blood runs

through us, we have to stick together.”

One by one, Pop looked around the room at each boy as

they all nodded their heads.

“We must honor Celeste’s memory forever,” Leo said.

Knox blinked back the tears forming in his eyes and

nodded without looking at his brothers. He knew they were

all feeling the same.

“I’m going to put Ma to bed. I love all of you, my sons,”

Leo said, nodding his head sadly before disappearing from

the room.

It was silent for a long time after that. Occasionally

someone would sniff or clear their throat, but it seemed like

just sitting together was comforting enough at the moment.

“We are going to kill every one of them. One by one,”

Angel said after a long while.

Angel had come from the most traumatic background of

all the boys, and he was also always the quietest. Everyone

looked over at him and then at each other.

Beau cleared his throat. “I’m in,” he said.

“Me too,” Knox said.

“We kill every single one. Wipe them off the fucking

planet,” Wolf said.

Hawk leaned forward and nodded, “Count me in.”

“I’m in,” Ash said.

“Me too,” Colt and Maddox said at the same time.

Angel nodded, “We need to stay under the radar, work in

the darkness of the shadows and be invisible. We’ll hit each

one when they’re least expecting it, and we make it painful.

Just like they did to Celeste.”

They all nodded. Most of them had come from violent

backgrounds, and Pop was the head of the biggest illegal

underground fighting circuit on the West Coast, so violence

was something that they didn’t fear.

They had all worked for Pop in the circuit and while he

had kept the boys’ jobs as clean as possible, it wasn’t

unusual for them to be around during fight nights, watching

the fights that turned bloody and sometimes resulted in

death. Leo had also taught each of them how to box and

fight in his MMA gym, which was his only legal business.

“We need to fill Pop in just in case anything comes back

on us. We need to protect Ma at all costs,” Wolf said.

The boys sat up all through the night and made plans to

wipe out each one of the most dangerous gangsters in

Washington. And they all knew that they would enjoy every

minute of it.

Addie

Curling her hands around the steering wheel of her Mini

Cooper, Addison stared up at the house that she’d grown up

in. On the outside, it looked to be an upper-middle-class

home that you would imagine a happy family living in, but

Addie knew better. She had lived in that house, and while

she didn’t exactly have a terrible childhood, it wasn’t

something to brag about either.

She still didn’t know why she came to family dinners

every Sunday. Her mother had insisted that they have those

dinners, and Addie was pretty sure it was so her mother

could brag about how close their family was when she went

to have coffee with her other upper-middle-class friends

each Wednesday. Everything was about appearances with

Marlene Jones. Even if what she told her friends wasn’t the

truth.

She was pretty sure her mother’s friends were under the

impression that Addie was a size four instead of the actual

size twelve that she was, because how would it ever be

acceptable to have a “fat” daughter? According to Marlene

Jones, it wasn’t.

Addie rolled her eyes and leaned her face forward, resting

it against the steering wheel. Why had she come? Why

couldn’t she find the courage to put her foot down and tell

her mother no? Probably because she knew the outcome of

that. It would be endless calls and texts from her mom,

telling her how disappointed she was with Addie for not

spending any time with the family and making her feel

guilty by hanging her father’s heart attack over her head.

You never know how long your father will be alive,

Addison.

It was always bringing up her father that made Addie give

in and come to dinner each week. He had suffered a mild

heart attack three years ago, but her mom acted as though he could die any day now. Addie knew he was healthier now

than he was before his heart attack, but she didn’t want it

on her conscience if he did happen to die suddenly.

Dinner would consist of three hours of her mother asking

questions and making digs at her weight, her career, and

anything else that she could think of, which was pretty

much anything that had to do with Addison and her life.

Closing her eyes, Addie thought of all the other things

that she would rather be doing than having dinner with her

mother that night. A pap smear and colonoscopy were at

the top of the list. If only doctors were open on Sundays.

A knock on the driver’s side window startled her, and she

let out a squeal of surprise as she lifted her head. Her

brother Jax stood outside of her car, grinning down at her.

The home that her brother grew up in and the home that

she grew up in might as well have been on entirely different

planets. For everything that Addie was criticized, Jax was

praised. He was two years older than her, and according to

her mother, he was basically walking perfection.

Despite their parents treating them differently, Addie

loved her brother, and he was a wonderful man. He often

stuck up for her against their mom, though it always fell on

deaf ears. Addie truly believed that if she were a size four,

her mother would suggest that she strive to be a size two.

She could make a million dollars a year, and her mom would

tell her that she should have made two million. There was

no winning with that woman. Not for Addie anyway.

“Are you going to get out of the car or sit here all night

and debate whether you should go inside or not?” Jax asked

through the window.

Peeling her hand off the steering wheel, Addie pressed

the button on the door to roll down the window.

“I don’t wanna go in,” she whined.

Jax leaned down and gave her a sympathetic smile.

“Come on, baby sister. We’ll go in together. I’ll protect

you from the vulture.”

Addie giggled and smacked her brother’s arm. He

straightened and pulled on the door handle, but it was still

locked.

“Come on,” he said.

Making a face of annoyance at him, she hit the unlock

button and rolled the window up. Jax opened the door and

held out his arm for her to take.

“The only reason I’m going inside today is for you.”

He squeezed her hand.

“I know. Come on. Let’s go torture mom.”

Dinner had been precisely what Addison had expected.

Her mother criticized her hair, outfit, weight, shoes, and the

fact that she hadn’t been out on a date in years. Addie was

pretty sure that if her mother could see her underwear, she

would have found something negative to say about those as

well.

Her father talked about nothing but business with the

both of them because that was all he ever seemed to be

interested in. Money and business. Oh, and sports. At least

he never criticized Addie for her career choice, and when

she had opened up her own little clothing boutique, he had

been an excellent resource for her. He always wanted to

know how her boutique was doing and constantly asked

when she would expand and open another store.

Addie had no desire to open another store. One was

enough, she made plenty of money to live in Seattle

comfortably, and she didn’t have to work around the clock.

Not that she really had a social life. Her social circle was

small, and she was past the partying phase. Partying had

never really been her thing anyway. She always preferred to

stay in on the weekends, put on cute pajamas, and watch

whatever was the latest Disney movie available on Netflix

while snuggling one of her stuffies.

Which was probably one of the reasons that she was still

single. She had needs that most men wouldn’t be willing to

fulfill. The only man that she had trusted to share her deepest, darkest secrets with had ended up being an

abusive monster who’d almost killed her. How could she

trust someone again after going through that?

Not that her mother would ever understand. Even though

Addie’s ex was in prison for assaulting her and putting her in

the hospital for nearly a week, her mother often made

comments about feeling sorry for him having to be in jail for

so long for an “accident”. Yeah, like ripping out chunks of

her hair and hitting her repeatedly in the face until she

passed out was “just an accident”.

Pushing all thoughts of her mother and Alex out of her

mind, Addie walked into her small house and let out a deep

breath. Her home was her safe place. Even though she

didn’t own it and it was tiny, she lived alone and didn’t have

to answer to anyone except her enormous cat, Tux, who

ignored her completely except when he was hungry.

Tux was at the door waiting for her when she walked in.

As soon as he saw her, he began meowing and flopping

down onto the floor - his way of telling her that he was

hungry, and she needed to hurry up and feed him before he

withered away. Rolling her eyes, Addie bent down and gave

him a few pets before making her way into the kitchen.

She filled his bowl with kibble, gave him some scratches

behind his ears, then left him to eat and went into her

bedroom. After the evening that she had with her mother,

Addie needed some comfort, and that comfort would come

in the form of regressing into the safety of Little Space.

Digging through her dresser, she found the pajamas that

she wanted and began to undress. Pulling the oversized

nightshirt over her head, she smiled. It was old and thin, but

it was her favorite - light pink with a unicorn sitting on a

rainbow above the words Little Princess. It didn’t take much

for her to slip into Little Space. Especially at night. It was

when she felt the most snuggly and small.

Pulling back the blankets on her bed, Addie climbed

under the covers and pulled her stuffed elephant to her chest. Grabbing the remote, she navigated to Netflix and

found an animated movie to watch. It was one that she had

seen several times before, but she didn’t really plan to

watch it. It was just something to have on in the

background.

Turning on a movie at bedtime had become her nightly

routine after coming home from the hospital. It was the only

way she didn’t wake up to nightmares of her ex, Alex,

standing over her with an angry crazed expression as he

raised his fists to her.

Closing her eyes, Addie ran her hand over her stuffie’s

fur, letting the softness soothe her, and listened to the

movie until she drifted off to sleep.