What do you see?
Nothing but everything
Listen to the sounds
What do you hear?
Nothing but silence
Everything around you
Is what you make it
Nothing and no one
Can you see different?
When it’s time
You’ll see I’m right
When it’s time
You’ll hear what I hear
And know
Everything and nothing
Is what it seems
Make what you want out of it
Mold yourself into who you want
When it’s time
You’ll realize
Only you have the power over your mind and body
Unless you hand it over willingly to another
~ E.C. Land
Prologue
Cane
Age 8
Running through the woods, I do everything in my power to stay ahead of him. I don’t want him to catch me. If he does. He’ll take me back to the house and make me suffer. I don’t want to go through it again.
Not again.
Not ever again.
I learned in school this past year that what my life has been like all my life is wrong. Not every family is like mine.
My mom sits around all day either watching TV or catering to him. Everything he says and does is how it’s supposed to be. I’ve heard them two at night. I’ve walked into the house to find my mom sitting on the floor at his feet while he petted her hair like a dog.
I don’t understand it and I really don’t understand it when he did what he did to me. I tried to go to the teacher but she didn’t seem too concerned about it. That just goes to show you what the schools in this area are like. They’ll stand against the students as long as the parents are donating to the school.
I’m eight and shouldn’t know what a woman’s body looks like. Nor should I know what anything else feels like. I cringe at what I’ve dealt with for the past few weeks unable to escape his hold.
Only when he turned his attention back to Mom when she did something stupid in order to be noticed did he release his hold on me. Mom ended up getting noticed alright and in that he chained her to a wall by the collar he keeps around her neck at all times.
Shaking my head, I rush through the trees as fast as my legs will allow me. It doesn’t help that it’s cold, wet, and rain is pouring down. I slip and slide through the mud nearly falling.
Panting for breath, I keep heading to the one place I know my father would never go near. Only because he was ordered to stay away from their clubhouse. The Devil’s Riot MC. Not for any other reason than my uncle got into it with him and he was told to stay away from the club. Well, I don’t know if he’s my uncle or not but he was with my aunt, Marie, or also known as Mary, for a while and they had a kid together. I don’t know she just tells people to call her one name or the other. Her real name though is Marie.
I keep running as fast as possible to get to my uncle. If I tell him what’s happened maybe, just maybe he’ll be able to help me. I don’t want to go back to living with those people.
Getting to the dirt road leading to the clubhouse, I push myself until I make it to the clubhouse itself. A man is standing near the building looking at me with a lifted brow.
“You lost boy?” he asks as I stop in front of him. I notice his name on the patch on his cut reads Rosco.
A car comes barreling into the parking lot and I immediately dart behind Rosco.
“Camden, get your ass in the car now,” my dad yells as he steps out of the car.
“Fuck.” I hear the man I’m standing in front of grumble. “What the hell are you doing here Marty?”
“I’m getting my kid and getting the hell out of here,” he sneers in return.
“I don’t think I’m letting him leave until I find out what’s going on. He is after all Stoney’s nephew, making him Croc’s great nephew and I think he’ll want to hear about this,” Rosco mutters.
“No reason for shit to be stirred over a kid not wanting to listen to his parents. Now come on, Camden,” he snaps.
“What’s going on out here?” I knew his voice; I’d heard it many times before. It’s my uncle Stoney. “Camden, why are you here?” he asks baffled at me hunkering down behind Rosco.
“Seems he ran all the way here and his dad’s here to collect him,” Rosco says.
“Fuck. Kid you’re soaked. Go inside, find Momma B she’ll help you get cleaned up and in some dry clothes. I’ll deal with your dad then I’m gonna come talk with you,” Stoney mutters.
Nodding, I don’t give my dad a second look as I rush past Stoney and into the clubhouse, barreling right into a massive man I knew as Croc, the President of the club. “What are you running from, Camden?” he asks, recognizing me right away.
“I–I don’t . . . want to go back. I–I can’t . . . go back. I don’t want him to do that to me anymore. Please, Croc, don’t make me,” I ramble on, tears prickling my eyes.
“Easy, kid. I’m not making you go anywhere right now. Go see Momma B and I’m gonna go see what’s going on outside,” Croc grumbles.
Again nodding, I head toward the sweet lady with beautiful blonde hair and always has a smile on her face.
Immediately she pulls me into her, giving me comfort I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in my life. And right then, I know my life is about to change drastically, but in the best way possible.
Chapter One
Parker
Present Day
The beat of the music pulses and I take a deep breath. This isn’t what I wanted for myself, or my daughter, Piper, but I’ll do it regardless because I’ve always loved dancing.
On my twenty-first birthday, I walked right over to Dolly’s Playhouse and applied for a position. The manager, Victoria, asked me to audition right then and I was offered the job the moment the music stopped. “I think we’ve just found our new headliner,” she said.
I didn’t know what to think about it but then again, I decided it didn’t matter. All that mattered was taking care of the two-year-old I had at home. With my mom not in the picture and my brother being a complete an utter controlling dick, I’m alone in raising her.
I live in a run down one room apartment within walking distance of Dolly’s Playhouse. I make enough money, I could afford to put Piper and myself in a really nice place. I could even afford to put her into a really nice daycare program. Unfortunately, my life sucks and I’m not able to do anything but give everything I make to my brother except for the small amount he allows me to keep.
He’s a control freak and has threatened my daughter’s life if I don’t do as he says. And it’s not like I can hide my money since he sends one of his goons or whores after the money every night.
Which sucks because they know I’m making bank, and his goons keep trying to push themselves on me. The only reason they don’t go any further than man handling and groping is due to my brother’s orders.
I can’t even get a car because of him. No one knows I walk to and from work every night, or at least I don’t think they do. None of the bouncers or members of the Devil’s Riot, who own the strip club, have said anything to me about it.