Page 22 of Vicious Punks
The shiny leather shoes show my reflection as he stops in front of me. The blank look on my face gives nothing away, but if I lift my head he’ll see the tears gathered at the corners, dying to escape. He places his hand on top of my hair, petting me as he clicks his tongue in disappointment.
“I thought I raised you in a house where you want for nothing, all your needs met, but I was wrong. You’ve been spoiled, given everything. I gave you a chance, Nicholas, to prove yourself, so you can one day take over. But you are no son of mine. Did you think you could help those useless cunts? Do you not think I have ears and eyes everywhere?” He grabs a fistful of hair at the top of my head and bends my neck back until I’m looking up at him.
His face is emotionless, a man of no thoughts, of no sympathy, no mercy. I’m starting to take after him in that respect. One day, it will all just shut off and even when I bleed, I won’t feel where it’s coming from.
“Did her pretty looks lure you in, thinking you could save her?” His lips curl back and he shakes my head until it feels like my brain is rattling around. “Answer me!” he shouts in my face and pushes me away in disgust.
Tears escape, leaking down my face as I sit there breathing hard on the floor with my head bowed and my shoulders hunched.
“She grabbed my hand and wouldn’t let go,” I whisper, admitting as tears fall faster down my cheeks, splashing onto the floor that sounds oddly loud.
I snuck into the shipping container that I saw a handful of my father’s men leave, laughing as they slapped each other's backs and left the metal doors unlocked. I wasn’t allowed this far back into the docks. I alway had to listen to Jin talk about the family business at the warehouse at the front when he met with his clients, but hearing words is different from actually seeing it.
I knew something was different about my father, even at a young age. Money came in easily, endless amounts on hand. His meetings always involved men who had this gleam in their eyes when they stared at me. The way they smelled of greed and evil, it was an overpowering smell of cologne to hide their toxic stench. Men who hide aren’t real men, they just disguise themselves so we can’t see the real them.
I went into that dark container, knowing I’d find something that makes my own father just like those men. I leave the door open a crack to see and when my eyes adjust, I can’t move. Rows and rows of small cages, stacked on top of one another, filling the whole container all the way towards the back. A single aisle led between the cages and weak, dirty hands grip the metal locked doors. Some reach out in desperate hope between the bars, but not a word is spoken. I step further in, not believing my eyes as women and young girls stare back with dead eyes.
Something tugs at my sleeve, making me look slowly to my right, almost afraid of what I would find as I stand there shaking.
“Help me. Please,” a girl pleads through dry, cracked lips, hardly moving her mouth as if she’s too weak to talk.
She looks like she is in her mid to late teens, but it’s hard to tell with her face dirty and her hair tangled around her head. She can’t stand up, her body curled up in a ball, but her hand grips as if it’s using all the strength she has. I can’t move, frozen as I stare into her blue eyes that plead with me to save her.
“I can- can’t,” I whisper, trying to move away from her, to leave this place that I am sure makes hell look like paradise.
She quickly snags my hand, gripping with the rest of her strength and doesn’t say anything else as she stares at me. I stop shaking, my heart slows down to that one moment as we stare at each other. Knowing I can’t do anything, but I can hold her hand because she is scared and has given up on any hope of being saved. Maybe I can be her knight in shining armor? To help her escape before anyone notices. I can help them all, one at a time, until they can see the sun again, instead of the pitch black.
I scream as I’m suddenly ripped away, my eyes wide as they look into her blue eyes, seeing the color dim until it looks like she’s not really here anymore. Kicking and swinging my legs, I cry out the further I’m dragged away from her, until I’m thrown into the office of the warehouse and that’s how I start cracking at the seams. Learned that life is deceiving and hope doesn’t exist.
“She held your hand? Not even a taste of pussy and you're whipped just by a simple touch. You are weak, but I’m determined to make a man out of you, even if you die before that can happen. Hold out your hands,” Jin says and walks around his desk to a glass cabinet that displays canes.
He grabs a long, wooden cane and comes to stand over me without a word until I hold my hands up for him. The first wack out of the cane causes me to hiss under my breath, more tears start flowing, but after a while, as blood drips from my knuckles, the pain goes away until I am numb. I learn that I’ll never be a knight in shining armor because no one can be saved, a perfect bubble pops and brings back awareness.
The sound of a deep rumble brings me out of my memories and gives me a chance to bat her away from my hand. I straighten to my full height and curl my lip in a sneer that has her smile dropping fast. The noise of an engine roaring as someone presses on the gas while in park has me looking back at the Dodge Demon car, and I swear I feel whoever is behind the steering wheel staring right at me.
“If you want to live, you’ll leave now before I put a bullet in your head,” I calmly say to the woman who still tries to cling to me while I stare at the blacked out windshield, as if I could somehow see through it.
She gets the hint as I look back at her without blinking, spinning on her too tall heels to run away. I climb in behind the wheel, starting the engine that rumbles to life, causing the crowd to glance in my direction.
That’s right, hear me roar.
This is the only way I know how to use my voice, I’d rather sit back and observe than try to talk. When my car echoes like a clap of thunder as I rev her up, it can’t help but do all the talking. It says stay the fuck away and beware because I’m going to kick everyone’s ass without breaking a sweat.
Lorenzo swaggers to the center of the road as we line up on the white spray painted line one of his girls draws as she runs in her high heels in front of our bumpers. My palms slide over the steering wheel, feeling the car vibrate with life under me,and everything centers as it becomes clear. I’ll win because there aren’t any rules in street racing and I’m always fucking up the rules. I glance out of the corner of my eye at the Dodge Demon to my right, the person behind the wheel slides down the passenger side window just as Lorenzo pulls his gun out of the back of his pants. My eyes connect with a pair of familiar chocolate eyes and I feel the blood drain from my face.
“See you at the finish line, Nicholas. Winner takes all.” Tillie blows me a kiss and sets the launch mode with a smirk as she rolls the window back up.
I glance over the Dodge, wondering if she stole it as someone pounds on the hood of her car for good luck. The face of the stranger becomes clear as a headlight shines on her. My glare has my little sister shuffling away from the car as she grips Evan’s sleeve to drag him away too. Both of them are in fucking trouble, but not as much as Tillie. Before I have the chance to get out of the car to spank her ass in front of everyone for defying my rules, Lorenzo points his gun to the night sky and fires one shot. With a whoop that’s heard over the engines and squealing tires, she literally leaves me in the smoke as the tires burn rubber.
“Shit!” I grind out through my teeth and stomp on the gas to catch up before she ends up killing herself.
Following closely on the ass of the red Corvette that shifts side to side so I can’t pass on the long stretch of road, I upshift a gear and whip my steering wheel to the left to move around to the front of his car before an oncoming vehicle can crash into me. Even at night, Los Angeles stays awake, parties until dawn, and the streets are kept packed as they come and go. This is why these races are so dangerous and don't have rules. You can’t block off the streets, you move with the traffic even if it’s in another lane heading in the opposite direction. You can die just for this thrill, but that’s part of living.
Coming up on a sharp corner on Olympic Blvd heading into downtown, I curse and upshift again to catch up to Tillie, just as she’s about to turn. I don’t think she’s going to make it, the yellow Porsche is at the back of her bumper and the light is turning red… It's almost like watching in slow motion and not being able to stop it. She turns the corner sharply, the tires skid on the asphalt and she comes within inches of sideswiping a minivan as it crosses the street on their green light. At the last second, her tires find traction and she straightens out like a pro. She takes off like a bat out of hell with the Porsche hot on her ass, and frat guy not too far behind, even though his back bumper is hanging off from hitting a fire hydrant. For some reason, it’s easier to breathe, like I’ve been holding off the oxygen in my lungs, but seeing her execute that move injects me with a new buzz that’s addicting. It’s a challenge and I completely accept.
You want a race, baby? Then you got yourself a race.
Seeing no way around the corner without getting hit, I jerk the wheel and jump over the curb until I’m on the sidewalk with pedestrians jumping out of the way as water hits my windshield from the busted hydrant. I turn on the windshield wipers, almost hit a couple, and quickly look in the side mirror. The Corvette rolls and a truck crashes into him as he tries to squeeze in between cars. One down. Seeing an opening back on the street between two cars, I hop off the sidewalk grazing the underbody against the curb causing a shower of sparks. I bounce in my seat as my car settles back on the road. I’m aware of the abuse I’m putting these wheels through. A hundred and eighty grand for this thing? Petty cash anyways.
