Page 3 of Deviant Bastards

“You wanted to see me, Dad?” I ask as I step into the dimly lit room. Dad’s office is huge. It has a massive, mahogany desk in the centre while his black chair sits behind it, and there are chairs scattered around the room for when he has meetings in here. A painting of me as a child hangs on the wall to the right, and a portrait of Ellie and me is the feature on the left wall.

He gestures for me to sit down before saying, “Marcus Olliston was murdered last night.” His voice is tight with anger as he continues. “This means that, as of right now, the treaty is dissolved. I know that you saw Snake last night when my men returned. The West Side Reapers are blaming us for the hit.” I take a moment to truly watch my father, waiting to see if his mask falls, but it doesn’t.

“Were we responsible?” I ask because I’m not sure what to think, my father has always been good at hiding his true emotion. However, in this instance, I’m inclined to believe that the Warriors had nothing to do with Marcus’s death. There’s no way in hell that my father would risk a war with the other gangs.

He shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t us, and at the moment, we have no idea who it was.” The room is silent for a moment, and I get up to leave. “You will remain within the walls of this house, and one of my men will be with you at all times. Until we find out who took out Marcus, I will not risk your safety.” I can’t help the snort that accidentally escapes me. My father glares at me, and I gulp. “If you won’t do it for me, at least think ofEllie,” he says. I don’t like the way he said her name. It’s as if he’s trying to anger me somehow. I nod my head. I have no intention of listening to him because I know that Ellie will always be safe and protected. As long as Deacon is around, I don’t have to worry about her. “You can go,” my father says dismissively. I leave his office and head in the direction of Ellie’s room.

Once I get there, I find Anna getting her ready for the day. “Anna, can you pack her bag, please? I want to take her to the zoo today.” Anna nods and begins getting things ready.

“I thought your father told you to stay within the walls of the house,” Deacon’s voice sounds from behind me. I jump a little because I didn’t even hear him approaching. “How many times have I told you to be mindful of your surroundings?” he growls at me.

I give him an apologetic shrug and turn back towards Anna as she hands me the bag while Ellie toddles towards me. “Where we go?” she asks in her tiny, little, angelic voice as she looks up at me with her big, blue eyes.

“We’re going to the zoo, sweetie. We’re going to see some animals.” I turn away from her for a second and realise that Deacon is glaring at me.

“What? You can either come with us, or your grumpy arse can stay here,” I sass because I know what he’s going to say, and I don’t want to stay in the house; I’m already feeling suffocated even though I was just told to stay put a few minutes ago.

“Duckies?” Ellie asks, clapping her hands. Ellie has always loved visiting the ducks. She loves the noises that they make. I nod my head and take her hand.

“Ready?” I ask Deacon, who merely nods his head and turns, making his way downstairs towards the car. When we reach the car, I open the door and help Ellie climb into her car seat. Once she’s strapped in, I round the front and drop myself down into the passenger seat as Deacon starts the engine.

The ride to the zoo is quiet, but I can no longer stand the silence. “So, Marcus is dead?” I question him with a whisper, not wanting the small ears in the back to hear me. Deacon turns his head slightly as he answers my question.

“Yes. You saw Snake last night, he was defending our integrity because the Reapers are blaming us for their loss.” His answer rocks me to my core, with the treaty broken, a lot of people are gonna be affected by this shift. I still remember the day the treaty was signed.

I watch from the second floor as the house fills with men. There’s a buzz in the air, and Dad has told me to stay out of the way. However, I watch as he walks towards the stairs and motions for me to come down. He’s standing with a boy around two years older than me. “Harley, this is Kendric. I need you to show him to the kitchen while I’m in my meeting,” Dad says as he gestures to the boy. I nod my head in acceptance and walk away with the boy following me.

Once in the kitchen, Kendric watches me intently as I grab two glasses from the cupboard. “What would you like to drink?” I ask timidly. Dad has never left me alone with a boy before, so I have to wonder what’s so special about this one. He shrugs his shoulders, and I decide to grab the bottle of coke from the fridge, filling a glass for each of us. I place them down on the counter and move towards the snack cupboard. I pull out two bags of crisps and grab our glasses before asking him, “Do you wanna sit?” He doesn’t answer, he just moves towards the table.

I watch in fascination as he sits down next to me, his leg touching mine.

I open my snack, thankful for this moment because usually, I’m not allowed extra snacks. I’m only allowed a small amount of snacks per day because Mum doesn’t like me having too much sugar. Kendric watches from my side as I begin eating. I take a drink of my soda and face him slightly. I’m still not quite sure why my dad has left me with this boy, but he seems a little tense at being here.

Deacon appears in the doorway. “The meeting is done, Little Princess,” he says as he takes in the scene before him. He stalks closer to the table and glares at Kendric. “You’re sitting a little too close to the Little Princess, boy. Fucking move,” he growls out. Kendric glares right back at him and scoots his seat closer to me. I’m a little surprised by his reaction to Deacon since he hasn’t actually spoken to me, he’s just sat there watching me.

A tall, broadly built man walks into the kitchen, saying, “Time to go, Kendric.” Ah, this must be his dad. They look very similar to each other and have the same eye colour.

Kendric stands from the table and grabs my hand, placing a gentle kiss on the back of it. “I’ll see you again soon, Harley.” There’s a promise in his voice that makes my stomach flip as he moves to stand beside his father.

Later that night, I hear Dad explain to Mum that Marcus, the leader of the West Side Reapers, and Ming Lao Chang, the leader of the Southside Assassins, have all signed a treaty to ensure that there is no more bloodshed among the organisations. If anyone breaks it, they die. That explains why the house was so full of men earlier.

The zoo is full of people. Given the fact that it’s the school holidays, I should have expected as much. I grab Ellie’s buggy from the boot of the car and strap her in. Usually, I’d let her walk, but it’s too busy today, and I want to make Deacon’s job a little bit easier. “It’s too fucking busy here today, Little Princess. You both should have stayed home,” Deacon rages from beside me. I shrug my shoulders in return. I had to get out of the house, or I was going to go crazy.

We spend a few hours visiting all the animal enclosures, and then we walk around the animal farm area where Ellie has so much fun feeding bread to the ducks. I had to let her out of her buggy for that part, just to make it a little easier for her.

As we start to walk back towards the car, Deacon stiffens beside me. “Get to the fucking car. Now!” he yells as he grabs the buggy from me and practically runs with it back to the car, my legs just barely managing to keep up with his huge strides. As we near the car, a popping sound goes off just to the left of me.Shit!We’re being shot at. Deacon wrenches the baby out of her buggy and hands her to me as I scramble into the back seat. He doesn’t bother taking the time to fold and store the buggy; he simply jumps into the driver seat and throws the car into reverse. He peels out of the car park, narrowly missing a few pedestrians as he hits dial on his phone, and I struggle to strap Ellie into her car seat while she cries and wiggles around.

“Would you fucking slow down!” I scream at him as he swerves to avoid smashing head first into another car while the phone rings incessantly through the Bluetooth system of the car.

“Deacon, what’s going on?” My father’s voice fills the small space of the car, and Deacon tells him we were shot at, but he couldn’t identify the shooter. “Is anyone hurt?” my father demands.

“No, we’re okay,” Deacon says as he finally relents on the gas and starts to slow down. “We will be back at the house in approximately fifteen minutes, Boss,” he tells my dad.

“Harley, my office when you get home,” Dad says vehemently as he hangs up.Fucking great.

ChapterTwo

HARLEY

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