The Wife Breaker (Dark Vows Duet 1)

The limo pulls to a stop in the docks.

Xavier and I get out and I fall into step behind him, muttering, “So, what is this about anyway?”

“Your initiation,” he tells me in a cool voice.

“What the hell do you mean?”

Before he can answer me, six men appear in the alleyway we’ve walked into. They grab me and I kick at them as they hold me immobilized in front of my uncle.

“What the fuck are you doing, Xavier?”

“Teaching you the lesson of a lifetime.”

He crosses his arms and nods at the men.

“Do it.”

They beat me systematically. No matter how much I thrash or try to get away, they hold on and I groan as blood spurts from my mouth and nose.

“This is what my father did to me,” Xavier continues impassively. “And what he should have done to my brother. But your father was soft, Heath. Soft, just like you’re going to be unless I teach you how to handle this life.”

“You’re fucking insane!” I scream as fists land all over my body, forcing me to my knees.

“No, I’m just being a good uncle,” he smirks.

The beating doesn’t stop there. By the time the thugs are done, I am barely conscious, lying on the ground groaning as blood pools beneath me. My head is spinning from the betrayal I’ve just experienced, and my hand is eager to reach for a weapon and fucking kill my uncle. But I’m powerless as he kneels next to me and leans down to speak to me.

“Don’t worry, Heath. I’ll take good care of everything while you’re gone. Especially Rain.”

I spit at him, but he steps time, delivering one last kick to my bruised and broken ribs. Groaning on the ground, I try to force myself to get up, but fail every time.

I can only watch helplessly as Xavier gets back inside the limo and the driver speeds away. Then, my consciousness drips out of me just like the blood staining my once crisp white shirt.

Drifting in and out of the pain taking over my body, I drag myself away from the alley that’s now stained with my blood. But then I hear a van pulling up in the docks, and a moment later several men appear, speaking in Spanish. They spot me on the ground, laughing as they kick at my broken body. I can only beg for help, even though I know they’re not likely to give it to me.

The docks are one of the most dangerous areas here. And as the men shout at each other and one of them puts a cigarette out on my skin, I realize just how fucked I am.

They drag me to my feet and force me into the back of their van. Nobody asks me anything, and it’s not like I can answer anyway, on the verge of passing out from the pain. One man reaches out to me with a syringe full of clear liquid, smirking at me. Grateful and thinking they’re finally getting me some medical help, I let him inject me with the syringe without fighting.

But the moment I feel the burn of the drug in my system, I realize what a grave mistake I’ve made.

The poison burns like fire and gives me unnatural strength. I pick myself up easily, as if I don’t have broken ribs and cuts and bruises everywhere. The men roar with laughter, but their tune quickly changes when I grab one of them by the throat and lift him up, throwing him against the wall of the van.

The car swerves, and the men shout at each other in Spanish. But I’m too fast on the shit they pumped into me, and I’m really fucking angry.

I kill them one by one. My hands wrap around their flimsy necks and I snap at them, biding my time to escape from this horror show. And yet despite what these strangers just did to me, what burns more is still my uncle’s betrayal.

The car comes to a stop twenty minutes later, and I’m ready for the moment the doors open, jumping on the driver. But I don’t get far, because he pulls out a gun and points it at my forehead.

I raise my hands, my heart racing as two other men drag me off him and they inspect the damage I did inside the van. One of them laughs as if all those bodies I piled up in the van mean nothing. What the fuck kind of place have I just been brought to?

They force me into the building we’ve arrived in front of, shove me into a prison cell where several other men are already waiting. Some of them snarl at me, others ignore me, too caught up in the pain of their own lives. I’m quickly realizing this is a pain we’re going to share in the coming months.