Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"Wasp, the fuck are you doing?" Reeve asked, coming out of nowhere, making our sister turn and give him her best - and it was convincing if you didn't grow up with her - innocent look. "Oh, save the anime eyes for one of your poor suckers," he added, a smile pulling at his lips. It was maybe the first smile I had seen on his face in more months than I could remember. Wasp could do that to him. No matter what shit he had been through, what demons he was still battling inside him, Wasp was always his soft spot.

Wasp's eyes, always working, always keen, went soft at seeing him as well. "Hey, bro," she said, smile spreading.

You'd have thought Wasp suddenly turned into fire. That was how fast Sugar pushed her to his side, and moved to the other end of the couch. "Oh, fuck no," he said, shaking his head.

"Aw, you're scared of my brothers?" she asked, knowing she was goading him, and not caring one bit. "How cute."

"Don't fuck a brother's sister, babe. I don't give a shit how hot you are."

"Oh, did you hear that, Cy? He thinks I'm hot," she said, crossing her legs. The smile she had, though, was pure malice.

Wasp hated a few things.

When people said 'seen' when they were supposed to say 'saw.'

Wonky toenails.

The smell of ground beef cooking.

And when a man called her hot.

Or, honestly, any variation thereof.

It's still a compliment, honey, our mother would tell her when she would come home ranting and raving about a date calling her pretty or beautiful, or any of those things most girls that age wanted to hear.

So, what? Wasp would shoot back. I should thank him for being so shallow?

See, the problem was, Wasp had always been pretty. She came out pretty. Her damn baby pictures looked Photoshopped. And she never went through an awkward phase. Even when she dropped her baby teeth, she still somehow looked amazing in pictures. By the time she was a teenager, she had to have heard the words 'pretty' and 'beautiful' ten million times.

She felt that because everyone saw her face first, and fell in love with it, they never cared to get to know the parts of her that actually fucking mattered. Like her mind, her dreams, her work ethic, her humor.

She was nothing but a pretty face to men from the cradle on.

And it made a deep bitterness settle deep within her.

Hell, it was the reason she did what she did for a living.

So Sugar calling her hot, yeah, it killed any attraction she might have had for him right off.

"Let's not," Reeve offered, reading her look perfectly. She wanted to fuck with Sugar. That was her style. Get under his skin. Jerk him around. Make him see for sure that the pretty was only a small part of the package.

Hell, a blue-ringed octopus was beautiful, but could kill your ass in a second.

"Oh, but wouldn't it be fun?" she asked, smile going wicked.

"Only to you," he shot back, still smirking at her.

"What are you doing in Navesink Bank?" I asked, knowing the two could - and would - punt that argument back and forth for hours if they wanted.

"Oh," she said, leaning back, the tension sliding out of her body in a wave. She threw a hand out, rolling her eyes. "Raven fell into some rich guy's dicksand, so we're parked here for a while."

Raven was Wasp's best friend, had been so since they were both ten years old, when Raven moved into town. And, like Wasp, Raven had been 'cursed' with beauty from a young age. They were polar opposites in looks, though. Where Wasp was blonde, Raven had long, straight, shiny black hair. Where Wasp had blue-green eyes, Raven's were the bluest goddamn blue you could have ever seen. Where Wasp liked to be outside and get a little tan, Raven was what you might call indoorsy, and pale as porcelain.

"Babe, did you just say 'dicksand?'" Reign asked, coming in from nowhere. I hadn't seen him at the clubhouse in two days. Apparently, the kids and Summer had been down with something, leaving our badass, tough-as-nails leader playing nursemaid.

"Yes," she agreed, eyeing up Reign as he walked up beside me, not even giving her the once-over she was so accustomed to. It was clear she was intrigued by this, tipping her head to the side, and watching him intensely. "Dicksand. When a girl meets a guy, and she gets sucked into his world, forgetting all about her own badass one. Dicksand."

Reign looked to me with an amused smirk. "This your sister?" he asked, jerking his head in her direction. At my nod, he nodded back. "And maybe a fuckin' introduction would be appropriate here..."

"Alright, guys," I said, addressing the room at large. "This is my and Reeve's little sister, Wasp. Wasp, this is Reign, Sugar, Virgin over there in the corner with Roderick and, who the fuck else is here?"