37. Kane
THIRTY-SEVEN
KANE
Sixteen Years Old
Kane walked beneath the dull haze of city lights. His hands stuffed into his jeans pockets and no destination in mind.
He had no place to go.
No home.
No family.
Nothing.
Nothing.
The agony nearly brought him to his knees. The overwhelming grief that pressed in from all sides made him feel as if he was going to implode.
The only thing that kept him standing was the rage. The only life inside him the hate that had infiltrated his blood and had become the beat of his existence.
Loneliness his partner.
The bracelet he wore around his wrist felt like it was cutting off circulation. The simple gold chain that wasn’t even real with three roses interspersed across the top.
One he’d given his mother when he’d been a child and she’d never taken off.
One he’d fumbled to get off her wrist as the paramedics had wheeled her away from their house.
Now he wore it himself.
Like it was going to give him comfort when the only thing he felt was pain.
He’d been in two foster homes since his mother had been killed six months ago. Both of them homes to the same kind of bastards he’d been subjected to his entire life.
There’d been zero hesitation to fight back. Hell, he might have even instigated it. Needing something to do with his fury and his fists. Some way to pound out the vengeance that suffocated.
He figured the circumstances didn’t really matter. Either way, he would have ended up here. Walking the streets of LA.
Alone.
Hungry.
Exhausted from the fits of sleep he fell into for mere minutes at a time on whatever cold, hard surface he could find.
Terrified of whatever wickedness might be lurking in the dark, dingy corners.
Pangs of hunger tightened his stomach as he trudged down the crime-infested street.
He’d become a partner to it, and he whipped his head back and forth to check that no one was in sight as he grabbed a broken brick that sat in a pile of garbage off the sidewalk then bashed it into the side window of a car that was parked along the street.
He ducked through it to grab the change sitting in the console.
He felt like a piece of shit.
He was a piece of shit.
Coins clattered as he stuffed them into his pocket, and he ducked his head between his shoulders and continued down the sidewalk like he wasn’t responsible.
Then he quickened his pace when he sensed someone behind him.
Not someone .
A group.
Multiple footsteps approached, nearing with each step.
Sweat gathered at his nape, and his hands curled into fists in his pockets. No doubt he was going to have to fight his way out of this. With how many it sounded like there were, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get out of it.
A second later, he was surrounded, two guys on either side of him and one behind him.
Trepidation billowed through his body, his muscles tight and his chest heaving, his breaths coming too sharp to play off the fear that slicked through his being.
The guy on his left stepped out ahead of him, turning around to walk backward as he faced him.
Kane barely cut up a glance, trying to act like he wasn’t affected. Act like alarm wasn’t blaring in every single one of his senses.
“That was low, bro. A bashed window for a dollar in change?” The words left the guy on a huff of laughter.
The guy was likely his age. Sixteen or seventeen. Tall and thin with jet black hair. Cropped super short on the sides with a strip running down the middle.
Amusement glinted in his dark, dark eyes, and he tsked. “Gonna find yourself in all kinds of trouble if you keep that up. Right out in the open and obvious as hell. Bet you haven’t seen the dude who owns that car, or you wouldn’t have done it.”
The asshole kept chuckling as he said it, way too entertained at Kane’s expense.
Kane’s teeth gritted, his nerves going haywire, mind spinning with how he was going to defend himself. How he’d beat them when they eventually jumped him, which would be right after this fucker had his fun with him, he was sure.
“You got a death wish?”
“Hungry.” He grunted it. And that change had a fifty-nine-cent taco written all over it.
The guy dipped his chin. “Yeah, figured as much. Have seen you walking up and down this street nonstop for the last week. Been watching you.”
Unease slithered through him.
Last thing he needed was to be noticed. For these assholes to know he was completely alone.
“Just leave me alone, man,” he grumbled, figuring they’d either take off or do what they’d come here to do.
“Now why would I want to do that?”
Dread twisted Kane’s stomach.
“Come on, Theo, stop fuckin’ with the poor kid.” The guy to his right shook his head and cut Kane a glance.
He had light brown hair and bright blue eyes and a giant smile on his face. “You got a place?” he asked.
Kane almost scoffed. The only thing he had were the few possessions stuffed in the backpack attached to his shoulders.
He didn’t respond.
“Not safe out here on your own,” the one on his left said, “and it’s clear you don’t have a fuckin’ clue how to survive it.”
Kane’s attention swung that way. “What the fuck do you care?”
The guy’s brown eyes were intense. Swimming with demons, Kane guessed. The guy gave a slight shrug. “Maybe I know exactly what you’re feeling right now.”
Did he?
Could anyone feel even an ounce of the devastation?
His jaw clenched in distrust. Why the fuck would these guys help him?
“Hey, man,” the one on the other side of him said. “We just saw you wandering and got the sense you had nowhere to go, and we find things go a whole lot better for us if we stick together. Figured we’d extend that hand to you.”
Kane almost scoffed.
Why would they trust him ? He could be some psycho mass murderer for all they knew. Hunting for his next prey.
Though he figured the trembling of his limbs gave him away.
The gaunt hunger on his face .
The desolation in his eyes.
The amusement drained from the one who was still walking backward. “Know you don’t know us, and we don’t know you, but we’ve seen you a bunch of times, and we’re pretty sure we’re gonna find you dead in a ditch if we don’t intervene. We have a place we stay. It’s nothing to write home about…”
His voice went ironic before it dipped back into sincerity.
“But at least it’s a roof over our heads.
My name’s Theo, and this is Cash.” He gestured to the one at Kane’s left before angling his head to the guy on the other side.
“And that’s Otto. We’ve been out here a bit and know the run of things.
You wanna stay alive, you stick with us. ”
Kane stopped walking.
“You just…want to take me in?” Incredulity rolled out with the words.
Theo smirked. “Let’s just say we have a feeling about you.”
They say the deepest bonds are forged in the fire.
In trials and tribulations.
Kane had never thought he’d care about another person after he lost his mother. He thought his hate and grief would prevail. The only emotion he could experience since it’d obliterated everything else.
And that hate and the grief, it was still there.
Alive and thriving.
But it was different.
His crew had every bit as much of it as him, and they used it, fuel for their survival.
Theo, Otto, and Cash had become family. Intrinsic to who he was. A loyalty carved so deep between them there was no longer any question of betrayal.
His trust growing to something he never thought it could be.
It didn’t take long until River and his little sister Raven had become one of them, and the six of them lived in the dilapidated warehouse that had become their home .
Each walking the streets of LA. Doing whatever it took to endure the situation they’d been cast into. Delving into the seedy. Stealing and conniving and manipulating.
Corruption and depravity taking them over.
Their only allegiance was to one another.
It got darker with each month that passed, the things he and his crew devolved into.
And Kane knew they were sliding down a dangerous path when River and Theo started hanging out with Trent who was the vice president of the Iron Owls MC.
Kane knew it the first time he slung his leg over his new bike.
Knew it for sure when he donned his leather cut.
His mother’s voice echoed through his mind as he stood in the back room of the club where they met.
“You’re such a good boy, Kane. Such a good, good boy. My favorite boy. Don’t ever change. Don’t ever let that beautiful light fade. Fight for love and what’s right. I know you will…because it’s who you are. And always, always take care of the ones you love most.”
And he knew he was the same wilted rose. The best parts of him had died when she had.
The light faded.
The darkness the only thing he knew.