Ruin

28. Declan

TWENTY-EIGHT

DECLAN

Hayden and I drive to the house. He hasn’t said much to me. Mason and Miles went with Cain. Having all of us in one car was not going to be easy.

“How is Trixie doing?” Hayden asks.

“More relaxed, I think finally telling someone about her stepbrother, and them believing her, has helped. But she’s scared of what her dad is going to do.” I put my phone away after sending Trixie a message telling her she can talk to Lileah, but she won’t.

There is a part of me which understands why she’s finding it hard to talk to anyone, but I’m also thinking she’s going to be around Lileah and my brothers all the time. She needs to be able to trust them.

“And what is the plan for her dad?” Hayden turns to face me, before looking back out to the road.

“Nothing. She’s already lost her mom; I can’t kill her dad. But he doesn’t get a say in her moving out though,” I tell him, and he starts laughing. “What?”

“Nothing.” Hayden smiles.

“Did you hear the news?” I ask him.

“About?”

“Olivia-”

“Don’t want to talk about her.” The tone of his voice tells me it’s the end of the conversation.

I mean I don’t blame him, we’re all on the same page about her, but he has extra hate for her.

“Remember, don’t do anything stupid. I don’t plan on you dying tonight,” Hayden jokes, which makes me laugh.

“Don’t plan on dying.” We pull up at the house, and I’m surprised. The way this family is acting all big, and wanting to kill me and everything, I was expecting something bigger than this. I look at the small detached house. “Something is wrong. Don’t ask me what, but something feels off.”

I look at the screen to see Hayden calling Cain.

“Hey, Declan says something is off about this place,” Hayden tells them, while I look around to see if I can see anyone else around.

“I agree. Everyone watch your backs, but they want Declan, make sure no one gets close to him.” Cain ends the call, and I see him get out of the car, and we all follow his lead.

“Are you all ready?” Cain asks.

“Yes.” We all answer.

“Declan-”

“I know, watch my back,” I answer Cain before he can even say anything to me.

“If they've half a brain, they won't do anything stupid,” Cain says, and I trust this man with my life. If I had to pick one of them to have my back in war I'd pick Cain in a heartbeat, so if he says they won’t attack, I’m trusting him.

We all give him a nod and walk into the house, Cain doesn't even knock, just walks straight in.

Mason stands to the side of me, Miles on the other side and Cain, walks in front and Hayden watching my back. Do I feel like I've got a target on me with how my brothers are with me right now? Yes.

“Where is he?” Cain asks.

“Office, second door to the right,” one of the men replies and I look at each one of them as I walk past them. Jeans, t-shirt, black trainers, nothing special. The guns are probably tucked into the back of their jeans. There's no way these people don't have a gun. They could shoot me in a second, if they wanted to.

“Mr. Crawford, King of The Pit,” Mr. Riley says locking eyes with him. “We still wonder what it took for you to tell the world who you are. Brought the biggest target to you and your family.

“We knew the risk.” Hayden's the first to answer.

Cain didn't come out of The Pit and tell everyone who he was. Fuck, no. He hid himself from the world. Fuck, he hid himself from us for a while, but we told him the Crawford family stick together and to have faith in the family. Number one rule is to always have faith in the family.

“When you sent your son to The Pit, you knew the rules, every man for themselves, with only two ways out; one in a body bag or two he kills me. Your son came back in a body bag. You have no right to take revenge. No other family has taken revenge on anyone who has been killed, no one. So, what makes you so special that you think you can do this?” Mr. Riley starts laughing. “Now, Now Mr. Riley, if I wanted to, I could kill you before you even blinked.”

“And why haven't you?” he asks, and I take the time to look at the men in the room. Seven. Seven men, why does he need so many people around him?

“If this was about a year ago. I would have killed you without a second thought for putting harm to my family. Wouldn't have even blinked at the thought. But now, I have brothers who I need to look after. So, I always say, let's talk it out. If talking doesn't work, then we go in a different direction.” There is silence in the room for a moment, and I wonder what he’s thinking about

“Is the direction to kill me?

“No, not at all. When you contacted The Pit, you said your son needed to go down. If he stayed out here, he would have died.” Cain walks closer to the desk, making us all take a step forward, protecting our brother. “No one told him to start a fight. No one told him to get out of The Pit. That's the thing about The Pit, Mr. Riley, you make mistakes and die, or you grow up and learn to survive.” Cain taps the desk a few times, then stands up tall. “Your son died because he underestimated his competition. Now you tell me, is that fair?”

Wow, this man knows how to take over a room. He sent me to The Pit to become his second in command, but this moment right now, shows me one thing. I still have a lot to learn from him.

“He was my son!” Riley shouts.

“Yes, and you have one more. Do you really want him to die? You kill Declan, his brothers kill your son. Then you come for another brother, then they kill another member of your family. The circle continues to go around. Do you want the circle to continue?”

“I want revenge for my son.” I chuckle to myself, and he looks over at me.

“Everybody wants revenge,” I snap at him, and look around the room once again, making sure all his men are still there.

“You think you're untouchable, don't you?” Riley snarls back at me.

The corner of my lip curls. “No, I don't.”

“If I wanted you dead, I could have-”

“And yet you didn’t. I never once said I was untouchable, Mr. Riley. Your son wasn't the only person I killed down there. I killed a lot, and no one else is after me. No one else has even made contact with me to find out who killed their family member. Which makes me think, you want something. What do you want?” Big Man always told me, someone wants to start a fight, it's most likely they want something. No one starts a fight with anyone just to have a fight. “Not revenge for your son, though. No, you want something else.”

He looks to the side of the room, then quickly back to me. I glance over to where he was looking, and smile. “You want someone? Who do you want?” He doesn't reply and I take a step closer, standing next to Cain. “Someone you lost… Not your wife… not your daughter …Mistress?” He sits up in his chair and fidgets a little.

“So, you want the person who killed your mistress?” The four of us start laughing. Cain, still being Cain, he can keep it serious, and not laugh like we are.

“So, if they killed your wife, you would be okay with it?” Mason asks, but he doesn’t reply.

“And where is this person, The Pit?” Cain asks. “You can have him, but you'll have him dead, because no one comes out of The Pit alive.”

“I can say three people have come out of The Pit alive.” Riley points out to Cain, which makes Mason and Miles both chuckle.

“Yes, the King of The Pit, he's the successor, and his knight. See the pattern there?” Cain tells him, and Mr. Riley looks between me and Cain.

“You really thought we were going to come here and hand you a man from The Pit? You must be stupid.” I tell him, either he's been hit on the head one too many times or smoked something. Crazy man.

“You give me him in three days, or I will take something from you.” Riley looks straight into my eyes. That’s not a threat, it's a warning.

“We give you him, word gets around, then other families come knocking. No one is in The Pit because they want to be there. You were too scared for your son to be out here; he had enemies after him. You knew the risk,” Cain tells him. I’m starting to get bored of this conversation.

“Remember Mr. Crawford, I found someone from The Pit to tell me who killed my son-”

“What did you give him for the information?” I ask. The sick bastard laughs, I know what he gave him. A child, some poor, innocent little child got hurt repeatedly so he could get my name. I should shoot him right now.

“Who knows? I might be able to get information into The Pit.”

My glance moves to Cain, does he have a mole down there? Sending information to people outside.

“We will see what happens in three days. Mr. Riley,” I tell him, not backing down to his fucking word. Who does he think he is? He doesn't control The Pit. We do.

“Declan, my son came out of there, nowhere close to the way I sent him in there. What did you do to him?” The question hits me hard. I’ve never told my brothers everything that happened down there, mainly because I hate how it makes me feel.

“The same as he did. He killed people down there. Should I go find the families of the people he killed, and tell them it was your son, so you have a target on your back?” He stays quiet, but I continue. “Because it’s a long fucking list. You think he was an angel down there. No sir, The Pit keeps you safe from the enemies you have up here, but it doesn't keep you safe from down there. You get your food, get your water. If you've been on good behavior, you get a fucking shower. But if I want to take someone's food, I can take it, they say no, you fight. Winner gets the food. How do you think those fights end? Mostly death.” I stop for a moment to get my breath back, and ready to say something I haven’t even told my brothers.

“There might be a time where someone doesn't have the energy to kill someone, because it takes a lot of energy to kill someone with your bare hands. Hell, I let people go, I beat them up so much they couldn't even stand, never mind have the fucking energy to kill them. So sometimes a person survives another day. Don't think your son didn't kill anyone. He killed plenty, raped a few too. So, you think of that before you continue this countdown.” Without another word, I leave the office, and my brothers follow me.

Taking in a few deep breaths, I look down at my hands, remembering the blood which was once on them, and no matter how many times I clean them, it will always be there. They begin shaking at the memory of the fights I had, and how sometimes I could have died because I couldn’t fight anymore.

“D, you okay?” Miles asks, but I can't reply because my mouth has gone so dry. “D?” I finally nod still not turning to my brothers. Not yet anyway.

Taking a few more deep breaths, I look up at the night sky, closing my eyes for a moment, then turn to my brothers.

“You good?” Hayden asks.

“I’m good.” I see Cain walking out, shaking his head.

“Right, the countdown has started. Today is day one. Now I know you Declan, you won’t hide, and he won’t touch you until the last day. So, the last day we stay at home, then we will figure it out after that.” Before I can say I agree, my brothers all tell me they’ll be in the house with me to make sure I don’t leave, which makes me laugh and they all look at me.

“I was going to agree.” I walk to the driver side of the car, and tell Hayden to throw me the keys. “You drive like a girl.” He tells me to fuck off, but he still throws the keys to me. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not scared, because I am. I don’t want to die, but I’m not going to tell my brothers that, I have to keep a strong head. As I get into the car, I lock eyes with Cain, and without asking, or me saying a word he knows. I don’t care what he says, he’s a mind reader.

I give him a nod, and he returns one. Our silent conversation saying we will win this, no matter what.

* * *

I lean on the hood of my car, Trixie said she didn’t want to get out. She feels safer in the car, even after I told her if anyone lays a finger on her they will suffer. But I don’t want her to get upset, as I think this is going to be hard enough for her.

Miles parks the van in front of my car, and I walk over to them as they get out. Mason and Miles are both arguing about some girl they’ve seen in college and Hayden shakes his head annoyed with them both which makes me laugh.

“Is she okay?” Hayden nods to Trixie still in the car.

“Yeah, she’s scared what her dad will do.” I turn back to my brothers and take the file off Miles, then walk over to my car and open the door for Trixie. “Can’t hide forever. I promise no one will touch you.” She finally looks at me, and I give her a smile as I put my hand out for her. “I’m never going to let anyone touch you ever again.”

She places her hand in mine, and she smiles at my brothers, then moves in closer to me as we walk to the house, and Trixie hands me her keys to open the door, but just as I’m about to put the key in the lock, the door opens.

“Trixie,” her dad goes to take a step closer to her, but she steps back a little. “Is everything okay? I’ve been calling you.” I take a step into the house, Trixie behind me, followed by my brothers.

“Trixie, go pack everything you want to take. Take the whole room if you want,” I tell her, and she gives me a nod. Hayden and Mason follow her up to her room. Stopping her dad from following her, I take a look around to see if the bitch and her son are here. I don’t see them, that's a shame, I was hoping to have a word with them both. “I’d call your wife if I was you.” Slamming the file into his chest. “You have some reading to do. Don’t come upstairs-”

“It’s my house.” I have to laugh at his comment.

“It is. But before you do anything stupid, read the fucking file.” Not letting him answer, I walk up the stairs. I asked Miles to find every report Trixie did make, which got ignored because her stepmom was protecting her son, and some of the pictures I took of her wrists. It’s time he finds out the truth, and why she will not be living in the house which has given her so much pain. No one protected her here, no one listened to her, to the point she completely stopped talking.

Not anymore, I’m going to make sure she’s smiling everyday of her life, and finally feels confident enough to talk again.

Walking into the bedroom, I look over at Trixie looking at the sewing machine, it’s old school, I bet it’s her mom’s. There is a large desk with all her sewing things on it, and also some material on it.

“Trixie, what do you want to take?” I ask, Mason and Hayden are standing there, doing nothing.

If my dad doesn’t give me my money, I don’t have anything.

“He will give you your money, and you will put it toward college. So, what do you want to take?” I ask her again, it’s going to be hard for her, but I will look after her. She’s mine now.

Please be careful with this, it's my mom’s.

“It’s her mom’s,” I look at Hayden and he gives me a nod, then nods at Mason to get to the other side of it so they can both take it down to the van. “What else?” She looks around the room, then back to her sewing area.

All of this area, everything is mine or my mom’s. My clothes, and a few things from my mom.

“We will start with the sewing area, and you get your clothes, and anything else you want to bring with you. My brothers will take it to the van for you.” Miles walks over to the sewing area and starts putting things by the stairs, so Hayden and Mason can get them to the van. I walk over to Trixie to help her with stuff, but she goes to the bathroom, and I follow her in. “Trixie?” Her body tenses up, and she looks down at her drawers, then shakes her head.

I look over at Miles, and he gives me a nod, as I close the door. Leaning down I open the drawer. I take a deep breath in and kneel to the drawer as I look at all the blades, she’s been using to harm herself. Some of them still have her blood on them.

How fucking long has she been hurting herself? I close my eyes as I shake my head, as I think about her never once hating when I cut her. She enjoys the pain of being cut.

I stand back up, placing my hand under her chin so she’s looking at me. Using my thumb I wipe the tear away from her cheek.

“You crave the pain of the knife, you come to me. You don’t do it yourself. Promise me.” She closes her eyes, and shakes her head.

You will think I’m a freak.

“Already think that, but you’re my freak.” I lean down to kiss her softly. “Promise me. Say it, not sign it.” I lean my forehead on hers, I already hate the fact I never knew she was doing it before, she can’t do this to herself.

In the smallest voice she says. “Promise.” Another small kiss, I open the door and tell her to get her clothes together, and walk over to Miles to help him with the sewing stuff, because there is a lot of it.

“No one goes to the bathroom.” I point to my wrist, so he knows what I mean, Trixie won't let anyone see them, but someone will today. He nods, and already knowing what I’m thinking he hands me an empty box.

“She’ll be fine, you know we got her too, right?” Miles tells me as he watches Trixie putting some of the clothes in a bag.

“I know.” We might fight, argue, but no matter what, when one of us calls we will be there no matter what. And with this my brothers will always be there for me and her.

Finally finishing the sewing area, Miles and Hayden take the bags which Trixie has put together. My phone beeps in my pocket, sitting on the bed I look at the message on my phone.

Unknown

Not long to go…

I look up at Mason grabbing my phone to look at the message, I see a little curl of a smile hitting Mason's lips. “Any excuse to hit someone.” I laugh a little, to be honest I'm on the same page as him right now. “Van is all packed.”

I look over at Trixie, looking at the empty space, and see Miles and Hayden by the door. I walk over to them and Trixie stands next to me.

Thank you.

She looks at me and I smile. “You can say two words to them, I’m not.” She licks her lips, and I feel her body tense up next to me, and she takes a deep breath in.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“See, it wasn't hard,” I joke, and she pushes me away from her.

Hayden wraps his arm over her shoulder. “If he’s being an asshole just tell us, happy to kick his ass,” he jokes, and I tell Miles I’ll be done in a minute, and to keep Trixie close.

Walking to the bathroom, I open the drawer, taking all the blades out and throw them into the box. If her dad thinks I’m letting him get away for ignoring his daughter, he’s wrong.

Walking down the stairs, I smile. There he is. Robert and his mom join us, about time.

“Trixie-”

“Back away.” He ignores me. “Back the fuck away,” I tell her dad, and he finally stops and looks at me. “You don't get to talk to her. You get to talk to her when she wants to talk to you. Trixie, do you want to talk to him?”

She shakes her head, and her dad looks back at me.

“Until she's comfortable talking to you, you don't talk to her,” I tell him.

“Was it a good read? Did you enjoy reading everything your daughter went through, and you ignored it because of them?” I nod my head toward the other two people in the room. “Did you?”

He says nothing, what the hell can he say so he doesn't sound even more like a shit dad.

I look over at Robert. Now, there's the asshole. I walk over to him, slam him hard against the wall. “Fight. Try using your power on me!” I shout at him. “You did it to her. Now, do it to me. Come on.” He goes to punch me, but I duck out of the way.

“Not so fucking easy when it's someone your own god damn size, is it?” I punch him in the face, and I hear his mom shouting for me to stop. I wrap my hand around his neck, slamming his head against the wall, hard enough for him to grunt out in pain. “How old was she when you first touched her?” He stays quiet, trying to get my hand off his neck. “Trixie, how old were you when he first touched you? Words, Trixie, words.” I don't hear anything. “Trixie, how old were you when he first touched you?”

“Thirteen,”she replies in the smallest voice.

I look over at her dad quickly, his eyes are popping out in surprise. “What did you think when she was fucking talking before, and then stopped for the hell of it, it's because you didn't listen!” I shout at her dad. Turning back to Robert. “I could kill you right now, if I wanted-”

“You can't threaten my son. I'm going to the police,” his mom screams at me.

Ignoring her I continue with Robert. “Thirteen, I'm going to make your life fucking miserable for thirteen years. I'm going to break bones and wait for them to heal, so I can break them again. Thirteen years, you’re going to be in so much pain you’ll wish I killed you. Thirteen years is going to feel like thirty. I’m going to make sure you suffer every single minute of the day. You can hide, but I promise you I will find you. I have a plan so if you disappear before I get the chance to hurt you, I'll find you, and I will double the timeline of how long I keep you alive before killing you.” I squeeze my hand around his neck, and see him fighting to breathe. “When you realize what I'm going to do to you, you’ll wish I'd killed you in thirteen seconds, which I probably could do. But no, since she was thirteen you made her suffer. You raped her over, and over again. You hurt her. I promise you’ll know the pain I'm going to bring upon you, it will be nothing to what you did to her.” I finally let him go and walk over to his mom. “And as for you-” I tilt my head to the side a little and smile. “I'd look both ways when you cross the road.”

Taking the box back off Hayden, I walk over to her dad. “And as for you, I can't kill you, I could but I won’t. She's already lost one parent. Why should she lose another? But you don't talk to her. You don't contact her until she wants to talk to you.” Pulling out a card from my pocket, I hand it to him. “You have until midnight to transfer all the money her mother left for her, every single dollar. Oh, and I know how much it is too, so don't forget the cents that go in there. You’ve read what he did to her, but what she did to her..” I point to the stepmom. “You saw the pictures. And you didn’t acknowledge there was anything going on. I don't think you should be let off so lightly.” I slam the box into his chest. “Open it.”

“I don't want to.”

“I'm not asking you to open it, I'm fucking telling you to open it.” I see his hands shake as he takes the lid off the box.

I move closer and whisper. “You can still see the pain she went through. Look in the box.” I move back from him, and his eyes glance down to all the blades she used on herself. He looks at Trixie, and there goes the first drop of a tear he sheds for his daughter. “You have till midnight,” I turn to the other two. “And I'll be seeing you two. It won't be long, I promise.”

Walking back to my brothers, I put my arm over Trixie’s shoulder, and we leave the house.

“I got goosebumps.” I hear Mason shout at us as we walk toward the car and van. “I actually feel my adrenaline pumping. D, you might become the sick one, now.” I chuckle and turn to him.

“You've set the bar very, very high. You know, I'm still crawling up it.” I let him know.

“Yes, but it's not going to be long until you join me in my corner.” I don’t reply to him.

“See you guys at home.”

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Don't fuck around D. Where are you going?” Hayden asks again.

“Home.”

“I'll go with them.” Miles tells him and sits in the back seat.

“I was going home. Hayden, I swear.”

Hayden starts laughing. “Well, you are now.” He gets in the van, and I shake my head.

They don't even trust me to go home. Well, maybe I was going to do a little pit stop somewhere. I don't know where, but I thought maybe I'd get two minutes with my girl alone without my brother hovering around, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.

Well, I suppose I can have fun with her tonight in bed. I’ll take it.