Being born into a family full of criminals has never been easy but making it the way through without being arrested and actually making it to my senior year of high school is something that no one in my family had ever accomplished before. I live with my four older brothers, all of whom, had criminal records by the time they were my age and they thought it was a right of passage. They always try to tease me about being squeaky clean, forgetting that I’ve had years of martial arts training under my belt and to be honest, I might not have been arrested but I am a little crazy. My mother died when I was four and my father is on death row in California so living in this small town in Ohio suits me just fine. I’m happy here and my brothers have an quicker route to smuggle drvgs over the border to Canada whenever they need to. We live in a two story house by a lake just outside of Bluffton which is surrounded by forest and no neighbors. Since I’m sharing the house with my brothers I transformed the basement into an apartment that no one is allowed to enter except for me and put in glass windows and doors around the side of the house so I have easy access without going inside. It’s my senior year of high school now and I can’t wait to be done with school and get on with my life. But I made a promise to myself that I wasn’t going to end up like the rest of my family and I was going to graduate. So that’s what I’ve got my mind set on now. When I arrived at school one morning I saw all my friends including my quarterback boyfriend standing around talking. “Hey babe.” Finn said putting his arm around me. “Hi. What’s going on? You all look pretty serious over here.” I said. “It’s nothing. Just talking about today.” He said. “What’s happening today?” I asked. “The exams that we always get hit with just after the school year starts.” David said like I was an i***t or something. “Oh. Is that all?” I asked. “Of course you have nothing to worry about. You always ace those tests.” Finn said. “Yeah. Sorry about that.” I said feighning sorrow for everyone else. “Come on. We need to get inside.” Finn said practically dragging me inside the school building. “Is everything alright with Rachel?” I asked. “Yeah. Why?” Finn asked as we kept walking. “I don’t know. She looked like she was ready to cry or something.” I said. “I don’t know. She didn’t say anything to me.” He said. “Okay.” I said, letting it go. But it wasn’t that easy to let it go. Not really. Not since I knew the truth but no one knew that I knew the truth. What people still haven’t figured out about me is that lying to me never works. I always find out the truth. No matter what it is. I don’t know how I manage to do it but I’ve always called it my super power. The day went by in a blur of classes, a couple of exams and a very stressful lunch where my friends can never seem to agree on much of anything with each other. By the time school was over Finn and I started walking down the road together like we always did. I always got stares whenever I went anywhere in this town. You’d think by now people would be used to me with my full sleeve tattoos. But they don’t know the story behind the tattoos. I wouldn’t have gotten them if I didn’t need to. If there wasn’t a reason to get them. But no one really cared about that. They just cared that I looked different to everyone else. But I’d gotten used to all the staring and it was pretty easy to ignore. As Finn and I were walking down the road we started to hear this roaring vibration come down the road behind us and we couldn’t help but stop and turn around. There were about a dozen bikers riding towards us on the road. Some of them had women on their bikes and some were just by themselves. They were all wearing the same patch on the back of their jackets except for the ones that said ‘Prospect’ who were at the back of the line up. “Holy shift. It’s the Vandals.” I said.

As I stood there staring at the bikes riding past us I felt Finn’s grip on my hand tighten after I said their name and a lot of them were looking at me like they knew me but they weren’t too sure if they knew me. “Skylar. Is there something you need to tell me?” Finn asked. “They were friends with my brothers when we lived in LA. I don’t have a clue why the hll they’re here now.” I said. “Does that mean they are going to be hanging out at your house?” He asked. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know why they are here or if they even know that we’re here.” I said. “Well, that’s going to get the attention of the police who will probably start sniffing around your house.” He said. “I’m the only one with a key to my apartment. If the cops come sniffing around then I can honestly say that I don’t know anything. I’m never home so it’s not a lie.” I said. “You’ve already got it all worked out, don’t you?” He asked. “Babe. I’ve had it worked out for years. I’ve known exactly what I was going to say to the police since I was 15.” I said. “Fair enough.” He said. “I better head to the restaurant though. See what’s going on.” I said. “Do you want me to come with you?” He asked. “No. It would be better if I go alone.” I said. So he kissed me and I started walking towards town while he started walking towards his house. I knew that he was worried about me but I could take care of myself and he knew that. I wasn’t worried about The Vandals being here. But I knew that he was going to be stressing about it. As soon as I got to my families restaurant in town I saw all the motorbikes lined up out the front so I knew they were here to see my brothers. I walked into the building and my four older brothers were standing in the middle of the room with a bunch of bikers standing around and the whole lot of them were so noisy and didn’t even noticed that I had walked into the building. I stood there for a few minutes watching everyone interact with everyone else before I walked forward and my oldest brother Brax saw me. “Skylar. You remember the guys, don’t you?” He asked. “Yeah. I remember. It’s a little hard to forget.” I said. “Skylar. Little Skylar.” The President Blade said looking at me like he’d seen a ghost. “Yeah. Little Skylar.” I said and he walked over and hugged me. “shift. You must have been about 11 years old the last time I saw you.” He said. “It’s been a while.” I said. “I’ll say. Look at you all grown up.” He said looking me up and down and I could tell straight away that his woman and old lady didn’t like the fact that he was looking at me. But that wasn’t anything that I was too worried about right now. “So, what’s going on here?” I asked. “The guys have some business in the area and they asked if they could crash with us. We didn’t think you’d mind. These guys have practically given you the honourary title of little sister.” My other brother Heath said. “I guess it’s alright. Just don’t trash the place.” I said. “I promise that we will be on our best behavour.” Blade said. I looked over all the other guys that were in the room and I remember all of them. I knew them all from when I was a kid and I knew how they all felt about me back then. And standing towards the back was the one that I used to call ‘The Giant’. He stands at around 6 foot 8 with muscles on top of muscles and he was always in the background, not saying anything, just watching. And right now, he’s watching me. He wasn’t taking his eyes off of me but the other guys in the gang, especially the prospects who I didn’t know, were too busy getting in my way. They introduced themselves one at a time and looked a little too interested in me as if I would ever go for a prospect. They really didn’t know anything about me at all. But when I managed to get my way through the crowd my brother Casey took me to the balcony of the restaurant. “How long are they going to be here?” I asked. “I don’t know. We didn’t know that they were coming until this morning.” Casey said. “You’ve already got the police watching you. This is going to make everything so much worse.” I said. “I know. And I’m sorry if we’re putting you in the middle but you know that we can’t say no to these guys.” He said. “Yeah. I know that. Just be careful. I don’t want to give that police chief a reason to search our fking house again.” I said. “Well, if he does then I’m sure you’ll find something wrong with the search warrent and sue him again.” Casey smirked at me but I just shook my head.

As I went back inside the restaurant I saw the guys had already broken out the beers and alcohol and were already starting the party early. I knew that no one was going to come into the restaurant tonight and I didn’t blame them so I made up a sign that said ‘Closed For Private Event’ and I put it on the door. When I went back inside I headed back out towards the office where I closed the door and I sat down and pulled a piece of paper out of my bag. PREGNANCY TEXT - POSITIVE PATERNITY TEST - POSITIVE I kept staring at those words on the paper with a sinking feeling in my gut before someone knocked on the door. I quickly put the paper back in my bag and I got up to answer the door. I saw the vice president of the club Havok standing there with an extra beer in his hand. “Thanks.” I said. “Are you going to come and join the party?” He asked. “Yeah. I just had something to do in here first.” I said. “Come on. That cra'ap can wait. We want to catch up.” He said. “Sure.” I said. So I grabbed my bag and I closed the door behind me before I went back into the restaurant and I sat at a table near the wall with a bunch of people sitting around me. One of them was a woman that I didn’t know and she was shooting daggers at me the whole time I was there. I stared her down a couple of times but it didn’t stop her from trying to intimidate me further. As soon as she got up and started walking around talking to everyone else I leaned over towards Slash and started asking questions about her. “That’s Raven. She’s with Blade now.” He said. “Dam. I didn’t think Blade would ever find an old lady.” I said. “We’re waiting for it to fizzle out. She won’t be his old lady for much longer.” Slash said. “Why do you say that?” I asked. “She oversteps her bounds a little too often. Obviously not knowing her place in the gang.” He said. “Well, that’s just fking stupid.” I said grabbing another beer and opening it. I looked over towards the bar and that same guy had been standing there the whole time staring at me. He hadn’t really been talking to many other women that were there even when they tried to talk to him. But he didn’t seem interested at all. I do remember him from a few years ago. I think his name’s Drake, or something like that. I know that he didn’t use a bullsh*t nicklane like the rest of them did. Not that he needed to. The party was soon interrupted by someone banging on the front door of the restaurant and I turned the music down and I walked to the entrance myself and opened the door to see the police chief there. “Can I help you?” I asked opening the door. “Yeah. I can see that you’re having a little party inside.” He said. “Some old friends are visiting.” I said and he turned to look at the motorbikes lining the street. “I need to come in and make sure that everything is on the up and up and I need to check ID’s.” He said. “We’ve already checked ID’s. Everything’s fine.” I said. “Listen Skylar, I know that you think everything is fine in there but we just got word that this gang of bikers is wanted in Los Angeles for several different offences.” The chief said. “I don’t know anything about that. And until you can prove otherwise you’re not coming in here and harassing our friends.” I said. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” He said. “Do you enjoy being sued?” I asked, coking my head to the side. So the cheif turned to look at his deputy. “Just keep the noise down.” He said. “Of course.” I said. And he turned around and walked away. I closed the door and locked it again before I went back inside and everyone was watching me. “You sued the chief of police?” Blade asked. “Yeah. Didn’t have anything else to do that week so I thought why not?” I asked and they started laughing.

The party continued into the night and the music kept getting louder and louder but as the night wore on there were less people around town so it didn’t really matter. I looked outside the restaurant window a couple of times and I saw a police car stationed right across the street, obviously keeping an eye on everything that was going on. But I didn’t really care. They could sit there all night if they wanted to. We weren’t doing anything wrong and it was fun to see them watching and waiting like they had nothing better to do or anywhere else to be. I ended up sitting at the table near the wall and it wasn’t too long before there were people sitting around the table with me. The Prez’s old lady was staying clear of me but the other women that came with their men were pretty nice and they were trying to get to know me and ask me a lot of questions and stuff like that. But the tone I got from their questions gave me the impression that they were planning on staying in town. Not leave after they finished whatever business they had in the area. If they were wanted in Los Angeles then it wouldn’t surprise me if they were looking to relocate. To get those cops off of their @sses. But the police cheif already knew that they were here so that was going to be a problem. “So, you live with all four of your brothers?” Angel asked. “Yeah. It’s just the five of us. Has been for a while.” i said. “Where’s your mother?” She asked. “She died when I was 4.” i said. “shift. I’m sorry. How?” Angel asked. “My dad killed her.” I said and they all looked at me strangely. “Wait a minute. That doesn’t make sense. I mean, the boys are always talking about their mother. And what a pain in the @ss she is.” Rogue said. “That’s because we have different mothers. There’s is still alive and kicking unfortunately.” I said. “I guess you don’t like her.” Angel said. “No. But it’s a mutual hatred.” I said. “Well, it wasn’t your fault that you were born to her ex husband.” She said. “There’s a lot more to it than that. But that’s a story for another time.” I said. “What are you women over here gabbing about?” Rook asked putting his arms around Angel’s w***t. “Not a lot. Just the town and everyone in it. A few things about Skylar. Trying to get to know her better.” Angel said. “Good. Skylar’s a part of the gang. She has been since she was a kid and she told Blade to shove it out his @ss when he was teasing her.” Rook said starting to laugh. The women looked at me strangely, almost like they were surprised that I was still alive for saying that to him. “I was only 6.” I clarified. The party went well on into the night but because of liquor laws and all that other cra'ap we needed to leave the restaurant by midnight so we shut everything down and the place was fairly clean considering how many people were getting drunk here tonight. The guys started heading downstairs and out the front door to their motorbikes while I stayed upstairs to put beer and wine glasses through the dishwasher. Everyone had already left but I knew that someone would have to stay back and clean up. I went out the back to the storage room to put a carton of beer away and when I walked back into the restaurant I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Drake standing there. “I thought you left with the others.” i said. “I was going to. But then I realized that you hadn’t left and there doesn’t seem to be another car outside for you.” He said. “It’s alright. I can walk. I’ve done it a million times.” i said. “You live out of town. It would take you about an hour to walk home through the forest.” He said. “I know. I’m used to it.” I said. “How much more do you need to get done in here?” He asked. “Not too much. I just need to get these glasses cleaned for tomorrow. By the way, we can’t close the restaurant again for your guys. This was a one off.” I said. “I’ll make sure the others know.” He said walking behind the bar and he grabbed a tea towel and helped me start drying off the glasses and putting them away. “So, what’s going on with you?” I asked. “What do you mean?” He asked. “Well, you used to be more party minded but tonight you stayed at the bar all night and barely spoke to anyone.” I said. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just trying to get the feel of the place.” He said. “And it had nothing to do with you staring at me all night?” I asked. “Wow. You’re really direct.” He said. “I thought everyone already knew that about me.” i said. “It’s been a few years since we’ve seen you. I’m sorry to hear about your father.” he said. “I’m not. He can rot in that place for all I care. Listen, you don’t need to help me with this. I can handle it.” I said. “You’re not walking home alone. I heard about you almost getting kidnapped o*******t.” he said. “That was only because my brothers pissed off the wrong people. But they didn’t get me.” I said. “I don’t care. I’m taking you home.” He said. I looked at him curiously for a moment before I nodded my head and we finished up what we were doing.