The Seven Deadly Sinners

12

I flinched when Colby grabbed my hand to lead me down the stairs.

"I told you, that shock only happens once," he said. I could feel the arc indented in his palm with mine when I reciprocated holding his hand. He gently led me down the stairs, probably fully aware that I was still sort of in disbelief about all of this stuff. I was glad that something in my brain or soul or whatever was helping me stay relatively calm with all of this now.

Colby led me into a second living room behind the kitchen, where everyone was sitting on the couch. Brennen jumped up when I walked in.

"Weapons. All of your weapons now," Brennen said, holding out his hand. I sighed. I knew I was in charge, but Hades had sent Mike and Brennen down to sort of parent us. They were here to keep everyone in check.

"Do I have to?" I asked, looking past Brennen at Mike. Mike smirked.

"How many you got?" he asked. I sighed again and crossed my arms.

"Left? Three," I said.

"What? Girl, you're wearing jeans and a tiny shirt. Where in the fuck could you possibly be keeping three more things?" Tara asked.

"It's critical for my work that I maintain the appearance of some normal girl while possessing the ability to prove that I am much more than that if someone decides to test me," I replied.

"Well we're not going to test you. So yeah, all three," Mike said. I rolled my eyes. I took the first knife out from under my bra and handed it to Brennen. I took my other butterfly knife out from my pant leg and set it in his hand, too. I reached around to the waistband of my jeans and tucked my finger in the hidden compartment and slid out the brass knuckles, dropping them into Brennen's palms with a loud clink as it hit the knives.

"There," I said shortly. I didn't like the feeling of being unarmed. Of course I knew how to fight, but a knife will always win against a punch to the face.

"Damn, girl's packing," Jake said.

"Yeah, buddy. You would be too if you had to deal with the things I do on a day to day basis. Plus I'm, like, half your size," I said. Jake was undoubtedly over 6 foot and he wasn't a scrawny guy.

"Yeah, so how did that happen? How did you get to the point in your... job that you're at right now?" asked Sam.

"Do you all know Axel or just Colby?" I asked.

"Who the fuck is Axel?" Corey asked.

"The dude I buy Mike and Brennen's bullets from," Colby said.

"Buy? Yeah right. More like take," I replied.

"Hey, he gives them to me. I don't forcibly take anything," said Colby. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. I was a student at UCLA. Studying geology. Volcanology, specifically," I started. Brennen laughed.

"You used to study rocks?" he asked, making fun of me. I took two steps across the room so I was inches away from him.

"Hey, buddy, you might have the knives here, but I've already proven to you all, especially you, that I don't tolerate shit like this," I hissed. I knew these people were going to be my friends and even my family pretty soon. But just like in the crime ring, you have to be a dick until you're at the top. Once people know that you're in charge for a reason, they won't try to fuck with you. Brennen took a step away from me.

"Okay, sorry," he mumbled. I walked back over next to Colby where I had been before. Colby wasn't quite smiling, but I could tell that he enjoyed the fact that someone had finally told off Brennen for running his mouth.

"Volcanoes. I was studying volcanic patterns and magma. Except I was addicted to crack. Like, very addicted. Spent my tuition on coke instead of books. Had to drop out halfway through the second semester of my freshman year. I ran out of money but LA isn't a cheap place to be. Learned how to skim ATMs, became a loan shark. I met Axel, the arms dealer, and he liked me. We became really good friends. He brought me into the ring to keep me safe. They helped me train and learn how everything works. I was working with him for a little while until my sales surpassed his. It made him mad that I was making almost double than he was when I was just some 18 year old cokehead college dropout at the time. So he shot me," I said.

"He what?" asked Dev.

"Shot me. In the ass, actually. I tried to jump out of the way and it just barely grazed me. So I shot him right back. In the foot. Ran away from the situation and didn't see the guy for months, basically dropped out of the ring. Stopped the drugs since I didn't want to associate myself with the ring anymore and they were the only ones selling at the time. Stuck to the ATMs for a while. Then I found the salon. There's this sex club with the front as this weird salon thing. I could tell it was a cover right when I saw the building. Walked straight into the back with my gun and told the owner of the place, Trixie, that I get a 30% stake, or she and all of her workers get exposed. And then I learned that Trixie was dating Axel. I ran into Axel one day when I was coming into the salon to pick up my weekly pay. Just about shot him again, in the head that time. But he was happy to see me. Said he had some serious respect for me since I was willing to shoot him. Axel was really high up in the ranks when I'd done that. And that he was proud of me for being able to just stop doing drugs like that.

"Axel and Trixie told me that the old ring boss, Blaze, had been killed in a drive by. They were looking for someone else to help run things. Axel and Trixie had been running the ring for the past few weeks and they asked if I wanted in on it since they were both so impressed with me. Eventually worked my way to the very top, Axel below me and Trixie below him. Been like that for almost a year now. But I guess I'll be abandoning that post," I explained. Damn, that was crazy to hear. I hadn't said any of that stuff out loud before.