Shackles on the heart (Book #1)

4. Taking control

(RaeAnna's POV)

5 months later.

I had finally convinced my mom to let me take self defense classes. I was thankful for that. It took a month to do it, but she finally gave in. I take the classes after school for a few hours and on the weekends.

I would finally be able to protect myself and Dakota. My parents should be the ones protecting us, but I knew that would never happen in a trillion years.

I have been practicing for four months now, I am getting better everyday, I have learned several different techniques of defense.

I mostly practice with boys from ages 9-15. Not many girls took these classes, I wondered why.

I wasn't the best but, I was learning, step by step. I could even take down a few of the boys older than me.

Our instructor's name was Kace. He was 37 years old, nice in his own way but, very strict when it came time to learn. He was a very understanding person. He never asked any of us why we wanted to learn, just taught us how. He taught us in the best ways possible.

I wonder if anybody is here for the same reasons that I am.

I was practicing with an 11 year old boy today. His name was Kason. He is cocky and a bit of a jerk. "Ready to lose?" Kason taunted. I rolled my eyes slightly in response. I wasn't here to be the best, I was only here to protect my brother.

"Ready?" Kace asked us. We both nodded. "Begin."

Kason tried to hit me in the face but I blocked it with my hand, I squeezed his fist roughly and brought him down with force, he winced, then I turned around with him still on the ground, then elbowed him right in his face. He fell down to the ground holding his nose, it was bleeding."Ah." He grunted. "What the hell."

I went to do more, but Kace stopped me. "That's enough! Good job RaeAnna." He complimented. I smiled and nodded. "Thanks Kace."

It was almost time for my mom to pick me up, I went outside and waited. I was surprised when I only had to wait a few minutes, usually my mom was at least 15-20 minutes late everyday.

I paused, someone was in the car with her. It was my sister Carrie, whom I hadn't seen in a long time. I ran to the car happy to see her. "Hi sissy." I said, beaming.

"Hi pretty girl." Carrie stated. "Get in." I got into the back seat with Dakota. I gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Hi baby." "Hi sissy." He said, with a big grin on his face.

My brother's birthday was coming up the following week. I wondered if anyone would remember or if everyone would forget like they forgot mine.

William was out of state on business, we hadn't seen him in about a month. I was happy for that, but knew it was only a matter of time before he came back to taunt us.

(William's POV)

I was in a club in my private corner, waiting for a deal to go down. I wasn't a very patient man. I wanted what I wanted. I didn't have time for the waiting game. I was all about money, nothing else mattered to me. Not even the lives of the people around me, I could care less. I had a bunch of money stashed away at my hideouts, I only kept people around if they made me money.

Carine and her kids don't know about it because I didn't want to waste it on them, not like I would anyways. I knew Carine would throw a fit like an immature child if she knew how much money I made.

They don't know what I do, nor will they ever find out. They think I'm here for some kind of business meeting. Well, I am. But, not in the way that they are thinking, I was waiting to hand over $50,000 of cocaine to the head of the Templa Cartel. They were very dangerous people, but so was I.

I've killed many of people in my time, without guilt. I have no soul or feelings, I walk without a heart.

I had my men scattered all over this club armed to the bone with weapons, just in case something went down tonight. They looked like your typical, normal everyday people, Only if they knew.

"Boss?" My right hand man, blue questioned.

"Hmm?" I replied.

"The Ryder is here."

I nodded, time to do this. I walked outside of the club to the place where we are supposed to be meeting. Nobody was here, this might be some kind of setup.

My men were close behind, weapons drawn, waiting for something to happen, Anything. That's when the sound of gunfire went off.

"Take them all out." I told my men, uncaring.

They can't kill me, I smirked. I'm the one that kills.

(RaeAnna's POV)

My sister Carrie left two days ago to stay with her dad. She loved her dad, I wish I had that.

It was just Mom, Kota and I. I was used to that, but mom had become depressed again.

She and William talked on the phone yesterday and apparently he said something that upset her. She bought another bottle of vodka, yep. you guessed it, drunk again. I mentally rolled my eyes.

I had convinced her to buy a cake and balloons hoping she would get the hint. She didn't even act like she knew was it was for. She hasn't been here for us lately, I'm starting to see that I have no parents.

How sad, I thought. Your son is turning 5 tomorrow and you forgot again, how typical.

Next day

It was close to noon. Mom was still in bed, wasted. I made sure to make Dakota his birthday cake, strawberry, his favorite. I blew up 5 balloons. I drew silly faces on them to make him laugh. When he walked into the kitchen I had his cake ready, singing happy birthday to him and sat the cake down. "My favorite!" He squeaked.

I couldn't help but laugh at his antics. He was jumping up and down. He looked so precious.

I put on the radio for him. He loved country music. I danced with him in the living room for a while, twirling him around. His giggle lit up my life. We both tired ourselves out and plopped down onto the couch."What do you want to eat baby?" I asked.

"CAKE!"

I laughed. "You have to eat something besides cake. You want to grow big and strong don't you?"

"Hmm." He thought hard, while tapping his chin. "PIZZA!" He yelled, I sighed happily. "Okay pizza it is then. You can have cake after."

"Yayyy!" He giggled.

"Go play and I'll make it." I put his pizza in the oven, then grabbed some pencils and some paper to draw him a picture for his birthday.

It was of me and him. I drew him as a super hero who saved his big sister from all the dangers of the world, he did, he saved me. He is the only one who keeps me going when times get tough. He lights up my life, when it gets too dark to see. He is my hero, my life line.

2 weeks later

William is coming back here to stay with us for a while. Great, I thought, hopelessly, sighing loudly.

My mom was too happy for my liking. She cleaned the whole house. It was spotless. She even made dinner for her husband, as if he would care.

She can't get out of bed for us but does a complete turnaround when she finds out he is coming. I don't even remember the last time she made us dinner. I used to think she was the best mom ever, my view of her has completely changed. I'm tired of this, i'm sick of this life for me and Kota. I just want us to be happy.

We will be happy, one day.