James P.O.V
I sat at the table going through my phone. Man only 15 more minutes till we can leave this stupid ball. I looked up to see if Skylar was around. My eyes scanned the room and I saw her dancing with Jayson. I could help but smile when she started laughing. If Sky's happy, then we're all happy. Out of all of us, she struggled the most with her mentality. It was nice seeing her smile.
"Look at our sister having fun," Ethan cracked a smile as he looked at her.
I watched as she smacked Jayson's hand away from her cheeks. "Thank God she also has Jayson to watch over her," I laughed as Sky's cheeks were now turning red. She told Jay something and then headed out of the room. Jay made his way over to our table and took Sky's seat.
"She claims she has to use the ladies' room," he said leaning back in the chair.
Ethan laughed, "Or she was trying to escape."
Jay scoffed, "As if any woman wants to escape this handsomeness," he joked.
The three of us sat there and did what guys do best. We rated the other women. Every woman in this room has some sort of jealousy towards our gang for some unknown reason. Part of me thinks it's because they're jealous of Sky and how she runs it. Some of the women from the other gangs wore dresses that were absolutely unappropriated for this event. A lady in a red-floored dress made her way to us. From far away she was stunning.
"That chick is hot as fuck," I mumbled to the guys near me and they all turned their heads to where I was looking before humming in agreement. As she got closer she looked like a clown whose face was washed in makeup.
"It's like the FX effect wore off," Ethan mumbled in shock.
"Oh, God! I need to get some fucking glasses," I gasped at her clown makeup. Jayson patted me on the back, "We all do bro."
"Hey," she smiled while fluttering her eyelashes at us.
Fuck off was what I wanted to say but I didn't. I just waved my head at her while Ethan waved and Jayson had to answer properly since he was a leader.
"Hello," he forced a smile. I knew deep down he would've said the same thing as what I wanted to say.
She moved closer and sat next to Jayson. "What are you doing at this table?" Jay asked.
"Well, I just -"
"No. You stay at your own table and if you want to sit at a different table, you have to ask the leader of this table," he lied. I wanted to laugh and so did Ethan.
"You're the head leader. You could overrule it."
"Yes I could," he smiled, causing her to blush.
"Can I sit here?"
His smile widened, "Absolutely not. Now move it before I assign your gang to complete 10 missions."
Her eyes widened and she scurried off with speed. The three of us burst out laughing. Every other gang hates when Jay gives them missions because it always feels like an "impossible" mission that's always the hardest.
"That was the stupidest lie I ever heard," Ethan said once he finished laughing.
"Stupid people believe stupid things," Jay shrugged.
"Hey, I'm gonna go check on Sky. She's been gone for a while now. After we grab her we'll just leave," I said to Ethan.
"I'm staying over by you guys tonight," Jay said nudging me.
"Alright. Let's go get Sky then," I said while getting up.
As we walked across the Ballroom, we told some of the guys we were getting ready to leave. I walked out of the ballroom first only to have someone run into me. It was Sky. I smiled but it faded when I notice she had her heels in one hand and the other one holding something tight.
"What's wrong?" I asked her only to get no response. I lifted her chin up so she was looking at me. Tears filled up her eyes and were starting to escape. I felt my heart break as I saw her face.
"Why are you crying?" I asked in a soft voice a bit tensed. I looked at her but nothing came out her mouth. She was trying her hardest to keep it together. I took her palm where she had it closed tight. I opened it to see the necklace her parents gave her broken into pieces.
I looked up to see Lucifer making his way behind her a few feet away. "I broke her necklace and she's crying about it. You have so much money, Skylar. I'm pretty sure you could buy another one. I could even buy you a much better one," Lucifer to her from behind.
Anger flared through my body and I quicked ran past her and attacked Lucifer. I started punching him as hard as possible. My anger grew strong with each hit. I was then pulled off him and held back.
"What the hell!?" Lucifer growled while getting off the ground. His eyes were now black.
I heard a door shut. I looked to see all the guys behind me and Jay had shut the Ballroom door so no one could see or hear what was happening. I looked around for Sky but only saw the entrance door open. I turned to Lucifer and tried to tackle him again but Ethan and Randy were holding me back.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO HER?!" I yelled. "YOU KNOW HOW HEARTBROKEN SHE'S GOING TO BE?!"
"It's just a stupid necklace. She could buy another one," he spoke with a huge ego. Man, I wanted to break his neck so badly. Seeing Skylar cry always takes a piece of me.
"What happened?!" Jay asked, standing between us.
I shook myself free from Ethan's and Randy's hold. "He broke her necklace," I growled. I was then pushed aside by someone.
"Please tell me you're not talking about the necklace Sky cherishes," Gabe said looking at me.
"It is."
That was all I had to say for Gabe to tackle Lucifer. We all stood there and watched as Gabe kicked his ass. It only lasted 10 seconds until Gabe snapped his neck. Then it hit me. "You can't kill him," I said looking at Lucifer's body that was on the ground.
Gabe got off his body and looked at me. "Why not?"
"Because I am the Devil you dumb fuck," a voice growled. Lucifer's eyes were black and he was now standing up as if Gabe didn't just snap his neck.
"We got to go find Sky," I spoke to Ethan and Jay. They both nodded and we started to jog out of the mansion. We took the limo home. Once we reached I let out a frustrated groan as I saw Lucifer standing outside the door.
"You're no longer welcomed in this house," I spat.
"Would you tell me why that necklace is so important to her?" he huffed in annoyance. He didn't even seem concerned or slightly worried.
I ignored him and opened the door. We walked inside and I closed the door on Lucifer only to have him walk through the door.
"It was the only thing she had left from her parents, you idiot!" Ethan spat at him.
Lucifer looked at us and then realized what he had done. "Now get out," I yelled and started walking upstairs.
"I can't. I need to protect her from Godric," he stated.
I turned on my heels and looked at him, "And who's going to protect her from you?"
He stood then like a statue. Fucking dumbass. I wanted to beat him up so bad but I knew he wouldn't feel a thing. I wanted him to feel the pain he emotionally brought to Skylar but we all know the Devil isn't so kind. I mean I know we should've known something was up but he presented himself to Skylar in a "saving her life" way so we thought he could protect her since he knows what Godric is capable of but do we know what Lucifer is really capable of?
We just let him in without questions. It wasn't the safest thing to do nor the wisest but Skylar... Skylar was our sister and our leader. She gave us a place to live and clothed us. We all met her either during our childhood or teenage years. Out of all the guys in this gang, Gabe was the youngest one. He was 20 which was 2 years older than Sky. Gabe was the most troubled of all of us combined. Skylar knows his full story while we just know a piece of it.
At the time, 21 of us were in Sky's gang already. We were out getting ice cream and there was a mother screaming at her child near an alleyway. We all looked at her to which she smacked and then pushed him to the ground. She then just disappeared. We all walked over to the boy who was on the ground. He looked angry like his mom just told him he couldn't have candy anymore. It was kind of weird because when a mother did that to a child or anyone in general, the child would cry but not this one. We all tried talking to him but he would just scream at us to go away. He never would give us a name or age but he looked to be 11 at that time. I was the oldest then Ethan was the second oldest.
"What's wrong?" Skylar's sweet tiny voice came out. She was now standing next to me while holding two ice creams in her hand. One was hers which was vanilla with rainbow sprinkles. My ice cream was in her other hand which was cookie n crème.
I looked at her to see she was frowning when she was looking down at Gabe. "His mother just smacked him and left," I explained.
As the kind-hearted person she was, she gave me both ice creams and helped him up even though he kept telling her to go away. She took her ice cream from my hand and shoved it towards him. He slowly took it which caused her to smile.
He licked the ice cream then stopped and looked down at her. "Aren't you going to ask me what happened?"
She shook her head, "It's your choice whether or not you want to tell me. I'm not going to force it out of you."
He nodded in agreement. We all smiled at the sight of Skylar's kindness. Don't get me wrong she can be the meanest person sometimes but her kindness was always with her no matter what.
"What's going on here?" a loud voice came behind us. It was a cop. "Where are your parents?" he asked while looking at all of us.
"Over there," Skylar's voice came out pointing to her parents that were across the street sitting at a table.
The cops looked to where Skylar was pointing then back at us. He raised an eyebrow, "You all belong to that man and lady over there?"
"Yes sir," we all said simultaneously.
He looked at us for a minute then smirked. He was planning something. "What's your name, little girl?"
"Skylar Marran," she smiled.
"And yours?" he said pointing at me.
"James Parkston," I said, looking straight at him.
"How could they be your parents if you both have different last names?" he questioned.
"Maybe we were adopted," I spat.
"That's it you're all coming with me," he said while grabbing my arm.
I heard a scream and we all turned to see Skylar's mother and father who were now angry. "Get your hands off my baby!" she yelled then cradled me. She's always a cuddler.
"Sorry ma'am. I thought they were lying about being your kids."
"No! They're all my kids," she smiled while looking at Gabe whose face lit up in surprise.
He apologized and left after being lectured by Mr. M. I turned to see Skylar talking to her mother. She kept on looking at Skylar and back then at Gabe. Her mother nodded and walked over to Gabe. She said a few words and Gabe nodded then hugged her. She smiled and tears slipped out her eyes as she hugged him back.
After things got under control, we all walked back to the mansion that Skylar's parents just bought because of the organization. We walked inside and Gabe's facial expression was shocking. All of us lived here together. We had some chefs come in and out every day only for cooking. The rest we do on our own like the cleaning and laundry.
"We have to go to a meeting but we will be right back," Mom smiled.
"And I expect everyone to be on their best behavior, especially you young man," Dad said, pointing at Justin.
"It was a one-time thing," Justin huffed.
"Sweetheart, the bottle said the maximum is 10 drops for the bubble bath, not the entire bottle," Mom chuckled.
Justin's cheek turned red as we laughed. "Justin downed the whole house in bubbles," Ethan explained to Gabe, causing him to let out a little laugh.
Dad's eyes widened as he looked at his watch. "Hun we have to go now or we'll be late." He looked at me, "James you're in charge."
"Awee, no fair," Skylar whined and I stuck my tongue out. "Reasons not to let you watch us," she said then stuck her tongue out at me.
"Alright break it up you too. We will be back in about 2 hours. If we're not here by dinner time order some food and remember -"
"-call you if we need you," all 23 of us said simultaneously, cutting off Mom.
"They get the idea, Hun. Now let go." They left and we ran to the backyard. The backyard was our favorite place. It had a pool on one side which was further down while on the other side was just a yard. We would just run around or just talk about random things.
Gabe seemed to be a little distant to us but not to Sky. He would keep her safe no matter what. The same day Gabe moved it, the same day everything went down for him. We were all woken up by yelling and screaming. I ran into the room to find Gabe shaking and crying. I have never seen someone who looked so scared. Sky was holding him while he was crying. Some of the guys came behind me and I pushed them out of the room and closed the door behind me.
"What happened?" Mom came walking up to us.
"Skylar's in there comforting Gabe. Something bad really happened to him because he seemed pretty shaken up," I explained.
"Poor child. No one deserves anything bad to happen to them," she frowns.
Ethan hugged her and she hugged him back. "Alright. Back to sleep everyone."
After that night Gabe and us got closer. We told our own story and how we ended up here. Gabe opened up but he never fully opened up. All we knew was that his family was abusive and very ruthless.
I picked Sky up and placed her on her bed. I watched as she buried her face in the pillow and cried louder. I looked at Ethan and Jay knowing this is the worst thing that could happen to her. We all felt heartbroken for Skylar and angry at Lucifer. There was only one person who could calm Sky down or let's hope this time.
I looked at Ethan. "Get him," was all I said. He nodded and walked out of the room along with Jay behind him. I walked over to the dresser and saw the necklace that was irreplaceable.
Money can't buy everything. Especially not something that was once cherished.