Chapter 1

The sound of flesh meeting flesh was like fingernails on a blackboard. Miara stood, her mouth hanging open as she stared at her sister and the loser who'd moved in with her. "Wait a minute ... You can't hit her."

"M-Miara ... is it?" The street thug was thin, lean, with a raft of prison ink that blurred into each other. Mia barely blinked at him as he turned toward her, a sneer coming to his lips as he saw Emilee, her niece, cling to her. "If you don't want to get some of this too, I'd keep your fucking trap shut!"

Mia bent and dropped to her knees next to Emilee. "Baby, can you go into your room for a few minutes. Aunt Mia needs to talk to your Momma and then we'll get out of here. Okay, Baby?"

Emilee clung to Mia's hand. "P-promise?" she whispered.

"I do, baby. I promise." She gently touched Emilee's cheek and pressed a soft kiss to her tender skin. "Go on, I'll call you in a few minutes." Emilee nodded and scooted around the street thug that held her mother's long blonde hair in one grimy hand.

"You ain't taking her anywhere, bitch." He yanked Tanya's hair and pulled her to her feet. "Tell her, baby. Tell her she ain't taking my baby nowheres."

"Mia?" Tanya's voice was low, pained and scared. She glanced down and saw the revolver that Ricky had pulled from the waistband of his too big jeans. He poked it into her side and she felt the first of her tears streak down her face. "Y-you c-can't," she managed to whisper.

"I can. And I can take you with me too." Mia stepped forward, brushing Ricky's hands off her sister to stand between the two of them. "Ricky, don't make me have to take you down."

Ricky took his first really good look at Tanya's sister. She was short, barely five feet two inches tall. Her hair was long, thick and a shiny black that looked almost blue in the light. She was pretty but had a don't-fuck-with-me attitude that he found aggravating. A tank top covered nice sized breasts and showed off tanned shoulders and well delineated arms. A wide belt ringed her tiny waist and slender hips filled out a pair of tight jeans very nicely.

"You know, bitch, you and me, we could do some business." He licked his lips obscenely and then reached out to grab her breast.

Mia knocked his hand to the side. "The only business we're going to do is to figure out when you're getting out of my sister's apartment. I want you and any skanky thing that belongs to you, out before we return. You got me, Ricky?"

"No, Mia, don't argue with him. He'll kill you." Tanya's voice was shaky with her fear of Ricky and what she knew he could and would do. Mia had no idea what Ricky was capable of doing when he was angry.

"He's not going to kill me, Tanya." Her gray green eyes grew stormy and she pushed Tanya back toward the bedroom that Emilee was in. "Go back there and pack some stuff for you and the kiddo, sis. I'll deal with Ricky." She waited until Tanya closed the door behind her.

"Too bad she's just gonna have to take the time to unpack those clothes after I toss you out in the dumpster, bitch." Ricky stuffed the revolver down the front of his pants and pulled a switchblade from his pocket, hitting the button that would open it. The steel blade was already stained with blood and he watched her eyes as he flipped it from one hand to the other. "Where you want it, bitch? You want it in the cunt? That'd probably be the best thing you ever had there." He snickered, laughing at his own terribly inadequate sense of humor.

"If you don't want me taking that away from you, Ricky, I'd close that fucker up and put it back in your pocket."

"Oh, you would huh? Well it's a damn good thing I'm not no bitchy cunt like you. If you want me to put this away, you make me!"

Mia took a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. "Such language Ricky. Do me a favor, I haven't gotten written up for excessive use of force in a long time. Don't make me start now." She flicked her dark hair behind her shoulder, easily falling into position to protect herself when Ricky slashed at her with the switchblade. "You had to do it. You had to." She shook her head, her eyes steady on Ricky and his every movement until she saw her opening. She took it, grabbing his arm and slamming his wrist onto the counter behind him. Then she grabbed the revolver out of his pants and pointed it at him. "Got anything else you want to say?"

"Don't shoot me?" Ricky cried out and backed away from Mia. "Tanya, don't let her shoot me! I didn't mean it Mia. I never wanted to hurt your sister, she just pissed me off. Tell her Tanya; tell her how you always pissed me off."

"Mia, no. You can't hurt him." Mia glanced over at Tanya, shock in her flashing grey eyes.

"I can't hurt him? Why the fuck not, Tanya? Do you like how he belittles you? Do you like it when he hits you or Emilee? Is he some kind of big man because he can knock you around? What the fuck, Tanya?"

Tanya was rubbing her lower belly, her hands shaking as she stared over at her older sister. "I ... I'm pregnant, Mia. Ricky's the father."

"Yeah, you wouldn't hurt your niece or nephew's father, you couldn't do that, could you, Mia!" He laughed, the stud in his lower lip glinting in the light that was coming from the broken blind that sparsely covered the window. He reached out a hand, trying to grab Tanya but Mia held her back. "What ... are you going to tell that baby that you killed its daddy?"

Mia felt her temper, something she was known for not controlling, soar and she reached out and slammed the side of the gun into Ricky's face. A tiny thrill flooded her as she felt his nose break. "It would be better than letting you be that baby's father, you little asshole. When did you ever step up for anything in your life but free shit? You aren't a man; you don't have it in you to be a real man." She turned and stared at Tanya. "This is what you want? This scumbag? He'll pimp your ass out and give you a week to heal after the baby comes before he'll have you out there again. Do you think he cares for you, Tanya? He cares about the money you make him and the free roof over his head the same fucking roof that I pay for!" She turned her head, unable to look at the shaking twig that had once been her beautiful, younger sister, Tanya.

"I love him, Mia. He told me he's going to get me off the streets. I just got to make enough money for us to start somewhere else, somewhere that we can be a family, me and Ricky and Emilee and the baby. We're going to be a family, Mia. A real family, like we always used to talk about. Remember, when daddy would come home drunk and slapping at us because his life sucked, we always talked about how we'd have a family and we'd never treat our kids like that. I got that chance now, Mia."

"When was the last time you ever got a good look at Emilee, Tanya? Does she look like this relationship of yours is good for her? Does she look happy? Do you know how it breaks my heart when she cries for me when I have to leave her here? This is not a good place for her and he's no fit human being to be a father." Her eyes turned toward where Ricky was twitching over by the kitchen table. His arms were jerking and he was talking to himself. Mia sat the gun down on the side table next to her, using both hands to try to make Tanya understand. "He's speed balling, Tanya. God! Do you want that around your children?"

Tanya wrapped her arms even tighter around herself. "He promised to give it up, Mia. For me and the baby, he said he'd get off the stuff and I believe him. He barely ever makes me smoke it anymore. He says it's bad for the fetus."

"Barely ever is still way fucking too much." The clipped phone on her belt went off and Mia groaned then picked it up and glanced at it. "Fuck," she growled before she flipped it open. "Yeah, Demon. Where? Can't you just take Hunter and ... I don't know ... let him bore them to death?" She looked over at her sister while she was still on the phone. "No, Ricky! You don't have to do this." She could hear Demon on the other end shouting her name. "She's my sister, Ricky. You don't want to kill her, she's carrying your baby remember?"

"Hang up the fucking phone, bitch. Now!"

Mia did as she was ordered. She felt cold almost detached from Tanya and Emilee right now. She was focused on Ricky, only on Ricky and the gun that he held in his shaky, twitching hand. The gun he held at Emilee's six year old head. "You are going to want to put that gun down, now, Ricky. If you hurt her, there will be no place deep enough in the fucking crapper for you to hide from me. Let Emilee go, let her go ... Now!"

Ricky pulled Emilee back even closer to him. He backhanded Tanya as she tried to get to her baby and left her lying in a heap on the floor. "Now, bitch. It's going to go like this. You are going to put your hands behind your back and Tanya is going to tape them together. Then Tanya and Emilee are going to go into the bedroom and pack while you and I have a little conversation." Mia saw the way he was rubbing his crotch and knew exactly what kind of conversation he thought they were going to try to have.

"Mia?" There was pain in Tanya's voice.

"Do as he says, Tanya. Then you take Emilee and get out of here. Get help and don't come back here, got me?"

"What are you two bitches jawing about? Tanya, tape her arms. Tape em good, I don't want her to get free."

"You're not going to hurt her, are you, Ricky? She's my sister." Tanya picked up the roll of duct tape and pulled out a long piece, slowly wrapping it around Mia's wrists then ripping off the end. "Don't hurt her, Ricky. She's just worried about us."

"Oh and I'm not?" Ricky smacked her on the top of her head with the roll of duct tape, seeing the tears fill in Tanya's soft green eyes. "What the fuck am I then, Tanya? I don't go out every day to find you tricks so that we can have money enough to take Emilee to the doctor and make sure she has food. How many other pimps would give a shit about a scrawny little girl that is more baggage than she's worth? Especially when her momma doesn't give a shit about what I say. Now, go in the bedroom and get your shit packed. One bag each." He grabbed her arm, pushing her into the bedroom. Then he closed the door and picked up his pistol. "It's just you and me now, Mia."