Chapter One

Atlas

W eapons class.

I always find it a bit ironic that I have to take this class when I could most likely outshoot everyone here, and the teacher as well. Not that he would appreciate that being pointed out to him. He tried to do one of those typical teacher power moves when I first started here and joined Rage. He wanted to humiliate me in front of all of the other kids, who were wary of me anyway because of my scars.

I’m not entirely sure what he was trying to prove, but he set up a target that would have been way too far away for a novice, which is what he assumed I was, and handed me a gun without telling me how to use it, again he assumed that I was a novice so that was an incredibly dangerous and stupid move on his part. He then told me to shoot the target with a smug grin on his face; of course, me being the shit I am, I didn’t just shoot it; I shot a smiley face with a bullet hole through the middle of the target as a nose.

He backed off after that, and it quickly spread around the school just how good I am with a gun, amongst other things, which immediately made people fear me. That’s okay; funnily enough, I am okay with being feared.

The teacher now just leaves me to my own devices in class, and focuses on helping the other kids, which he does really well actually, so I have no idea why he had a problem with me. Unless he were here when my father was here, that would explain a lot.

The buzzing of my phone in my pocket pulls me from my thoughts; I lower the gun and pull it out, reading the message on the screen from Alaric. I quickly take apart my gun, put it on the table in front of me, take off the ear defenders, and then head toward the door of the classroom to go and find Rage.

“Atlas!” the teacher shouts after me, “I didn’t give you permission to leave!”

I don’t bother replying; I just wave my hand behind me dismissively as I walk out the door and close it behind me. He knows that there is fuck all that he can do, and he fucking hates it. It makes me smile.

After our first meeting, around a year ago now, I couldn’t give a shit, I will respect someone who shows me respect and he still won’t. I don’t have the time for his petty games anyway.

Moving through the vast hallways of Blackbreak, I see a couple more teachers, but none of them stop me or say anything at all really. Finally, I come to a stop in front of Rage’s class. I actually really like this teacher, so I knock on the door before I enter and disrupt the lesson.

“Atlas, is everything okay?” He asks me once he has called for me to enter.

“Yes sir,” I reply, “I need Rage.”

“He didn’t come to class today,” he replies.

I nod, “Thanks.”

I don’t have to worry about him not being here; there is only one place that he will be, and that’s the stables. I keep telling him to get his horses up here, but he hasn’t managed it yet. His cunt of a mother is making things difficult.

We have all of our gear in the car since we decided that it was probably a good idea to keep it all in there; Alaric calls on us at random times, including when we are in class, like today, and it’s just easier if we are ready to go when he needs us. My car is parked outside of the main entrance to the building that holds the majority of the lessons, including the indoor shooting range, or at least one of them.

It takes me no time at all to hop into my car and drive over to the stables. It takes me slightly longer to find Rage, simply because they are so vast.

“What’s up, man?” Rage asks once I’ve finally found him.

“Alaric messaged, we have got to go. He’s going to pick us up from the front gates, like usual.” I explain.

“Awesome, I could do with getting out of here,” he looks around and adds, “Well, not specifically here, but the school as a whole.”

I chuckle as we head out to the car and get in, “Dude, I knew what you meant.”

“How long ago did he message?” Rage asks.

“About twenty minutes; it took me a while to find you. He should be waiting by now,” I reply.

“Good, it’s too damn cold to be waiting out by the gate. I always feel like I’m going to freeze my nuts off,” he replies with a shiver just for emphasis. “I miss summer. We haven’t been back that long, and it’s already cold.”

“Yeah. Alaric is going to have to start messaging when he’s outside and just wait for us rather than the other way around,” I reply.

As we get out of the car, having parked it in the lot by the gates, he says, “You can tell him that he likes being told what to do about as much as you do, and that’s not at all.”

“Fuck off,” I grin, grabbing my bag and locking the car.

“You know I’m right,” Rage replies.

I just shrug, making both of us laugh, we both know that he’s right. He has known me since we were little kids, there isn’t much that he doesn’t know about me.

“Hey guys,” Alaric greets us as soon as we get in the car.

“Hey, man,” I reply. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. After a somewhat quiet period, I think things might be picking up again, and we might have a better chance of actually stopping Liam soon,” he replies.

“What about Blake?” I ask.

My brother is just as big of a problem as my father is, if not more.

“He will be taken down along with Liam; he’s involved, and we will take the whole operation down,” Alaric replies firmly.

“Good,” I reply.

My father, Alaric’s brother, Liam, is as bad as they come as far as criminals are concerned. He deals in pretty much everything that you can think of and doesn’t discriminate. Drugs, weapons, people, he doesn’t care; he will sell it all to the highest bidder. He is so prominent in the crime world that even just the sound of his name holds power, and if you are a known associate of his and preferred by him, then you are almost untouchable.

No one would risk retribution from my father.

It works the other way though as well, if you work for my father and you displease him, then he will end you, without remorse, and without hesitation. I would know, I have seen it happen when I was far too young to be witnessing things like that.

Alaric managed to get me away from him and, more importantly, my brother Blake. My father may have been bad, but Blake targeted me, he fucking hates me, and he let me know that he did my whole life. He tortured me, and I’m not talking about the usual sibling shit, I mean actual torture. He has nearly killed me, and if my father hadn’t found us when he did, I would be dead. So, I guess I do have something to thank the old man for. I think it might have been that incident that was the catalyst that Alaric used so that he could finally get me away from them. I don’t remember my dad putting up much of a fight, but then again, I was pretty fucked up at the time, and I don’t remember much.

I remember being in the hospital, slipping in and out of consciousness, and Alaric holding my hand tightly, whispering that he loved me, and saying that he was going to fix it to make sure that nothing like this could happen again. He also said sorry, but I slipped back into unconsciousness before I could ask him what he was sorry for, and so much time has passed now, it seems odd and awkward to ask.

Blake is Liam’s right-hand man, and whereas Liam has a few grey and shaky morals, Blake has absolutely none. He will kill you just for looking at him the wrong way. I remember when we were younger, he killed one of his best friends just because he was in a bad mood, and he didn’t even regret it. So, it wasn’t like he did it in a fit of rage; he knew what he was doing the whole time and still killed him.

Blake is a psychopath and is made even more terrifying because he was raised in the world of crime, and he has a lot of skills because of it. Skills that he utilizes regularly. He is a force to be reckoned with, and if I’m being honest with myself, he scares the fucking shit out of me. I have seen the things that he can and will do without a second thought.