Years of suffering had finally taken a toll on her and brought her to California. Her mother had passed away from an overdose of many different drugs when she was merely thirteen years old which meant she was getting sent to her father in Ohio- he never knew that she existed. She had believed that it would get easier for her, to grief and mourn her mother’s death around family, even if she barely knew them. That she possibly could heal the wounds from years of tormenting herself for not being good enough for her mother, for not feeling sufficient- she believed that she was the reason her mother used drugs and came home late at nights or was found lying on the floor against the wall with a pill bottle in her hand.

When she had finally got to know her father and known him for half a year, giving her time to overcome her mother’s death, tragedy struck again. Her father, named Henry got diagnosed with lung cancer- it was already too late for it to be cured since it had started spreading around his body. He was slowly deteriorating. Day by day the circles under his dull gray, eyes darkened and his usual tanned face, paled into a sickly white one. His lips had started chapping and losing their shine, just like his brown hair- until one day, he was just simply gone. The heart monitor’s steady beating had slowed down, beep by beep, when finally it flat lined giving a distinct piercing, sound indicating that her one and only family had finally gone to rest.

Things for her didn’t stop there, when everything seemed to brighten up in life it would just get back down in time when she wasn’t in need of it at all.

Josh was her husband. She had been together with him since she was nineteen years old and they had gotten married barely a year after. They had the most amazing connection she believed and the love they shared was magical and surreal. A year into the marriage they found out that they were expecting a baby, a son to be more precise. Nine months later, baby Kyle was brought into the world with his father’s blue eyes, mother’s brown hair and charming dimples. In those two years, everything had gone great for her and she couldn’t have been happier. She was married to an amazing man and had the most wonderful little family she could wish for. That was until again, she was left alone without any body.

Josh had been grocery shopping with five month-old Kyle because his wife had to cover a shift for a friend over at the bar. They were on their way home when a truck, that missed a red stop sign charged right at them- T-boning the car and flipping it away in vaults, several metres away. They both died on impact. There she was again; she had lost her precious baby-boy and the love of her life. She really did have no one.

It was after a year of mourning and wallowing in her own sorrow that she finally made the decision to leave Ohio. Once and for all- to leave all the bad memories and bring the good ones to where ever she would move. California had been the first flight to leave when she arrived at the airport; she considered it to be faith and managed to buy one of the last tickets just in time to board the plane.

She told herself that even if she wanted to get away from all the bad things that happened in her life, she would never allow herself to forget her loving husband and endearing son- no matter what.

~*~


Her dark chocolate brown hair was tied up in a simple pony tail and she had only applied a layer of mascara along with some cherry chap-stick on her lips. Her olive-green eyes held a slight glimmer of excitement yet there was some noticeable exhaustion hidden behind. She had spent a great amount of the night feeling the nerves kicking in- she was going to start her new life officially by working at a bar as a waitress and bartender. It had settled that she was going to build up an entirely new life without Josh or her baby Kyle. Tears had been streaming down her cheeks for many hours last night- her eyes had been bloodshot and swollen as her heart ached for the ones she loved and missed dearly.

“So you’re clear on what to do around the bar and our on the floor?” Jamie, a blonde and blue eyed woman that was in charge asked as they had walked through each thing.

She smiled. “Yes I am. I’ve done this before so no need to worry.”

“Sorry but I have to make sure no matter what.” She laughed. “It’s going to be great to work with you Danielle. Welcome to the family!”

They hugged. “Thank you.”

Jamie had turned out to be a pretty laid back person, even if she was Danielle’s boss. She still had boundaries and knew how she wanted things to be but she wasn’t like the strictest teacher you had in school when you were younger. She understood that you needed to enjoy working and love what you were doing, so she didn’t try to pressure you into making it all perfect and make you want to kill yourself at the end of the night. Everyone could be as casual as they wanted as long as they did what they were getting paid for and did it good, as well as followed the bar’s rules and there would be no problem.

“Also, just a couple of things I need to warn you about before we open.”

Danielle nodded.

“One being if you see a group of massive, bulky and tattooed men, looking dangerous wearing
sunglasses for the love of god serve them first.” The tone of her voice was slightly shaky and pleading Danielle to do as she said, though she was confused as to why. Jamie’s hands with manicured nails, grabbed both of Danielle’s, squeezing them and begging her to promise she would prioritize those men.

Danielle nodded. “But how will I know it’s them? Aren’t there a lot of muscular and tattooed guys here?” She questioned because she had seen quite a lot of men that were strongly build with tattoos and had that dangerous vibe oozing from them. Though most of them had been really nice and the totally opposite what people expected them to be; well according to the stereotypical reasons.

Jamie released a shuddery breath and for the first time seemed quite scared. “Trust me… You’ll know. Just do as they say, if they ask you to jump on one leg, you do it. Ok?”

“Okay…” Danielle prolonged unsurely, feeling a bit wary about the entire situation.

Jamie bit her lip. “Look, I know it’s confusing but trust me when I say this. Those men are a group of five and neither one of them are to be trusted.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “They’re could hurt you and do things to people that you can’t even imagine. In this place we’ve got each other’s backs I can give you that but if you go against their wishes… we can’t help you, alright? That’s all I can give you for now.”

The brunette decided to give up trying to find out what Jamie was talking about and simply nodded before she went to put on her black apron. There wasn’t many customers since it was about lunch time and the ones that did come in, were families ordering burgers or old men lounging on the bar stools with a pint of beer.
~*~



When the evening finally arrived, the bar was busy. It was quite crowded and loud music was played from the speakers surrounding the entire place. Cigar and cigarette smoke had dimmed down the entire space making it hard to see through. One thing did not pass Danielle by while she was cleaning one of the tables. The five heavy tattooed, muscular and bad looking men that had passed through the doors were making their way through the place. People were cowering away, looking less entertained all of the sudden and more held back, careful.

Danielle stopped her movements, her right hand with what had been a white rag that was now dirty in her grasp covered in soap and water. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a better look of the men and as Jamie had described they lived up to the presented picture she had painted up in her mind.

Though she thought it was kind of juvenile that they acted like they were some sort of high status and dangerous men when she had besides what Jamie had told her, heard nothing of them.

Shaking her head she went back to cleaning the table and making sure all the beer stains were out before she grabbed the plate with empty beer glasses and rag, making her way back to the bar. As she placed the dirty glasses into the dish washer she heard some laughter and glanced through the kitchen window, seeing one of the feared men laugh. She couldn’t see who due to the smoke clouds but it was quite the attractive laugh she thought to herself.

When she was done unloading the dirty dishes she made her way back out and poured some drinks to new customers or old wanting their a refill. As she grabbed a glass and filling it up with a yellow, sparkling beverage she noticed one of the men pointing at her in the corner of her eye as he spoke to one of her co-workers who nodded vigorously.

She handed over the beer and grabbed the money for it, put it in the cash register and turned around upon noticing someone’s presence behind her. Hands on her hips she gave the blonde, twenty year old man she had gotten to know as Dave a soft smile.

“They want you to serve them.” His voice trembling, holding fears as he spoke to her making her smile quickly turn into an uncertain frown.

Notes

Hope you like the introduction!

Give me some feedback, if I should continue or just delete it?