Beautiful Escape

    It all started when I was eleven years old, my sister Abby had just turned thirteen when our father, Mick Abernathy, “lost his luck”, he was a star poker player in Las Vegas, Nevada. He blamed her for stealing his luck, he became an alcoholic and an even worse father. Eventually Abby and our mom left, leaving me to deal with Mick and the threat of the biggest mobster in Vegas, Benny.     Benny had taught me to fight when I was about six or seven, he would’ve taught Abby as well but she wanted no part of it. I didn’t really either, but I wanted to be able to defend myself if need be. When I was twelve, I started working for Benny, I was in charge of finding and training new recruits.      I didn’t want to be in too deep just in case I wanted to get out and start a new life, but with who my father was, I guess Benny thought he could trust me. A decision which got me a spot in his inner circle, a very small group of people who Benny trusted the most, which was concocted of family members. Once again, I was an outsider, never really belonging anywhere.     Ten years of this life and the only thing good that came out of it were my twin boys, Thomas James and Tove Grant. Their biological father r***d me when I was fourteen, I carried them and gave birth to them after I turned fifteen. I’d give my life to protect them, and to save them from the life that I had. I try very hard to keep them away from Benny and my job, because I know what Benny would do to them if I ever got out of line.     The boys are two years old now, it kills me leaving them alone with a babysitter for hours to days on end while I go to work. Except literally anything is better than leaving them in the hands of Mick who spends most of his time drinking and losing all his money at the poker tables. I do in fact take them with me when I go out of town to either collect money from people who owe Benny money, and take care of them when they don't.     I'm not saying I've killed people before, just that I can be very convincing when it comes to getting Benny's money back. I guess that's why he likes me so much, being raised by mobsters does that to a person. Especially when you start as young as I did.      I'm sorry, I got to caught up in telling my back story that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Talia Abernathy and I am seventeen years old with twin boys whom I've already introduced. Although living this life has been fun and I've made a lot of money out of it, but I don't want this life for my sons. They deserve to have the life that they want, not one that they'll be forced into.      I know what you're gonna say, 'why didn't you just leave with your mom and sister?' and the answer to that is that they left in the middle of the night and didn't wake me up to go with them. That's right, my mother abandoned me here at the age of eleven with an abusive alcoholic. Mick might blame Abby for stealing his luck all those years ago, but I blame her and my mother for all the s**t that's happened to me since. At first I even blamed her for my sons, seeing as how I had to get r***d in order to bring them into the world. I was planning on aborting them, but once I saw them in the sonogram I couldn't. I fell in love with them as soon as I held them in my arms and nursed them, they are the only good thing to come out of my shithole of a life.     As I've already said, I'm basically a full on mobster. I recruit and train fighters for Benny to use at his disposal. I'm his best fighter, I've been doing it since I learned how to walk. Being expelled from school for it was no surprise to anyone, so eventually I simply dropped out and spent the majority of my time learning different techniques and fight styles. I would even spend some time in fight rings going up against men almost ten times my size, and I've never lost.      Today I meet up with my right hand Marcus Kane, who I trust, but not with my life. Being in this line of work I learned not to trust anyone wholeheartedly. He brought twelve new men over the weekend from all over the US. Now It's my turn to have my way with them, training them. "How are they looking Marcus, any of them promising?" I ask as I walk up next to him watching a couple of them sparring. "Some I found in their local boxing gyms, they have the arrogance of being the best. It'll be hilarious to see them get beat by the likes of you." He laughs at the thought of it, I roll my eyes because he knows I hate it when he laughs at the fact that I'm only 5'7" at 130 pounds. "I'll just take it from here then, thank you for getting them warmed up for me." He nods at me and walks away to go do whatever the hell he does in his spare time, he's such a jackass sometimes I can't believe I used to have a crush on him when he was first charged to me.     "Alright ladies, stop what you're doing and stand in a line in front of me!" They stop sparring and look at me as if I were a child, which is nothing new to me as this happens every time I get new ones. "Why should we listen to you, small fry?" One of the big guys ask me walking towards me with a menacing look on his face. "Because I said so, and you answer to me." I walk towards him until we stand toe-to-toe with each other.     He just smiles and says, "you really wanna do this little girl?" He laughs as he asks this, looking to his new buddies who also chuckle at the fact that this man was over a foot taller than me. "You bet I do, and as for the rest of you. Watch and learn." I take a step back putting my left foot behind me in a defensive stance. He takes that as his cue and lunges to attack, he tries to go for a right hook but I easily dodge him as he's arrogant and slow. I side step around him taking a few steps back. "Is that the best you got, I'm not even breaking a sweat." I laugh as I see him getting angry, which in a fight, is one of the worse things you can do. As it makes your opponent able to read your next move if they know how to do it, which I can. He runs at me pulling a few more punches, trying to hit me to no avail. I decide to stop playing with his as I can see him a little out of breath. Now it's my turn to go on the offensive, he's coming at me from the left. I duck under his fist and bring my right hand up getting his under the chin. He stumbles back, I hear the others yelling for him to get his s**t together. I kick his leg out from under him making him hit the ground, I send a few more blows to his face and torso before finally backing off.     "Get up princess, that can't be the best you've got." He looks at me with pure rage in his eyes, "I'm not done yet bitch." He struggles to his feet spitting blood out of his mouth. A black eye already forming on his right eye. He comes at me full force, throwing twice as many punches as before, trying to get one of them to make contact. I was starting to get bored so I let him have one hit to my left cheek, I spit blood onto the sand and smile. "That's your one, and by the way, you hit like a girl."      I decide to end this, so I send my fist to the right side of his face. This leaves him disoriented for a moment, I turn my back to him and send my elbow up breaking his nose. He was unconscious before he even hit the ground in a bloody heap. I look to the others who surrounded me in a circle, "does anyone else wanna challenge my authority? Or did this little demonstration give you a hint?" They look around at each other, then shake their heads. "Good, now let's get started."      I dump a bucket of water on my opponent's face waking him up. "Wake up sleeping beauty, it's time for today's lesson." I nod for two of the new guys to help him up and get him in line. "Now that I've shown you that I'm not to be underestimated, It's time for proper introductions. My name is Talia and I will be training you to become fighters and/or bodyguards for my boss. I should warn you, that not all you will be hired as such, you will all show me the best you can do after this training. At the end I will have final say of who passes, and who fails. Now it's time to give me your names."     All twelve of them say their names from left to right. Jonathan, Nate, Rick, Christopher, Ben, Damon, the bloody one is George, Liam, Lucas, Elijah, Alex, and Daniel.    I look at the faces of this batch of new ones, having just told me their names. A few look somewhat promising, others I really don't want to waste my time with. I was to lost in thought to realize the man coming up behind me, "Talia, what have you got for me?" Benny, slaps my shoulder bringing me from my thoughts. I look over at him, he was short and chubby, yet the most powerful man in Vegas.      "You've already had to teach one of them a lesson, have you?" He nods to George, still covered in his own blood. "We might have to take his to the infirmary, I broke his nose pretty good." I look over at him, wondering how it is no one has had the balls to try and kill him yet. "What do you need from me Benny? You never come to visit me working unless you need something." I yell for the new ones to start sparring, I turn to Benny with a brave face as usual, he simply smiles at me. "I can never get anything past you could I, even when you were a little girl." He walks away, I follow close behind. "What do you need from me now Benny? Although it has been a minute since you sent me out of town." I start to get nervous because I know he's stalling. I hate it when he does that, "spit it out Benny, you know I don't like when people waste my time."      He stops walking and looks over at me with a look I know all too well. I bring my head down, staring at my feet. "I'm sorry for talking out of turn, Just please tell me what you want me to do." I level my eyes at him, waiting for his response. He smirks, knowing he's gotten under my skin. "Alright then, I need you to go find your sister." My head shoots up, giving him a bewildered look. "What, why?" I ask frightened of his answer. "Your father owes me money, and I want your sister to help pay his debt." I have a resting look on my face that I probably shouldn't have, "Why do you want her to? You know I am perfectly capable of pulling off a good hustle"      "Oh, I'm aware of your many talents Talia. Having Abby handle it is just, more fun is all. Plus I can't have my star pupil risk getting arrested and spilling all my secrets to the feds." Now I appear even more confused, "what do the feds have to do with this? Everyone knows you have basically the entire state of Nevada in your pocket." I raise my voice a little, as I'm starting to get irritated.      "Hold your tongue, before you say something you can't take back." I nod and take a step back, I ask him. "So how do you want me to play this?" He turns to one of his bodyguards, "simple." He hands me a file, I open it, he's been tracking her. It has her dorm room number, her class schedule, it even has information about her boyfriend, Travis Maddox. "I want you to go get her, even if you have to threaten her loved ones. You remember her bff America don't you?"      I nod, closing the file. "I'll get it done, as usual, you can count on me to do your dirty work." He smiles again nodding, he leaves me to do what I do best, thankfully he doesn't send anyone to come with me. Which means I get to bring my sons and their babysitter with me on this trip, I just hope this goes over the way I want it to. Abby can be quite stubborn when it comes to her old life here.