Seven Deadly Sins - Pride (Book 1)

Chapter 1

I run through the grimy streets of Detroit, my mouth bloodied and my knuckles bruised. I can hear someone call my name in the distance.
"April, come here! You can't run, you've got a debt to pay..."
A gunshot sounds in the empty alley, and it almost nicks my ear. I can hear someone laugh, and footsteps get closer.
"Come on April, you know there's no point. We'll get to you sooner or later. You can't escape from us. We have control over this whole city." 
I don't look behind me. The footsteps stop, and so do the gunshots. 
I slow my pace to a walk, and I head out onto the main sidewalk, pit of the alleyway. It's late at night, in the bad part of town, and the only people around are the few drunks still milling about and catcalling every woman that passes by. I can hear one whistle at me, and I give him the finger.
He gets up as I pass by, teeters on his feet, and grabs my shoulder.
"Who do ya think ya are, girl?" His words are slurred.
I unholster my gun and point it at him.
"Don't try me," I say, and his eyes widen in fear. He lets go of me and topples down onto the sidewalk, eyes still on my weapon.
"No need to get excited, doll," he mutters and goes back to his bottle.
I continue to walk, and after a few seconds, someone grabs my arm again. This time, however, the touch is firm. It's someone else. I whirl around, weapon in hand.
The woman there stares at me, a cocky smirk on her pretty face. Her dirty blonde hair falls onto her shoulders, and she's wearing a fitted tuxedo. 
"April Summers.." She says. Her demeanour is flirty, but her voice has a poisonous edge. 
"You have a lot of enemies in this town."
"I don't know what you mean," I tell her, but the lie falls flat. Her smirk turns into more of a malicious grin, and her grip on my arm tightens.
"You know exactly what I mean..." 
"N - no, you must have the wrong person," I tell her, and all of a sudden her smile is gone, replaced by an angry frown.
"Don't be to me," she snarls. "You've made the wrong people angry, and that includes the Daughters in Red. Us."
I suddenly realize who this woman is, and I stumble back and almost fall.
"You're her! You're... Amber DeStil..." 
She grins once again.
"That's nice that you know who I am. And surely you know who I chose to spend my time with." 
I shake my head.
"Please, no! I did nothing wrong!" 
She mock-frowns at me. 
"Really? Because Laia thinks differently." 
I pale at the mention of the name.
"She...she wants me?" 
Amber laughs. 
"The whole gang does! And you'll come quietly..."
The whole time we were talking, I didn't even notice that she unholstered her weapon.
She points the gun at my head, and motions to a black SUV. 
"Get in the car." 
I know I have no choice, so I do. She gets in beside me, and motions the driver to drive downtown. 
"Where are we going?" I ask her, my eyes still on her gun.
She grins at me.
"We're going to my casino." 
My eyes widen. The Daughters in Red Casino is one of the most exclusive places in Detroit, and it's how the gang made all their money. Rumours fly, and you begin to wonder exactly who frequents the place...
We arrive at a small door, and steps that lead to a basement. 
"This is it?" I ask as the car drives away, the driver well paid.
Amber doesn't answer me, and she just goes down the stairs to another door. There's a man in a suit standing in front of it.
"Who's the girl?" He asks, and I realize he's talking about me. 
Amber smirks at him and whispers something into his ear.
His eyes widen.
"Laia's not gonna be happy." 
Amber rolls her eyes. 
"When is Laia ever happy with something I do?"
The man just shrugs and opens the door. Amber reaches into my jacket and takes my weapons. She smirks at me.
"It's for the best." 
Yeah right.
The door opens, and I'm blasted with the sound of jazz music and shining lights. The casino is filled with people in suits, placing chips on tables and chatting, all while trying to sneak looks at each other's cards. I can hear Amber grumble from the loud music. 
"What idiot let Raine pick the music again?" She grumbles. 
"That would be me," says a voice from behind us, and I turn to see a woman, about twenty-three, with long black hair and slightly tanned skin frowning at us. She wears a dark navy blue suit and has an expensive yet beat-up-looking necklace around her neck.
"Who is this?" The woman nods her head at me.
"April Summers," Amber replies, looking smug.
The woman looks me over, unimpressed 
"This is the one Cascade is looking for?"
"Apparently," says Amber, taking a cocktail from a nearby table. "Apparently she knows something about his gang, and he wants to silence her or something." 
The woman smiles at this.
"What does she know, I wonder..." 
I take a step back, and I almost bump into someone.
"I don't know anything, I swear! I just... I just made a deal with them a while back. I was down on my student loan payments, and I needed money fast. They just want me because I didn't pay them..."
The woman in the navy suit thinks about this for a second. Then she asks me - 
"Did they try to kill you?" 
Amber goes to stand behind her.
"Yeah, they did! They were shooting at me and everything!" 
"Then you know something," she says. "If they just wanted money, they would have wanted you alive. Dead women can't pay." 
I think about this for a moment, and then realize that she's right. 
"So... Are we just gonna keep her here?" Amber asks the woman. 
"... I suppose. Until we find out what she knows," the woman comes close to my face. "And then she'll leave and never come back," she snarls. 
Amber laughs. The woman glares. 
"Take her to a room. She can stay there until we figure her out."
"We don't have any extra rooms," Amber says.
The woman looks back at her.
"You brought her here. She'll stay with you." 
Amber groans, and then begrudgingly motions me to follow her. We head out of the room, the glow of the crystal chandeliers fading.
"Sorry about Laia. She's always like that. She thinks that just because it's her gang that she gets to boss us around." 
I look at Amber quizzically. 
"But... Isn't that her job?" I ask.
Amber sighs dramatically. 
"I guess." 
"What's your job?" I inquire.
"I'm sort of the diplomat, I guess. I work on inter-gang relationships. As you can see, Laia's not a people person, and the rest of the gang isn't really into stuff."
My eyes widen.
"The rest of the gang?" 
She looks back at me. We're walking upstairs into a dimmer, yet still well-furnished hall.
"Yeah. You don't think that we made out fortune all on our own, did you?"
I guess they had to have had more help.
She opens one of the doors, and I step inside. The room is very clean, with a large double bed in the center. All around the room are circular mirrors, overlapping one another, and the reflecting light casts the room in a heavenly glow. There's a desk at the side, and a smaller door leading to a walk-in closet. 
"You can sleep on the bed," she says, and she begins to walk towards the closet. She goes in, and after a second pulls out a mattress. 
"Are you gonna sleep on that?" I ask her, and she grins.
"Why? Would you rather I sleep with you?" 
I blush furiously as she unfurls the mattress and puts it on the other side of the room. She begins to head out the door. I follow. She turns and looks at me.
"Stay in the room. The bathroom's over there," she points at another door and the left side of the room. "I'll get you once the rest of the gang comes." 
She leaves the room, and I sit on the bed, unsure of what to do now.