FOR YEARS, Delaney Knight's family had one singular goal - to become the biggest crime syndicate New York City had ever seen.
NOW, Delaney's father has a new agenda - to seek vengeance for the murder of his wife at the hands of their biggest rival...
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"DANIEL," DELANEY CALLED aloud after the entrance door behind her was closed tight and locked, her voice echoing across the white marble tiles that made up the Knight family's entrance hall. Briefly, she gave a nod to Rick, the guy currently stationed at their front door.
It was still a little surreal to the blonde that they actually had security stationed at her family's house now. Delaney thanked the Lord she didn't still live at home, the constant presence of security left her feeling uneasy. Although she had a sneaky suspicion her father had stationed guards near her apartment anyway, or at the very least surveillance cameras. It was overkill, but entirely necessary after what happened to her mother.
No, Delaney's mind shut down that thought before it could spiral. Thinking of her mother meant confronting the trauma she had yet to deal with, and Delaney Knight was nothing if not an adamant denier of feelings until it built up into an explosion.
Delaney stepped through the hall and headed toward the winding staircase, quickly trailing up it in the hopes of finding Daniel rather quickly. She had her first classes as a Junior at Queens College that morning, and couldn't afford to be late. She barely slept as it was the night before, tossing and turning over what her father's ominous text could mean.
In truth, Delaney had no real requirement to go to college or get a formal education. The family business was making more than enough to fund her life, for the rest of her life. But in truth, she wanted some experience of a normal life lest she ended up fully submerged in the shark-infested waters of underground crime. To find herself, and all that poetic shit people liked to say about experiencing life in your early-20s.
Queens College had been her father's idea. It wasn't the most prestigious the city had to offer, and in actual fact they could afford far better if she wanted to go all the way with her education, but John hadn't wanted to rouse suspicion about their wealth. And in truth, Delaney wasn't all that academic or studious enough to get into the big leagues.
Without any ounce of softness in her touch, she all but threw the door of her brother's bedroom open until it banged against the adjacent wall, causing the man himself to leap up instinctively, whipping a gun from underneath his pillowcase.
Once he realised who it was, he groaned loud enough for Delaney to feel the vibrations from his throat and slumped back down into bed.
"Christ, 'Laney! I could have shot you!" He whined, flinging another pillow over his face to block out the light from the hallway now flooding through the open door. "If I'd known you'd be waking me up at the ass crack of dawn I wouldn't have drank that last tequila shot."
"Please, you're a lousy shot," his sister rolled her eyes playfully, leaning her side against the door frame as her eyes trailed around his mess of a room, although she didn't comment on it.
The Knight siblings handled grief differently in their household. Delaney liked to avoid acknowledging it existed, whereas Danny liked to acknowledge it with his head slumped against a counter at a bar.
"Wh-chu-want?" He mumbled incoherently, when he realised she wasn't going away any time soon.
"Care to tell me what dad's text was about and this mission I'm on?" She questioned, pointedly holding her phone up in his direction. "He still isn't answering my calls."
John Knight's way of dealing with grief? Throwing himself into his illicit work and ignoring his children existed. As Daniel was more involved, this didn't include him, which stung Delaney but once again?
Push it aside.
"Oh yeah," Danny mumbled, the heels of his palms rubbing his eyes as he finally sat up in his bed. "He wants you to be that Spider-Man guy's little plaything for a while."
It was silent for a moment while Delaney processed his words, before eventually cocking an eyebrow in disbelief or disgust. Or both.
"Are you saying my dad wants to whore me out to some random guy?!"
"Christ no," he rolled his eyes at her dramatics, wincing at the sudden volume of her voice. "Just keeping being his damsel in distress, you know? Keep him preoccupied for a while and keep him off our tail."
"What the-" she nearly choked as she recoiled in confusion, "why?"
"Look, 'Laney," he started, suddenly looking a lot more serious and a lot less tired. "I'm not going to lie to you, some serious shit is about to go down for the next while between our guys and Fisk and the last thing we need is some webslinging freak-of-the-week interfering. Plus, you never know maybe it'll keep you out of the line of fire as well."
"But Fisk's guys don't know who I am?" She inquired with a curious head tilt, before realisation began to settle in as Daniel looked away. They weren't certain any more what Kingpin knew, as far as they were concerned before their mother was under the radar from his knowledge as well - until the worst happened.
"Look it could have been a lot worse of a text," he admitted, looking slightly guilty for keeping his little sister in the dark about how much pressure the rest of the family were under. "Dad was this close to pulling you out of college, moving you back home, locking you in a room and throwing away the key."
"What stopped him?" Delaney dared to ask, her voice quiet.
"It took a bit of convincing, but I managed to convince him of Kingpiss knew about you he'd have gone after you instead. You're a way easier target-" he held a hand up when he saw she was starting to protest, "because you don't live at home and you're not with us a lot. He's agreed to just keep an eye on things for a while but 'Lane I mean it, you have to be careful."
"Wait," Delaney began after a pregnant pause, itching to change the subject already but coming to realising something else too amidst her racing thoughts. "Was that dad that sent those guys to attack me last night?"
Instead of answering again, Daniel simply smiled sheepishly and held his hands in the air innocently. Fuming at the realisation, she immediately flipped the light switch on to completely ingulf the room in brightness and flicked on his nearby stereo, turning the volume around to full. It had its desired effect, as her brother immediately shouted in pain, his hangover headache reacting instantly to the stimulus.
"It wasn't anyone you couldn't handle, he knew that!" He protested, burying his head back under a pillow to save himself.
"Not the point, Danny! Do you know how fucked up that is? Forget about it, I want nothing to do with this whole plan or Spider-man!
"You know he's gonna keep sending people anyway so you can keep getting saved!" Danny shouted at his sister's retreating figure, while she stormed out of the stale-smelling room with her finger in the air.
