Duplicity

Prologue

        "Look at her, Liam...she's suffering with her father.  We'd be doing her a favor and boss will be getting what he wants at the same time," Louis promised, as the two peered through the bush into the large window where the small brunette sat, her nose in a book as her father began yelling on the phone.



        "There's no way, she'd come quietly, and look how young she is," Liam spoke, lowly, his eyes raking up and down her lithe form.  "Her father may be awful, but would throwing her to Styles really be any better. We both know what he wants to do with her."



        "We don't know that he is going to hurt her for sure," Louis spoke quietly, trying to ease a bit of guilt out of the both of them.



        Liam chuckled humorlessly, "Harry being gentle, please, Tommo, we both know that we would be throwing this girl to the beast." He spoke, both of them flinching as her father angrily hung up the phone and then smacked her across the face. "You know that boss would do worse, but we are running out of time and options so she might have to do," he sighed.  They wouldn't want to do this to anyone, but they would have a bullet through their brains if they didn't comply and Harry would somehow get a girl in the end.  So they might as well try limit the casualties.  "She's so tiny.  I wonder whether that will be good or bad."  He smirks, dirty thoughts interrupting his guilt.

        "You better stop wondering, before you get yourself into trouble, Liam," Louis warned lowly, but Liam only rolled his eyes.

"Just an innocent thought, Mr. Killjoy. I just want to be sure that boss is gonna be satisfied and I won't have a knife to the gut anytime soon," He defended himself with a small shrug, "By the way, how old does the file say she is? I don't think Harry wants a minor and it's going to be even worse if we take a child, gang leader father or not.  Lou, don't tell me you want to send a little girl to Harry, when not even God knows what he'll do with her."



        "Of course not, Liam," he snaps, "Are you forgetting that I have five younger sisters?  The last thing I want is to send a sixteen-year-old girl, you're right, a child, to Styles, but that's exactly what Harry is after.  He was very specific about that requirement; he wants someone impressionable, someone he can easily manipulate, someone who will completely bend to his will." Louis stated monotonously, and Liam shook his head.



        "Well, she's perfect if she will treat Harry like her father," He observed, both of them watched as she took another blow from her father, but never attempted to fight back.  He seemed to dismiss her with the wave of his hand and she scurried away as he once again picked up the phone.



        "So I guess she's the unlucky winner, yeah? Poor girl," he sighs.

"It says here that she's sixteen, obviously we know her father is Derek Long, leader of the Hackney Syndicate, and her mother, of course, was murdered by him five years ago." He reads, nonchalantly, before flicking through the other pages. "She is a junior in high school, is an honors student, runs varsity track, and volunteers weekly at the library and pediatric wing of Tommy's.  Someone noted here that they once approached her when doing an investigation on Long.  It says she's very intelligent yet naïve and that she is surprisingly sweet given her circumstances.  She has been applying to colleges outside of London early and it is assumed that she wants to escape the gang, as she is slapped around by her father and brothers.  Shit, Liam, can we really just throw her to boss after sixteen years of the Hackney Syndicate?"



        "Mate, we have no choice.  Harry wants someone by tomorrow the latest and you know we're not going to find anyone else. It is going to be funny though, Harry with the goody two-shoes daughter of Derek Long.  Did you see the way she was engrossed in that book before?  The only books I have seen Styles read have been on methods of torture or sex." Liam chuckled.

        "Shut the fuck up, this isn't funny.  We're about to destroy the life of a bright girl who already has a gang leader father that smacks her around.  You could at least have a bit of compassion."



        "Yeah, yeah, alright.  So how are we going to do this?" He asked slowly, as they approached the hard topic.  
Louis wore a solemn expression as he looked back through the window to see Derek banging his fist against a wood table.



        "Well, if we're actually going to do this, I think we're going to have to do it when she's on her way home from the hospital tonight.  Not that we aren't capable of getting into the house, it would just be easier."

        Liam nods before a little smirk makes its way onto his face.  "Can't we have a bit of fun before we hand her over, though?"

        Louis looks over at him, eyes widened in horror.  "Liam, what the fuck?  It's bad enough we're handing a sixteen-year-old over to Styles, now you want to traumatize her before she even arrives.  No fucking way."

        "You owe me, Tomlinson, and unless you want boss to know about that time you let Eleanor's escape attempt go unpunished, I suggest you let me do what I want."

        "Fine, but I am not going to deal with boss's wrath when he finds out."

        "If."

        "No, Liam, when."

***

         I wrapped my cardigan tighter around my body, in an effort to keep the icy wind from nipping at my skin, as I cursed myself for not bringing a jacket even though I knew it would be cold.  My father was angry and I just wanted to get out before he could lash at me once again, so I took off to St. Thomas's, barely even remembering my phone.  The street was nearly empty and eerily quiet, and normally this wouldn't have frightened me, considering my most people did not want to cross my father, I was usually left alone.



          My father was another reason that I couldn't wait to leave London.  I tried to make up for my family's wrongdoing as much as I could, but helping out at the hospital and library would never outweigh, or even balance out, the murder, theft, and God knows what else my father and brothers have done.  And I could barely even function in normal society because of him.  When people saw me behind the library desk or in Tommy's cafeteria, they either walked past me, went quiet, or glared at me; the same thing at school.  I hated it, and it was times like those that I just wanted to disappear, fade into everlasting nothingness, but unfortunately, life doesn't favor everyone, the world still spun around our sun, and things still happened around you. I either had to take what was given to me and try my best not to cry, or just give up and die.  And that was the truth of it, the truth of life.  



        I never asked for my mom to die and for my father to be the leader of Hackney Syndicate, and even though death seemed rather enticing at times, I just had to keep going, because I knew that if I gave up hope I would be letting my mom down and I promised to keep going for her, no matter what.  

I smiled lightly, a sense of relief washing over me as I reached the tube entrance and suddenly had shelter from the bitter winds.  I was about to walk down the stairs when a hand went around my mouth and another around my waist, effectively silencing me and lifting me in seconds.  My mind didn't even have enough time to tell my body to fight before I was slammed into the wall of a nearby alley and I was faced with two men.

         "Hello, sweetheart, I must say that you are quite ravishing in person.  Boss will be very happy with you."

So, this is my new story!!  Just a warning, this is going to be very dark at times, so please read with caution!  Titanium is going to be my main focus; this is more of a side story that I will write when I need a bit of a break from the world of superheroes.  I hope you enjoy and I could have another chapter up tomorrow depending on the response I get to this:)  Please comment and vote!

~L.xx