Page 12 of Lick

“Y–” My voice cracks. “Yes.”

“What would you like done with her body?”

Pulling my eyes away from my dead sister, I feel rage like I haven’t felt in years start to heat my skin. What the fuck am I supposed to do? How in the hell did she end up like this? This wasn’t supposed to be her life. She isn’t supposed to be dead at twenty-fucking-nine.

My fucking mother.

This is her fault. She did this. She fucking killed her, and I’m left to pay for it. Just like always. I’m the one left with the reminder of what that cunt did to our family.

Fuck her.

I need to get out of here. I can’t fucking take this shit anymore.

“Mr. McCoy?” Her voice sounds a million miles away. “I need to know what you’d like for me to do with the body. Is there a place I can call and have her transferred?”

My gaze falls to the corpse of my sister. “W–What?”

“I need to know what your next step is.”

“Um…” My eyes dart to the doctor’s, then back to my sister. I feel like I can’t breathe. I suck in air, but I can’t get my lungs to take in the air. “Fuck. I don’t know.” And that’s the fucking truth.

I watch as she bends over and zips the bag back up which makes it even harder for me to breathe. I take a step back from the body. My sister’s body. “I’ll give you a couple of days and let you decide. That’s the best that I can do, Mr. McCoy. Please get back to us as soon as you’ve made a decision.” She hands me a card, and I turn my back on her, but before I’m out the door, her voice draws me back.

“Oh, Mr. McCoy? The autopsy shows evidence of multiple births.”

I turn to face her. “Excuse me?”

“Your sister has given birth. Her cervix and uterus both show signs of past pregnancies—multiple pregnancies.”

I push through the doors and into the night air. My head is spinning with information. I’ll never be able to forget how far gone my sister looked. That thought both pisses me off and makes me sick. I put up with so much shit when I was younger all in the name of keeping my sister safe. All with the hope that she would grow up and live her life the total opposite of our mother.

“Wanna ride?”

Cut’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. He’s sitting on his bike with my empty bike right next to his. Jenni drove us here in her car, but now my bike is here, ready for me. I know she called Cut because she knew I’d need to ride. I was a total fucking douche to her, and she still made sure I had a way home.

Too. Fucking. Precious.

“Fuck yeah.”

Lick, age 17

For three years, I took Teddy’s shit.

I was too weak, and small to defend myself from his advances. But once I started growing, I used both my size and my hatred for him to finally get out from under his thumb. The night when I left him broken and wheezing was the first time since my father was taken that I felt free. I spent three years of my life getting fucked by people who I didn’t want touching me. What I did to Teddy was minor to what I was owed by every single fuck who came into my room and got off a hurting a fucking child. There are some sick fucks out there and I know I’d only had a taste of their perversion.

Anger became my go to when things would start to go to shit. With my anger, came fighting, stealing, and anything else that I felt I could use as an outlet. Suddenly school didn’t mean shit to me. Who the fuck has time to study when their mother is tweaked out of her mind, and your job is to make sure your baby sister isn’t touched? Who the hell has time to learn who sailed the ocean fucking blue in 1492?

Moving was probably one of the best things that happened. Most of our problems stayed behind, and getting the fuck out of that town allowed me to meet Devin Jr. He’s become my life saver. His dad is the president of one of the local MC clubs and he’s given me a job. It’s crap work, but he tells me once I’m of age I can become a prospect. Devin Jr. says he’s doing the same thing and there’s a chance that one day he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps and lead Devil’s Fury, just like his old man.

Hanging with the MC allows me plenty of time to stay away from the apartment we live in. There’s a new dude who hangs around my mom all the time. He’s still as seedy as Teddy ever was, but he doesn’t give me shit and I don’t have to do shit for my mom to get what she needs. That’s all that matters to me. I still make sure that my sister is good, but as soon as she got her boobs and started having her mood swings it’s been hard for me to be around her. She and the bitch go at it all the time. There’s only so much female hormones I can take.

“I can’t stand you!” I hear my sister’s voice coming from the apartment as I walk up.

“I don’t give a fuck if you can’t. I’m your mother.”

“You’re nothing to me!” my sister yells back.

I open the front door. My sister comes stomping in from the hallway with a bag in her hand. “What are you doing?” I ask.