IX

The crew was a rowdy bunch she knew she wouldn't like hanging around, as she resisted the urge to scrunch her nose at the cigarette smoke one guy seemed intent to blow her way, as he creepily kept leering at her. She could only clench her fist in annoyance at the look of Turner, for she hasn't known that Deacon not only knew him, but was seemingly friends with him, if their bro greeting was anything to go by.

She couldn't care less for the glares she received from the women that apparently fancied Deacon, for she thought them to be nothing but kitties without claws. Yet she realised how wrong she was when one brazen woman sauntered passed her, only to fake a stumble just so she could bump into her figure that had stood a few feet away from the rest, as Deacon made to greet everyone.

She couldn't help but gasp as the woman spilled whatever she had had in her foam cup, the faint scent of toxin quite telling that it was nothing but a diluted version of alcohol made to fit weak brained women that could barely hold their liquor. She could only grit her teeth at the cold as it met her skin through her wet tank top, and silently bristle was all she did as she watched her snicker her way to her posy of friends who only smiled her way in victory.

She was never the type to be spiteful nor petty, she could have simply stalked toward Deacon, only to pull him into a heated kiss just to remind them of their place, but neither motive or action were desirable by her taste, therefore, she did the unexpected. Having nothing but a bandeau bra beneath the wet cotton, a part of her didn't like the idea of wearing alcohol, being that she barely even drank the poisonous thing, hence she allowed herself to be numbed of everything.

With that she walked toward a Deacon that had simply stood watching the scene as if waiting to see what she would do, and she thought if he was looking for a cat fight, he'd be sorely disappointed for she didn't feel like killing someone, nor exposing herself over such a stupid thing. Cat calls and whistles soon followed when she all but took off her cardigan and handed it to Deacon so he could hold it, only to proceed taking off the tank top, and now in nothing but a bra, she felt nothing but the cold in the breeze.

Throwing the wet cotton, a distance away from where they stood and no one stood, she retrieved her cardigan and wore it over her exposed skin, only to keep the cold away, for she really didn't fancy catching a cold. For despite how tough she could be, she was always ever most easily prone to catching a cold, however annoying that was to her.

"Well then" was all Deacon could say as he resisted the urge to smirk at the scenery before him.

He hadn't expected her to do anything being the ever docile doll when in a new crowd around new people, for if she was more brazen in such situations, he was without a doubt sure she would have shorted a fuse and blown up on the young woman, then again,m he thought perhaps it was better this way because he didn't think her capable of holding her own in a fight.

Yet what he hadn't expected most of all however, was her decision to strip tease infront of the many eyes that were on them. She simply ignored him when her eyes finally landed on the car behind him. She said in a dry unenthusiastic tone although she was fan girling on the inside.

"A 1994 Toyota Supra" she started oblivious the eyes that now watched her curiously as she walked toward the open hood orbit only to look inside, " with a factory-installed 2JZ engine just like the one from the movie" she added looking Deacon's way "I'm impressed " Deacon could only wonder about how she even knew exact details like that, a question he expressed with squinted eyes as if all of a sudden suspicious of her. She could only laugh in ridicule and slight disbelief

"How many times have we watched Fast and Furious again? come on Deacon, you don't think me that dumb do you?" slightly caught off guard by her defence he could only sheepishly rub the back of his neck and smiled cautiously so, as if afraid of having offended her he said

"No, of course not. Just didn't think you payed that much attention that's all" with a shrug. She could only click her tongue now all of a sudden annoyed by the whole night from the spill to the overwhelming dodgy crowd, to him thinking so little of her, wondering why the hell she had agreed in the date to begin with.

"So who you racing against?" she asked, not only to change the subject but she also wanted to know. Deacon simply shrugged and a new voice said

"You never know who you're racing against, your business is to show up when challenged, and I know it doesn't matter who he's going against cause he's gonna win anyway" she said obnoxiously so as she trailed her hand down Deacon's arm who drank her attention and confidence in him all in.

Bella found that she wasn't even bothered by his lack of respect for her to at least remove the young woman clinging onto his arm, as they were on a date after all, for she was now certain this would be a one-time thing. Deacon on the other hand found himself bothered by the lack of her reaction, lack of jealousy that is, that she barely showed.

Perhaps because he expected her to stake some sort of claim over him or something, but as he looked at her lack of expression he wondered if whether she really felt nothing but platonic feelings toward him. Also unused to this, and although he had thought he'd be fine just being friends with her, that was no longer the case. Ladies fawned over him endlessly, and she would too because he wanted her to. And so he would do the job, turn her submissive to him, into someone that could be easily manipulated and controlled.

All he wanted was nothing but a puppet on his arm he would make a housewife that would do nothing but obey him and bare him children when he takes over soon. Just like the woman his own mother was. Her disregard for men in her life would make certain she remains loyal to him, and all he'd have to do is cut her thorns, her tendency to have an attitude with him like she had just had a few minutes ago. He thought,  just a few tweaks here and there, she'd be just right.

And then she'd be nothing but a harmless rose that could also be the belle of the ball on his arm when need be. It seemed he had unconsciously picked her minute he had seen her alone 

under a tree, with nothing but a book in hand and a large packet of jelly beans next to her, on her yellow as sunshine towel laid down on the grass about a year ago. And now that he was most aware of why he had picked her, he wasn't about to let her go.

It was when a 2014 W Motors Lykan HyperSport whizzed past the finish line with such lethal speed and grace, she wondered just who the driver was for she took her hat off for them. She thought they were truly spectacular on the endless asphalt and behind the wheel. She had determined who would win minute they had torn away when the young woman had waved a piece of blue cloth in her hand, a signal for them to go on. She had known then that Deacon would lose to the stranger she was yet to see and know.

It seemed that the night would be one of many realisations when Lukas exited ths Fast 7 ultra-limited creation, and his eyes laid on his piccola, who he realised wore nothing beneath the yellow cardigan but a bra, and he couldn't help but clench his jaws at the image, especially with the crowd she was in.

He had failed to comprehend why he hadn't liked the idea of her around Deacon at first, he had thought it his ego, however, now he knew clear as day that what he felt was also a sense of over protectiveness. For he thought her to deserve more than the Torres scum for they were the worst of his kind and although he himself was in the underworld, his family was a lesser evil compared to the Torres family.

He had known he'd be racing tonight hence he had pushed his own name forward, he also wanted to show her that he was better than Deacon in many ways. And as he confidently took strides her way, her own eyes seeming to have been stuck on him minute he exited the car, in nothing but shock only for it to disappear into nothing but an ice gaze. He smirked at having gotten a reaction out of her, for as long as he could make her feel something, then the game would be just as fun.

"Surprised to see me here, piccola?" only to act as if he just remembered what she had told him a night ago he said "Oh, I'm sorry, it's Bella isn't it?" more a statement than a question. He didn't miss the twitching of her right eye as she blankly stared at him.

"Honestly, I'm not even surprised anymore " she said with a shrug, referring to the fact that he was the driver, and owned such a car considering his sleek Audi R8 V8 he seemed to drive on a daily basis. She couldn't help but wonder if he felt the need to show off just how much filthy money he bathed within.

"Thank you " he said, taking her comment as a compliment to his impressive existence, still smirking, it wavered but a little when he saw what swam within her eyes and he couldn't comprehend just why she would feel that way toward him.

For she felt nothing but cold and unadulterated hatred toward the man before her and she didn't make a move to hide her emotions as she glared at him. Although she had been cold a second ago, she all of a sudden felt ablaze as his stormy eyes were replaced by a pair of ice blues for but a second before they disappeared again, and she couldn't rid off the image and fact that he was his son.

Before she could do what she would have most probably regretted, an arm draped itself over her again, the heaviness of it familiar

"Not hitting on my date now are you Genovese?" it was Luka's turn to turn cold, he felt his blood freeze within his veins at his words, also at the realisation of what all this meant.

Why he brought her here with him, it was a slow transition, and little introduction to the dark side, letting everyone know he had found his woman. That very notion had Luka not only enraged, frustrated as well, for not having seen it to begin with, the reason Deacon was where she was most times, that it was because of what he aimed to make her.

He didn't want her stick with him for many reasons, and one of them being his knowledge of how the Torres handled their women. And as his eyes flitted back to the young woman in all her sunshine glory, he didn't care for her hatred towards him, for he wanted nothing but to keep her light from being dimmed down by a Torres.

"And what if I am?" he challenged his posture losing the tense energy that had locked on his nerves, a plan formulating in his mind, his smirk all but returned along with a different kind of determination compared to the one she had seen a night ago, this one burned with fervour she could see. Deacon clenched his own jaw and spat

"Stay away Genovese, we don't want a war just yet now do we?"

Bell knew it then that she was officially stuck between the two Alpha males that seemed intent on asserting their dominance over each other. And at the mention of a war, she knew for certain what it meant and she'd be damned if they roped her back into that world again. She knew that although she had grown fond of Deacon as a friend, she could no longer associate with him, for it was clear as day just who he was. Cursing herself for having remained blissfully oblivious to such obvious things when she could have been wiser.

"Drive me home, when you're done with this pissing contest " she couldn't help but spit out as she removed Deacon's arm from around her neck, and made to walk toward his car, only to rush under the stares on her. She really hated attention sometimes, and this night was one of those times.

Luka could only watch her walk away only to make a vow to himself that he would make her realize just the sort of person Deacon was, for perhaps that would prove enough warning for her to stay away from him.

"No, we don't want a war, not when you'd lose so easily, it really wouldn't be that fun for me at all" he said with one last look at Deacon before he walked toward his own car with the aim to drive home only to kick start his plan.

Sunshine would not only remain as such, but end up his in the end. It was inevitable, he thought. Blind to how depthful his intention would come to be, for he referred to her as sunshine, blind to how names have power.