Between Heaven and Hell Read online

  Between Heaven and Hell

  erin trejo

  Copyright © 2020 by erin trejo

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Cordae

  Ava

  2. Cordae

  Ava

  3. Cordae

  Ava

  4. Cordae

  Ava

  5. Cordae

  6. Cordae

  Untitled

  7. One year later

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  27. 5 years later

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  53. Ava

  Epilogue

  Did you enjoy this book?

  Contents

  Prologue

  1. Cordae

  Ava

  2. Cordae

  Ava

  3. Cordae

  Ava

  4. Cordae

  Ava

  5. Cordae

  6. Cordae

  Untitled

  7. One year later

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  27. 5 years later

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  53. Ava

  Epilogue

  Did you enjoy this book?

  Prologue

  Cordae

  I know there’s a heaven. It’s where my mother ended up after my father beat me out of her womb twenty-two years ago. How do I know she’s there? It’s hard to say. I’ve always felt it in my heart but never knowing her, I guess that doesn’t mean much. I like to believe she is though.

  I also know there’s a hell. It’s where my father ended up after I took his life. He raised me, if that’s what you want to call it, until I was twelve. Beaten time after time until I couldn’t see straight, I finally stood up for myself. The man I called dad for all those years stood in front of his already six-foot-tall son with a smirk on his face.

  “You think you’re a man?” The evil glint in his eyes still remains seared into my memory even to this day.

  “A better man than you will ever be.” I moved in on him, the blade slowly slicing into his flesh. The bright red blood trickling its way free of the evil hold over him. I stabbed him multiple times in a fit of rage. The world around me turned red and all I could see were the eyes of the man who took so much from me.

  I went to stay with my Uncle John after that. Not like his home was any better. Although the beatings stopped, new things were introduced into my life: sex, drugs, women.

  Use em’ and lose em’ was his motto. He showed me how to close off my emotions, how to not care, but there was always that little nagging voice in the back of my mind that I’d like to think was my mother. Always telling me to do the right thing. Don’t use those poor girls, stay away from the drugs. Sometimes I’d listen to it but most of the time, I fell into step next to my uncle.

  There’s a thin line between heaven and hell. I would know. I walk that line every single day waiting to trip and fall into one place or the another. I’ve grown accustomed to this line. Complete opposites. Heaven is bright and full of hope whereas hell is dark and full of fire. I crave them both. I’m on the precipice of tumbling to one or the other. Never knowing which way I’ll fall, I live life the way I’ve always lived it.

  The only way I know how.

  Cordae

  “Let me see that shit?” Benny holds his hand out to me, wanting to check the bruises that now form on my skin. Black and blue are not new colors to me. They are however colors that I wear with pride.

  “It’s fine, B.” Shaking him off, I head into the locker room ready to hit the showers when I see Angie. That tight black skirt does little to cover that little strip of red hair I know to be between those legs. Licking her lips, I give her a grin. She already knows what this is. Benny follows me inside the locker room mouthing about my hand, but I just ignore him, blowing him off.

  “Look, B. It’s fine. It’s nothing I’m not used to man,” I tell him, flashing him my hand once more, as he eyes it with his own suspicions. He knows that shit is broken but doesn’t dare say a word to me about it. I know it’s more than likely broken too, but I don’t slow down to find out.

  “Fine, Cord. Have it your way, but don’t bitch when you can’t bend that fucker.” Letting out a huff, he stomps from the room as I pull my shorts to the floor. Kicking them off to the side, I stalk straight towards that pretty little red head that awaits her turn to ride my cock.

  “Who did you have to beat to get in here?” I ask her curiously. Her eyes sparkle as she licks her lips before sliding to the floor in front of me. To some women it’s degrading. They don’t like being on their knees sucking a man off but to her, she thinks it’s a fucking dream come true. I don’t complain either. She can suck better than any street whore and the beauty of her, she doesn’t cost a cent. My hand knots in her hair as she pulls me deeply into her mouth. The little hum she makes only vibrates my insides to the point of losing my sanity. Guiding her head, I want her to take me deeper than she is right now.

  “Take all of it!” I growl. I shove her head until she gags on the length of me. Chuckling low in my throat, she begins to suck me harder knowing I’m not going to let up on her.

  “Do it, slut,” I growl. Rolling my hips, she sucks like her life depen
ds on it until I can’t hold back any longer. Blowing my load deep into her throat, she has no choice but to swallow it all. Pulling her up in front of me, I don’t give her the chance to kiss or touch me. I’m not into that sort of thing. Instead, I slam her against the wall and hike that little skirt she’s wearing up her thighs before slamming my cock as far into her as it will go.

  “Stop, Cord! That hurts!” She cries out in pain but that doesn’t stop me.

  “Shut the hell up. You’re so fucking loose I could fit another cock in here.”

  Ava

  Sitting in the rocking chair on the back porch, I lay my head back and close my eyes. I try to remember if I’ve done everything that my dad had on that meticulous list of his. I did the laundry and cleaned the living room, as was requested. I don’t know why the hell he makes me do all that if we have a maid that comes in three times a week. Oh hell, yes, I do. He likes to keep me locked in this house with nothing to do but attend to his list of duties.

  My dad’s the Governor of this fine state, while my mom stays at home hiding out in her bedroom. There’s a lot of tension between them lately, tension I’ll never understand. I’m not allowed to. My cell phone rings in my pocket playing the song Snuff by Slipknot and I automatically know that it’s Taren. If it wasn’t for that girl, I’d be hiding out in my own room too.

  “Please tell me we are going out tonight?” Begging her instead of saying hi, she laughs into the other end.

  “Have I ever let you down?” she asks. Smiling to myself, I let out a sigh.

  “There was that one time when you said we were going to the beach.” Taren huffs before cutting me off.

  “That doesn’t count. That was a mechanical problem. Anyway, Eric has tickets to some kind of fight tonight. He said it was like MMA type shit. You in?” Hopping off the chair without a second thought, I move towards the door. Was that even a question? I need out of this house before I slowly go insane.

  “Are you kidding? Of course I am. Where is it?” I make my way through the kitchen before jogging up the massive staircase.

  “I have no idea. I think he said we have to cross the border.” My heart stops when she says that. Last time we did this, my dad found out and I can tell you for sure, I didn’t leave the house for a week straight.

  “I don’t know if I want to go.” Whispering it more to myself than to her, she sighs.

  “It won’t be like last time, I promise. Besides that was with Charlie and he isn’t going to be anywhere near there.” Hearing her say that does little to ease my mind. If there’s a fight to be found Charlie is going to be there. And where you find Charlie, you find Daniel.

  Daniel is my ex. We dated for years before I caught him cheating on me. I gave him another chance only to see it happen again and again. He knows my father like the back of his hand. He’s a highly respected man around the area but he has a dark side to him. The fights are something he loves due to all the blood and death that comes with it.

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to deal with Daniel on top of the shit with my dad.”

  “Yes, now get ready!”

  Hanging the phone up, I don’t need to be told twice. If it gets me out of this house, I will do just about anything I have to. My dad is so overbearing, it drives me insane. I walk into my closet and look at all the clothes that line the walls. You would think that I would be thankful for what I have, but I’m really not. I don’t have to work for anything, it’s all handed to me by my parents in order to keep me in line. I have to be on my best behavior every time I turn around. You can’t embarrass the man that is in the public eye every day of his life. As I let my fingers linger on the silk dress, I contemplate what life would be like if I left. What if I just up and went off on my own? Would he even care? A part of me wants to believe that he would but the bigger part says I already know the truth. My relationship with my parents is rocky at best. Dad has always been way too involved in work to settle down and actually act like a father a should. Instead, he throws all these pretty things at me and expects me to just put on a happy smile and be the prefect little girl.

  With a sigh of defeat, I grab a pair of tight jeans, a shimmery tank top and my knee-high boots. Heading into the bathroom, I look at myself in the mirror. My bright blue eyes and long blonde hair hang around my face, framing it. I see a lot of my mom in me, but she’s so lost in her own little fantasy world that she doesn’t even notice me anymore either. Grabbing my brush, I run it through the tangles as I stare at my own reflection. One day I’ll leave this place. One day I’ll have a life of my own. Blowing out a breath, I slam the brush onto the counter, grab the hem of my shirt and pull if over my head. Forget all the shit for one night. I’m going to go out and have fun with my friends tonight. Everything else can wait.

  Cordae

  Counting to fifty, I do my pushups after I eat. I’m in a slight hurry for tonight’s fight to start. In fact, I just want to get it over with so I can get the hell to the after party. My body’s tense with all the weight of the world on it. My mind has wandered to every little thing that could go wrong tomorrow. I have a job placement of sorts. I guess it really isn’t a placement, seeing how I already know that I’m going to be taking over the goddamn empire one day.

  I sometimes wonder how the fuck my uncle and father were truly related. They were ying and yang. Cut from two different cloths. Rolling onto my back, I do some sit ups while I weigh my options. There aren’t many within this family. Fuck, after I was kicked out of high school, I joined the Navy to learn some kind of discipline. My discipline came from the streets though, not the Navy. When I was released of my duties there, I fell back into the slump of life. My shoulder still aches every time the rain comes, and tonight is no different. Being shot that once really fucked my shoulder up for a long time but it’s healed well over time. Well, for the most part it has.

  “What’s going on, Cord?” Jordy asks as he walks in looking a like an old school pimp. Some days I wonder how the hell we’re friends.

  “What the fuck are you wearing?” Nodding towards his fur coat, I can almost smell the dead animal he skinned to make that shit.

  “You like it? Got it off Joey over on the east side.” Shaking my head, I sit up resting my forearms on my knees as I watch him examine himself in the mirror.

  “You look like the roadkill attacked your ass. You aren’t wearing that shit with me tonight,” I say pointing to it again, he shrugs before taking it off. Tossing it on my couch, I lunge forward and grab it.

  “Don’t throw dead animals on my furniture man!” I roar before tossing it back to him, he scowls. Fucking idiot. What the hell is wrong with him? Some days I wonder if Jordy has a full brain inside his head. Especially when he does random shit like this.

  “Your uncle coming in tonight?” he asks but I just shrug. I’m hoping he doesn’t. As much as I love my uncle for everything he’s done for me, I feel like he’s pulling me into the gates of hell with him. I suppose in a way I already live there. This lifestyle isn’t for everyone. It’s hard and it’s a dark place to live. I’ve never doubted myself in this family though. I’ve always held such pride within me when it came to this. I just hope one day it all plays out the way it should.

  Being a Vitale, you know your place. It doesn’t matter if you’re at the bottom of the fucking totem pole or not. You know your place. Just as I know mine. There were times when I was younger that I didn’t want my place in this family. I would have done anything and everything possible to get out of it but over time, I watched my uncle be the man he is. I’ve watched him run this family with an iron fist. He takes nothing from no one, much the same as me. Each day he does his job as the Boss of the Vitale family and each day I see myself in him more and more. It’s not that I don’t want to be just like him necessarily, but I find that I like my way of living right now. My uncle has slowly been giving me more and more work for the family and I do enjoy it. There are just times that I can see myself doing something else. This life isn’t for t
he faint of heart. You have to shut down to a point and shut people out. You have to wear a mask of stone that you never let crumble because at the end of the day, you are a statue of what this world makes you. Being a Vitale means that you have to hold your head high and never let anyone step in your path. If by chance they do? You take them down any way needed in order to keep yourself at the top. I’ve been witness to more death and destruction than most people have, but that’s all a part of being me.