Broken Promise (The Denton Family Legacy #1)

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2016 Sam Crescent

  ISBN: 978-1-77233-789-1

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  BROKEN PROMISE

  The Denton Family Legacy, 1

  Sam Crescent

  Copyright © 2016

  Chapter One

  “Are you a fucking Denton, or are you a pussy? We don’t have pussies in the family, Landon,” Jacob Denton said to his youngest brother. The Denton name was a well respected name, and they were known for not taking shit from anybody. Their legacy had begun many years ago with his great-grandfather, or maybe even before that. They were all respected, feared, and admired wherever they went. Jacob liked the attention. He needed it.

  They were not actors or models or singers. He along, with his five brothers and one sister, were part of an empire that spanned over several cities, and they had their noses in a lot of other people’s businesses. Some would say they were the bad guys, and mothers should really lock their houses when they heard a Denton was coming.

  “I’m not a fucking pussy. I’m a monster,” Landon said, screaming out. Anyone looking at his youngest brother would believe he was a hell of a lot older than his sixteen years. Almost every single family would be horrified if they found out that their teenage son competed in an underground fight with someone who was a hell of a lot older. This was the Denton way. Their father had done this, and so had Jacob, Abel, Oliver, Gideon, and Damian. It was now Landon’s turn to not only prove himself to the family, but also get the same reputation for the world to see. The only person in the family who wouldn’t be in this ring would be Tamsin.

  “Don’t fuck with a Denton,” people said. They were a crime family, a deadly mix that ruled with an iron fist. Jacob trusted his brothers, no one else. They had friends, but none they could trust as much as each other. Their father made sure there was no rivalry between them. They were all equal to him, and he never showed favoritism.

  “That’s right, son, you’re the animal here,” Maddox Denton, their father and head of the Denton Legacy said. “You show them that no Denton will be beat.”

  Landon growled out, and Jacob stood back, standing by his brothers as he watched him go back to fight his opponent. Abel had his hand ready on his gun to start fighting if shit hit the fan. They had all been in this place, and neither one of them had lost, but none of them looked as bad as Landon. For the first time in his thirty-five years, Jacob felt uneasy. No Denton had ever lost at a fight. Landon was just like them, but he was letting the fucker land punches when it wasn’t necessary.

  “He’s doing it on purpose,” Damian said. “He’s feeding off the anger, besides, he wants to make Mom and Dad proud.”

  Jacob looked toward the luxurious changing rooms to see his mother, Charlotte, with her arms wrapped around herself. Bruce, her bodyguard, stood beside her, keeping a watch for any potential threat. If their father could have, he’d have locked their mother in a tower so only her family saw her, he was that protective. Jacob knew it was hard for his father to allow another male to be close to her as that was another thing about their legacy, and what unnerved their enemies at times. Most families with dealings like theirs were known to be unstable, users, and passing whores around like they were going out of fashion. The Dentons, all of them, didn’t do that. Once they found that one woman there was no one else for them. Jacob had witnessed the love between his parents, and it rivaled those of the greatest love stories on the big screen.

  “Block him, Landon,” Maddox said, yelling advice.

  This was why his mother should never come to the fights, but she always did when it involved her kids. Landon had three blows landed to his face, and it looked like he was about to go down, but he paused. Jacob watched as Landon attacked, slamming his fist against his opponent’s face, working him over. The monster had been unleashed, and even Jacob was taken aback by the sheer violence in his baby brother.

  Blow after blow after blow. There was no stopping the violence. The rage crossed Landon’s face, and when the whistle blew and he showed no sign of stopping Maddox ran into the ring and grabbed his son.

  “Landon, enough!” Maddox held his son, and Jacob took over so their father could get Landon. When that didn’t work, their mother was suddenly in front of them, and she clapped her hands in front of Landon’s face, bringing their brother back.

  Reality returned to Landon, and he nodded. “I’m good. I’m good.”

  Stepping out of the ring, Jacob joined his brothers as his father showed off his latest son who had won the fight.

  “He needs a woman and fast,” Abel said.

  “Only his woman can handle that fucking monster. Look at Mom with Dad. She’s the only one who can talk sense into him,” Gideon said.

  Jacob couldn’t argue with his brothers. Landon had an easy, quick temper that had caused their parents a headache a time or two. He seemed to like to take a beating, and once that was done, he’d smack the shit out of them. Since Landon had made it to high school, he’d gotten into over a dozen fights, and put three guys in the hospital. Maddox had to pay a shitload of money out in compensation, to keep Landon from going to prison or juvy. Only a woman would be able to tame the monster inside Landon, but it was something none of them could get him. They could supply him with all the pussy the city could buy, but if his woman wasn’t a whore, or fucking easy, then they couldn’t do it.

  “Thank you all for coming. I expect big things from Landon, and you be sure to talk about the latest addition to the Denton Empire,” Maddox said. The crowd went wild, and then they were moving toward their exclusive rooms.

  “What the hell was that?” Charlotte asked.

  Landon sat down on a bench, unwrapping his hands as he spat blood onto the ground. “Fucker had it coming.”

  “Watch your language,” Maddox said.

  Charlotte took the first aid kit from the doctor and got to work fixing up her son. Even though they paid a lot for the best doctor it was always Charlotte who fixed them up. Their mother was once a trained nurse, and even though she no longer worked in a hospital, she kept her license and training up to date.

  “That fucker as you call him, Landon, is a Moore boy.”

  “Moore?” Jacob asked. “Fuck, I should have known.” The Moores were a mixed bag of good and bad. They were a family who dealt with fights, but they also created a lot of enemies.

  “His family is known for their skill at fighting. He’s an expert, and he offered to go into the ring with you when no one else would. You fought dirty tonight, and not like a Denton.”

  Once their mother got started on a tirade, it was best to see it through. At fifty-three years old, she was still a beautiful woman, but then she hadn’t allowed their lifestyle to lure her down the spiral of drugs and booze. She didn’t go out spending thousands of dollars on shit she didn’t need. Charlotte still cooked for her family, and made sure they didn’t allow the power they all had to go to their heads. She kept them stable, which also unnerved their enemies. They were unpredictable and deadly without the need for narcotics.

  “You may think you won tha
t fight, and you made us proud. You may have even made your father proud, and those people out there all happy with the latest addition to the family empire. As far as I’m concerned, tonight you put shame on the Denton name. When a man is down, you walk the fuck away, do you hear me?” She grabbed Landon’s face and forced him to look at her. “You’re better than an animal, Landon. Do not ever let me be ashamed of you again, do you understand?”

  “Yes, Mom,” Landon said. There was no attitude or tone to his voice. He’d been stripped down.

  Maddox squeezed her shoulder. Over the years Jacob had noticed those little touches. His father couldn’t go any length of time without touching his woman. It was like he couldn’t help but reach out to her.

  His parents’ love had kept them all safe, and if anything was to ever happen to his mother, Maddox would go crazy. The Dentons lived with a legacy to love one woman, and in their history, it showed they went off the rails if something was to happen to that woman.

  Jacob didn’t know how he was ever to find the one woman meant for him, but his father, and uncles all told him that the moment he saw her, he’d just know. There would be an impulse, a need to have her, to take her, to care for her. There would be no stopping in his need to claim his woman.

  In the last thirty-five years he’d experienced lust and even believed he was in love, but he’d never been consumed by the way his father and uncles were with their women.

  There were times like now when the world was moving around him so fast that he wondered what it would be like, to experience such need for another. The women he’d fucked had held his attention for as long as it took to fuck them and forget about them. He loved sex. He loved fucking, and he loved women that were easy. It was the one area where he was the cliché crime boss. He had a little black book full of sluts who’d take his cock without any question. There had even been women he called who were in the middle of fucking one man, and they’d climbed right off to come to him.

  He was an asshole, arrogant, and he didn’t give a shit what people thought about him.

  “Good. I only want to hear the best of my sons.” Charlotte stared at each of them. Tamsin, their baby sister, was the only one missing, and she was at home with the babysitter.

  “Come on, honey, let’s leave the boys to their fun.” Their father took hold of their mother, leading her away.

  “Well, Landon, do you think you’re ready to fuck?” Damian asked.

  The celebrations were about to begin.

  ****

  “What the hell was that?” Louisa, Lou to her friends, Moore asked her brother.

  Riley had asked her to come to the fight, and she hadn’t expected her twin brother to be fighting a Denton. Her family didn’t have much to do with the famous crime family, but they had a lot to do with fighting. At twenty-five years old, Riley shouldn’t have been fighting a sixteen year old. “No one would fight him.”

  “He’s a sixteen year old boy. He’s not even out of high school. If I’d known this, I’d have put a stop to it.” She pressed a cloth to his bleeding mouth and winced as she looked at the mess of her twin. He was older than she was by one minute, but he always behaved like she was the baby.

  “Mom and Dad wanted this. It was a show of strength.”

  “It was a show of stupidity. Sixteen, Riley, fucking sixteen. What did you hope to achieve?”

  “Nothing like my sister who has let the family down by not marrying well,” Riley said, spitting more blood out.

  Lou growled. “This is my life, and I don’t have to marry who they tell me to.”

  “Mom and Dad are going to pick you out a husband.”

  “Mom and Dad can go and screw themselves, or their respective mistresses and lovers. I don’t give a shit. This is my life, and I’m not ending up like them.” Their parents hated each other, but they’d been arranged to be married when they were younger. Lou was determined never to end up like them, and she was going to marry a man she loved, respected, and who was not part of the underground fighting lifestyle.

  She stared at her brother’s beaten face, and she felt so damn angry.

  “No one would fight Landon. This is good for our family.” It would be the only good thing. Everything to do with the Moores was tainted.

  “That’s because Landon is a loose cannon.” She’d heard about the youngest brother of the Denton clan, and she wasn’t impressed. When thinking about the ultimate empire family, she didn’t like them. They were violent thugs.

  “Regardless, I’m now known for standing up against one of the worst Dentons since Jacob.”

  Lou paused. “Seriously? This is what this is about? Some kind of title? A reputation?”

  “No one else has it.”

  “Ugh, I hate men. You don’t care about anything but your stupid titles, and names, and ugh.” She threw the towel at him and stormed away.

  “This is all it has ever been about, Lou.”

  She turned back to face him to see him holding a towel against his face. This she hated to see. The bruises on her brother’s face, the blood, the pain. It was all a mark of violence that her family was a part of. Years ago when she was a little girl, she’d been oblivious to her parents’ dislike of each other. She hadn’t known about the fighting or their connection to one of the biggest crime families the States had ever seen. The Dentons were vicious, and yet even despite their viciousness, they were all reported to have a sweet side. Rumor had it that only one woman could snag a Denton, and he would go out of his way to make sure she was loved and protected. She figured it was a bunch of bullshit.

  Lou never listened to rumors. She hadn’t even met a Denton yet. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She’d not seen a Denton in over fifteen years, and that had been Abel, the second in line to the throne.

  “What are you going to do when they smash your face in one too many times?” she asked.

  Riley didn’t say anything, just like she knew he wouldn’t. Most of the time she stayed out of the family business, and the only reason she was here tonight was because it beat being at her apartment, worried sick over him. She had been at the gym owned by her parents when she heard that her brother was fighting tonight. To everyone’s amusement, she’d been trying to slim down from her size eighteen curves, but it seemed no matter what she did, she couldn’t shed the weight.

  She’d hoped with exercise she’d be able to eat as much fried chicken and chocolate as she wanted, but that was not the case. Sure, she could work out, and eat, but she would have to work out every single hour of every single day to even lose a pound. She hated food. No, that was an entire pack of lies. She loved food, but her body hated it.

  Pushing her own thoughts aside, she stared at her brother.

  “This is all part of the business.”

  “I know what it is or isn’t, Riley. I’m not asking you to tell me what you’re doing isn’t wrong. I want to know what you’re going to do when this goes too far. That ring is not governed by law. It’s got its own set of rules.”

  Riley reached out, holding her hand. “I’m not going to fight any time soon.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “People die from fighting.”

  “I’m a tough old fucker, Lou. Nothing is going to kill me.”

  She shook her head, reaching out to take his face, gently. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “I’m not going to, but I am going to the after party hosted at the Dentons’ house. It’s why Mom and Dad couldn’t be here. They’re making sure they are there before anyone can throw them out.”

  “You mean in case you had won the fight and the baby hadn’t?” Lou asked.

  Riley sighed. “You just don’t get it, but maybe one day you will.”

  “If you’re thinking when my kids are old enough to do this shit, you better think again. I’m not letting my kids do anything like this.”

  Her brother laughed. “Go and wait in the car. I’ll be out in a minute. Don’t want to miss an opportunity to rub it into every fucker’s fa
ce that they were too damn scared to take on the sixteen year old boy.”

  “You do know how that sounds, right?”

  “You didn’t even watch the fight. You have no idea what he looks like.”

  She hadn’t been able to watch the fight. The thought of her brother fighting someone so young hadn’t appealed to her. She’d stayed in his dressing room, listening to the screaming and yelling. They were all animals. “True.”

  “Go and wait in the car. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Pfft, you can’t even walk.”

  Riley climbed off the table and raised his brow at her. “Got a problem?”

  “Fine, I’ll go and wait in the car.” She turned on her heel and walked out of the back of the changing rooms to where his car was. Climbing into the passenger side, she tapped her legs as she waited. This was what she never wanted to do. From the moment she first realized what her parents did, she’d been fighting to stay away from them.

  Many of the argument she had with her parents were because she refused to fall in line and accept her fate. She wasn’t going to become another trophy wife, or a connection to another crime family. Her parents didn’t like the fact she had a free mind, or that she intended to do what she wanted to do rather than what she had been told.

  Pushing her hair out of her face, she pulled it on top of her head so it wouldn’t be in the way.

  She didn’t have to wait long before Riley was in the car. “I figured you’d try to drive my car.”

  She chuckled. “There’s only so far a brother’s love will get me, and taking his car for a drive will test that love.”

  “You got that right.”

  He fired up the engine, and she sat back, enjoying the ride of the car.

  Chapter Two

  Jacob grabbed a beer and looked around the large reception room which was filled with people. The fight meant they were in for one hell of a party, and glancing across the room, he saw that Landon was already lapping up the attention. Three women were all hanging around him.