Page 24 of Venom
“Sure, just like the family man’s house ‘accidentally’ caught on fire by a faulty electrical wire,” I mock, “I mean it isn’t like he owed you thousands, now is it?”
“Watch it, Raya!” he threatens as he takes a step forward.
I smirk and retort, “Or what Hayden? You going to rape me? Nah, your men already did that when I was fifteen, so I’m tainted,” his eyes widen in shock, “Wait, I know, you’ll kill me and everyone I love, no, you can’t do that either. Mama is married to the club's lawyer, and my best friend is a club brat.” His eyes narrow, and I tilt my head and ask, “So what will you do, Hayden, because every way I look at it, if you touch one hair on my head, then you’ll be dead.”
His jaw ticks, proving I’ve gotten under his skin, and he threatens, “You have two weeks to pack your shit and get out of town, or I will kill you. I don’t care who you are friends with, I won’t have a psychotic woman saying shit about my men!”
I chuckle, I can’t help it, which only makes him tense further as I say, “Seriously? You’ve come here and accused me of something I haven’t even done. For years, I have minded my own business while your men have tried to confront me. For years I have been living my life, and yet you can’t seem to let the fact that my dad's family is still alive go.”
His jaw ticks again as he growls at me like a damn dog, and I know he wants to hit me.
Pussies like him only go for people weaker, mainly women, crackheads. Otherwise, he gets his minions to do his dirty work. Unfortunately for him, though, his minions are as weak as he is. As soon as they see a brother, they run for it with their tails between their legs. Now, because of me, he can’t get above eight men in his little group, and I know he’s running out of money. His deals failing at every turn, his clients too scared that they’ll be killed next.
Maybe he thinks I’m a bad omen, and he’s right, just not in a way he thinks.
One by one, his men will die, and then so will he.
“Two weeks, and I want you gone,” he sneers.
I shake my head as I hitch my bag and comment, “Sure, because that won’t be suspicious with the MC at all, I mean, it isn’t like my best friend since I was five has had a baby. You know, the same baby that was in NICU for months or the fact that you know, I’m going to school and working at the firehouse.”
Hayden’s breathing picks up, and I give him a grin and say, “See you around, wanna be gangster,” and I turn on my heels and continue my route towards my car while trying my hardest not to throw up or worse, kill him in front of every student on campus.
Shaking my head out of the flashback, I put pen to paper and begin the assignment as I write down bullet points to compare both parents. The girls behind me gossip now about the MC, Venom, being their main subject, causing jealousy and anger to shoot through me, but I push the emotions down and concentrate on my work.
I’ll pass, they won’t, and that is enough ammo for me.
“Okay, that is time,” the professor announces forty minutes later and I drop my pen as the cramps I’ve been feeling for the past ten minutes but tried to ignore take over. I quickly shake my hand out before I save my work on my laptop then shut it down before grabbing my papers where I did a pro and con list on each parent as Professor Marks states, “Remember you have one week to complete this assignment, a week to come up with a good argument on why you chose that parent to defend and how you would argue the case for that parent in court!”
I hear the girls gasp behind me, clearly realizing they’ve messed up and I smile as I look down at the rough draft of my paper siding with the dad for custody, the mother’s claims not coinciding with the evidence the dad gives. That helped to create a rough beginning draft for the argument I’ll likely make for his case. Before I begun typing it up and I placed it in my bag.
They girls spent their time gossiping about men and how to get on the list for a club party, while I worked hard.
“Shit, I wasn’t paying attention at all,” one of the girls moans, and I shake my head and quickly stand before they try to bully me into helping them like they have with several other students, and I make my way down the steps just as my beeper goes off.
Professor Marks gives me a nod of approval, already knowing what it is for, and I send him a smile as I check it to see it’s from Tom. Jasper called in sick and they need help covering this evening's shift.
I put my pager away as I walk out the door and grab my phone from my pocket before quickly texting him I’ll be there.
I need a distraction from Hayden and his men, who seem to be wherever I am at the moment. I can’t kill them off one by one if they keep following me. I definitely need a distraction from Venom. I haven’t spoken to him since I walked away after I allowed him, the first man since my ordeal, I guess is the right word, to touch me.
I walk out of the main doors before veering off from the group of classmates who walked out with me and head to my car. But again, a voice I never wanted to hear calls out, “You need to stay the hell away from my son and daughter.”
Damn, is this just a well-known place for people to find me?
I thought only my nearest and dearest knew I was in law school, well, except for Gregory, because I want to surprise him, but still.
Huffing, I look towards my car to find Clara Daniels, Ivy and Venom's mama who had disappeared some months ago. She’s standing by it in a dress so small it looks like it she bought it out of the kids section, her paid for breasts spilling out while her once shiny black hair that I used to love is a stringy and greasy mess.
She curls her lip, or well, tries, as she looks me up and down, and she sneers, “Actually, how about you just leave town and do everyone a favor. No one wants your patch-chasing ass around here.”
Jeez, what is it with people demanding I leave town?
Snorting, I continue towards my car, and I ignore her as I open my driver's side door, letting it hit her on her hip, making her gasp and stumble. I throw my bag onto the passenger seat before I turn towards the woman.
She was supposed to be the woman who protected her daughter and loved her unconditionally, but instead, she used the love her daughter held for her, lied about dying, and sold her.
She can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.
