Page 69 of Venom
I sob, gripping the back of his cut before slim arms wrap around us, and Hudson’s murmuring enters my ears.
I pull back a little from Cale and quickly wrap an arm around a sobbing Ivy and a very tired Hudson, who lies his head on my shoulder, and Ivy cries, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” repeatedly.
Cale doesn’t let go of his hold as he presses his lips to my head, and I plead, “Please tell me he didn’t touch that mattress,” suddenly remembering what I had to do, and everyone looks at it. Ivy pales seeing what’s on it while Psycho swears, “He didn’t, I promise,” as he presses a kiss to my head and he whispers, “I’m sorry for my actions earlier, I was out of line and I cannot thank you enough for saving my son and for saving my brother because if you had died, he would have followed.”
I nod and lean my head against him before Mama pushes through and grabs my cheeks, knowing Cale won’t let me go.
Her caramel eyes are full of terror, and guilt fills me as she pleads, “Please don’t do that again, please, I can’t lose you too, Gregory can’t lose you.”
I nod and lean my head against her forehead while tightening my grip on Cale as everyone surrounds us and my team puts out the fire. For the first time in ten years, I feel at peace. I know the road ahead isn’t pretty, I know it’ll be hard and that I need professional help, but as I open my eyes and look up at Cale, I know with him by my side, even if it is just as a friend, I’ll make it.
Chapter 27
Venom – A Week Later
I gently bounce my leg as I chew my bottom lip, ignoring the receptionist's eyeing me, or more like eyeing my cut up, while I lean back in my chair, my arms crossed over my chest, my body tense.
Forty-five minutes, that is how long Raya has been in the therapist's office, and I’ve been sitting here impatiently waiting for her to come out.
Being away from her is more than hard, it’s gut-wrenching.
Between Hayden taking her and the trauma she received for four days, to watching her running into a burning building, then being thrown outta the window by a blast, I can’t take being away from her.
Every night she’s in my bed, in my arms, in a daze, not knowing how to move forward, and I had to beg her to get some help. To see if someone who wasn’t an influence in her life could help, just so she doesn’t do something stupid, something I know flitters through her mind often.
Fuck, she was going to stay in the burning building until I told her I would follow.
I sigh as I look at the clock. We haven’t spoken about us, about where we are, or the fact that I’ve claimed her, heck, she doesn’t even realize I’ve moved her in. Blade has already rented out her apartment to someone else, and the only reaction I’ve had out of her was when I told her Cherri was dead three days ago.
She smiled.
Thankfully, Cherri had no idea Hayden was dead and fell for our plan. After we found Raya, Viper grabbed Hayden’s phone before getting the prospects to burn the fuckers body and had been pretending to message her and Clara, claiming Raya had managed to escape him and that he had to leave town quickly.
Cherri snuck out of the clubhouse to meet up with ‘Hayden’ with the flash drive that he offered five million for and panicked after she heard about Clara’s death. Only to find half the brotherhood waiting for her, with me front and center, holding my gun that my girl used to kill my mother at her head, not letting Viper do it because of Lake.
The silly bitch actually turned around to run away, thinking that would save her from my bullet.
Stupid bitch.
She’s now dust, and the flash drive has been wiped as well as her phone, and her room has been gutted. Any evidence she claimed to have hidden in all the messages was false.
Everything has finally settled down, the Hyenas are dead, the kids are all safe, and the women are happy that there’s no more threat. My girl, however, has shut down. She hasn’t spoken to Ivy, not even snapped at Psycho again after his stupid words. The brothers have tried to bring it up many times, to his dismay, in the hope of getting a reaction from her, but to no avail.
I’m losing her, I can feel it.
My phone vibrates, and I grab it from my pocket, but silently groan, seeing it’s Psycho.
Think of the fucker, and he shall pop up like an unwanted weed.
He calls once a day, and I don’t answer, just like I haven’t spoken to him in person, instead going through Blade, who understands my hurt over the idiot's words.
I get it, he’s sorry, but fuck, if I had accused him of being the reason Ivy gave birth twenty weeks early, he’d demand my fucking patch with the club. My girl was taken while on a revenge kick that none of us knew about, left her phone, and was tortured and raped repeatedly.
He blamed me for not finding her quickly enough. How do I get over that shit? Fuck, the girls knew about her revenge and said fuck all, my sister said fuck all, messing up yet again… yet, they blamed me for Raya’s trauma.
The call goes to voicemail before my phone buzzes, and I frown, looking at the message.
Psycho:
