Chapter 8
Raya
“Alright, on the board is a case that I want you to decipher bit by bit. I want a clear explanation of what you would do in this situation of a custody case, both parents accusing the other of despicable things towards their child,” Professor Marks says as he points at the board, “Your job is to figure out who the liar is and which parent you would represent to help gain full custody and why,” the Professor looks around the class, his gray eyes narrowing at the girls behind me who haven’t stopped gossiping about a party later they want to try and get into, something apparently they haven’t managed and he snaps, “This is worth sixty percent of your grade so if you fail, you’ll have to re-sit this class next semester! ”
The girls behind me shut up instantly, and I smile despite my mind going a million miles an hour after yesterday, Venom’s grunts echoing in my head, and I blink, trying to dislodge them.
I slept with him. I actually slept with him. Okay, so he screwed me up against my door, giving me pleasure I have never felt before, but still, I willingly gave him my body, even after he admitted he didn’t have a condom on.
Stupid on my part, really, and not because I’m worried about pregnancy, I’m on the pill, I’m safe, but because of who he sleeps with – Angel, his main girl, who strips at Dark Angel’s Nights and screws the customers for extra cash.
I swallow my emotions that want to spill out, images of them over the years hitting me. Her smirk every time she looked my way, ingrained in my brain as always, because of course, she knew my feelings for him. Heck, everyone did except for him.
Sitting up straight, I try to concentrate on the professor's instructions, especially knowing I only have a few years left of law school and repeating his class will set me back.
I want to make Gregory proud. I need to especially when he thinks I don’t see him as a father because I do and making him proud, it’s high on my list. Getting through this then completing the bar exam all while fighting fires in honor of my daddy and acting on my revenge with the Hyenas.
I don’t have time to be hurt over Venom sleeping with Angel over the years, I don’t have time to decipher the fact I allowed him to take my body.
Ten years, and the thought of allowing someone inside me made me want to vomit, giving me hives, yet with Venom…
Guess that would make sense, considering I’ve been in love with him since the day we met. While he on the other hand has looked at me like a little pest on the bottom of his shoe and treated me like shit, slowly turning that love into pure hate.
I’m just glad he never removed my sweater and saw his legal name tattooed over my heart because then he’d accuse me of being a crazy stalker.
I wonder why Psycho never spoke up, considering he’s the one who did it.
Swallowing again, hating my thoughts have gone back to Venom, I look at Professor Marks as he begins to hand out our assignment.
I try to focus, knowing I need to complete at least a quarter of the assignment, maybe the paper pro and con list, before I start typing it up because I’m on shift again tonight.
“You will have one week to complete this assignment,” Professor Marks states, and half the class groans while I wince.
Crap.
Okay, so I’ll be trying to complete more than a quarter in class, and knowing my luck, the girls behind me won’t be silent, making it hard to concentrate, which is hard as it is because Venom is on my mind as always.
“Do you think he’ll be outside again today?” I hear and I silently groan.
They’ve just been told that we could fail this class if we don’t pass this assignment, so we need to present our best arguments for the parent we choose and explain why we chose them and their first thought is, 'Some guy?'
Seriously?
“I don’t know,” someone replies with a whisper as Professor Marks makes his way down the steps to the front of the hall, “I didn’t even know Hayden Gillies liked college girls, meaning I have a shot.”
Ah, of course.
“Rhea, Hayden is dangerous, you don’t want to mess with someone like him,” another girl snaps quietly while a snort echoes, gaining the professor's attention, who narrows his eyes before looking back down at his notes as he demands, “Start now, you have forty-five minutes left of class!”
Everyone grabs their laptops and logs on, along with me, while the girls behind continue their conversation, now that Professor Marks’ attention is no longer on them.
“No, the MC brothers are scary and dangerous, who you don’t mess with. Hayden Gillies is a hottie playing thug,” Rhea gloats, and I shake my head subtly.
Idiots.
Hayden Gillies is a rapist, along with his little men, whom he tries to convince to follow him. There is only one reason why he’s hanging around campus suddenly, and that reason is me.
He finally decided to face me himself instead of having his little minions, who think they’re big boys, try to threaten me.
“Raya Wilson, best friends with Ivy Miller, the club princess of the Dark Angel’s MC…
.” I hear as I walk out of class and I turn my head towards the voice ready to snap that she’s married, that she's no longer a Miller. Instead anger fills me as the pompous soon-to-be dead man with his hair slicked back making it look greasy, wearing a suit looks me over like I’m a piece of meat as he leans against the wall.
Hayden Gillies, the leader of the gang who killed my father, has finally decided to do his own dirty work.
I raise a brow, ignoring all the people looking his way, and reply, “Hayden Gillies, Leader of the pansy gang, the Hyenas, murderer.”
His eyes darken with anger at my gall.
Guess he expected me to quiver in my spot and beg for mercy, huh?
He fists his hands as he glares at me, but I don’t back down. I cross my arms over my chest and stare him down with a raised brow.
He doesn’t scare me, and not just because my best friend would make her family tear the world down to whoever hurts me, but because this man killed my father. I have envisioned stabbing my knife into his neck and watching him choke on his own blood ever since I found out the truth about that fire.
“You’ve got a mouth on you, huh?” he says with venom, and I smile sweetly and admit, “I got it from my father, you know, the hero firefighter you killed.”
Hayden narrows his eyes while I just tilt my head, giving him a sweet ‘fuck you’ smile.
For years, his men had believed I’d moved on, that I didn’t blame them, but he always had suspicions, ones he was right to have to begin with.
His men underestimated me.
“My men…” His words trail off as he looks me over with narrowed eyes full of suspicion before he shakes his head and changes, “That was an accident, and you know it, Raya, you just want someone to blame.”
Guess he doesn’t think this meek little girl can kill his men.
Joke's on him.
“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.
“Or, hear me out,” I say as I lift a finger, “You can leave town before Glock finds out you’re in town and decides to shoot you like you deserve.”
“How dare–” I cut her off and state, “Yeah, yeah how dare I speak to you that way, you use my daughter, Yardi yar-yar, whatever, turn your plastic ass around and go crawl back under whatever disease riddled rock you were hiding under,” her hollow cheeks redden and I threaten, “And while you’re at it, stay away from Ivy and stay away from Hudson.
You go near either and I can promise you now, the MC will look like angels to what I’ll do to you if you go near them, got it? ”
She flinches, hearing my threat and seeing that I mean every word.
I have blood on my hands, and by the looks of her pale face right now, she can somehow see the danger she’s in.
Curling my lip at her, I climb into my car without another word before starting her up, then pulling away from the curb, trying to ignore the itch to run her over.
I have a shift to get to and hopefully a guy to try and forget, even if his kiss is engraved in my mind for eternity.