Chapter 10
Raya
I sigh as I line up in the long ass queue for checkout, the few measly items in my basket suddenly not seeming too important for a line this long. I’m so exhausted, I’ve just finished an eight-hour shift and I have to continue with my assignment for Professor Marks. No rest for me just yet.
I try to think about what is in my pantry at home to make for lunch but the moldy bread and expired ham is all I can see and I sigh knowing I can’t just say screw it and come back tomorrow after class.
I promised Mama I’d go round for the evening to spend time with her and Gregory before I begin my nightshift at the firehouse.
Knowing I can’t come back tomorrow and I’ll most likely starve if I don’t get in line, I stay put watching the slow ass teenager scan items. Without a care in the world as to the massive line she’s causing while the customer in front of her looks ready to blow, like seriously, her cheeks are red with anger.
Hmm, maybe I’ll get some entertainment and waiting will be worth it.
My phone beeps, drawing my attention away from the customer, who is now tapping her foot with impatience, and I grab the device from my jeans pocket before opening my text thread with the girls, only to wince.
My Girls-Ivy:
I hereby put in a vote, if Raya doesn’t answer any of our messages in the next twelve hours, we all storm to Meadows Law School and the firehouse until she speaks to us!
Damn Ivy, I just needed time, but it isn’t like I can say, ‘Hey, I missed you, sorry I didn’t celebrate my birthday yet again, disappointing you, oh, and by the way, I slept with your brother.’
My phone goes off again, then another two more times, the last one surprising me considering how quiet Lake has been lately, especially since Viper went nomad.
My Girls – Skylar:
I’m in, I’ve missed watching my fiery friend put Venom in his place.
My Girls – Luna:
I’ll get Leo’s help; he has the master key to her apartment!
My Girls – Lake:
I’ll bring handcuffs and a mouth gag, we can kidnap her.
I raise a brow and try not to smirk as I quickly type back, feeling a presence behind me - another customer who will most likely complain about how slow the cashier is taking.
My Girls – Me:
handcuffs and a mouth gag is a little too far, don’t cha think? Besides, what on earth are you doing with that kind of stuff, Lake?
I press send with a smile, which soon disappears when I notice the customer is now arguing with the cashier because of how long she’s taking, her arms waving in the air causing the teenager to stop scanning her items.
I sigh. Okay, I wanted entertainment but not a further wait.
“Jiggles, you need to stop complaining,” I hear from behind me, and I hold in my snort because, seriously, everyone is about to complain over this, and I’d bet my trust the cops will be called.
My phone goes off and I check it only to grin widely.
My Girls – Lake:
I may be busy with my job and med school, but I still try to stay in contact but you, Missy, have gone radio silent, so no, it isn’t too far, and I know where the sex shops are, I’m not afraid to go in one.
I chuckle before my phone pings again.
My Girls – Ivy:
well, well, well, we threaten to bombard her life and make it known that she does actually work, and she finally messages back.
Damn woman.
“Stop complaining, seriously, Honey? I got fired for something that was her idea, and she gets to keep her job all because she got herself knocked up on purpose!” a whiny voice complains behind me, and I try to hold in my sigh.
First Rhea and her clique, and now this, all over men?
It’s no wonder that Ivy and I became fast friends. Boys just weren’t an interest, well, except for her brother and Psycho.
“Jiggles, she isn’t pregnant, they fucked six days ago, so how would she know this early? Besides, she was stealing tampons yesterday out of my dressing room,” the woman replies, but I don’t turn around, deciding minding my own business is the right way to go.
I go to message Ivy back to apologize for going quiet, the guilt for sleeping with her brother, the same brother I cannot stop thinking about, consuming me a little, but I pause when the whiny woman snaps, “Angel said Venom fucked her bare six days ago, Honey!”
Everything inside me goes cold, my fingers freezing.
He didn’t, he wouldn’t, not on the day we...
“I know, but that doesn’t mean she’s pregnant, like I said, she stole my tampons because she doesn’t want him to know she’s gotten her period because she’ll lose not only her chance at grabbing his cut but also her job.
She’ll get her comeuppance, Jiggles, just wait,” the woman replies to her friend, all while my heart tears a part more so than I thought it ever could.
Guess my love never disappeared, huh?
“I hope you're right,” she mutters in return, and I look forward to see the cashier and the customer now shoving each other as the five different people in front of me film.
But me, I stand here with my shattered heart, it keeps breaking bit by bit as I drop my basket and walk away without looking at the scene or behind me.
He slept with me without a condom, then went straight to Angel and did the same with her or did he sleep with her and then me?
I have the urge to get tested.
I quickly rush to my car as I type out a message, my fingers shaking, knowing Ivy, my best friend, knows he slept with Angel and most likely kept it from me. I can feel it deep down, she knows I slept with her brother. She has to, she’s the one who sent him to me on my birthday.
Me:
I know you know I slept with your brother, and I’m guessing you know he slept with Angel the same day and didn’t tell me, didn’t give me a heads up…. We need a little distance for a while.
I press send on the accusation just as I climb into my Fiat before the first tear falls and sirens echo from the distance.
I need to get home, I need, god, I don’t even know what I need.
Sniffling, I quickly start my car and pull out of my space before the cops can corner me in to break up the fight. I speed off down the road in the direction of the clinic, knowing getting checked is the best option right now, my mind finally catching up.
“Raya!” I hear as banging echoes on my door an hour later, and I flinch as I eye the front door. I have it bolted and chained, knowing he’s most likely got the master key from Blade.
Does it surprise me that Ivy told her brother? No, not really, but I also don’t know why he’s here, I’m just using his sister in his eyes, trying to upset daddy…
“Raya, kitten, open up,” he says softly, and I swallow hard, not answering him.
I got a clean bill of health except for HIV, which will take up to two weeks to get the results, but the nurse was optimistic. I, on the other hand, not so much.
I gave him my body and he went straight to her.
How could he do that? Why would he do that?
Did he want to hurt me that much, to tear me away from his sister? Well, if he did, it worked.
“Kitten, if you don’t open up, I’ll let myself in,” he threatens, and again I don’t answer. I bring my knees up and rest my head on them before a key is put into my door, and the handle goes down.
I hear him curse when the door doesn’t unlock, and he shouts, “Raya, open the fuck up before I break the door down now!”
My tears fall, and I grab the throw off the back of my couch and wrap it around me tightly.
I get it, he doesn’t know my history, and we’re not an item.
He still could have respected me, and he didn’t.
Now, I want nothing to do with him ever again, and worse, I don’t even know if my friendship with Ivy will survive this kind of betrayal, especially when she knows I haven’t been with anyone else willingly.
I know he’s her brother, but she knew how I felt about him despite how much I’ve protested. She knows I’ve always had her back, yet her brother screws me, then Angel or whatever order, on the same day, and the fact that Angel could be pregnant, and she doesn’t tell me?
What kind of friend keeps something like that?
A friend who sees blood thicker than water, the voice in the back of my head whispers, and more tears fall.
I thought I was her family too, but I was wrong.
Venom bangs again, and I swallow hard as I grab my phone and call 911, knowing nothing else will make him leave.
“911, what’s your emergency?” the operator states, and I choke, “I have an MC brother trying to break into my apartment.”
The operator asks more questions before getting my address and confirms a patrol car is on the way. I hang up before dropping my phone on the table, then lean my head back on my knees, allowing my tears to fall as my body shakes with my silent sobs.
Not even five minutes after speaking to the operator, I hear a phone ring before cursing echoes, and I know he’s been tipped off, his words confirming it as he snaps, “What couldn’t get your rich daddy to come to your aide?”
“Nope, rich daddy is dead,” I mutter to myself before he snaps, “This isn’t over, Raya, do you hear me, I fucked up, I know this, but once you hear me out you’ll understand, please, just, fuck, just let me tell you my side of the story.”
I hear his footsteps disappear, and I slowly lie down on my couch as I allow my tears to fall, knowing full well I won’t have anything to do with the club again as I close my eyes.
A little while later, knocking echoes, waking me from the light sleep I let consume me, and I blink a few times before I hear, “Raya, it’s Uncle Ben, open up.”
Ah, come on…
I sigh as I drop my head. I can’t catch a fricking break today, can I?
“Open up, Raya, I know you’re home, your car is out front,” he continues as he knocks, and I sigh as I close my eyes again.
It doesn’t matter how much he knocks, I’m not answering him. If he doesn’t leave, I’ll do the same thing I did with Venom and call the cops.
That man is no uncle of mine. He wants my inheritance.
He believes it’s rightfully his after Daddy died and Mama remarried, but the idiot knows it was always going to be mine.
While I don’t touch it except for tuition, he isn’t having it, and as far as I’m concerned, he needs to get himself a job like a normal person.
It’s not my fault he sank the family business.
“I swear to god, Raya, if you don’t open up, I’ll make your life a living hell!
” he threatens, and I mumble, “Sorry, Ben, my life is already a living hell. Daddy is dead, his killers are still at large because Hayden keeps adding men every time I kill one, and the love of my life, who has hated me for years for no reason whatsoever, slept with me then his regular girl, oh, and my best friend knew and didn’t tell me. ”
Ivy has messaged me several times apologizing since I messaged her that I knew about Venom, claiming she didn’t want to hurt me, but I still got hurt anyway.
“This isn’t over, Raya. That money is rightfully mine and my father's, and we will get it one way or another,” he threatens before everything goes quiet again, and I deflate.
Hayden, Venom, Ivy, and now him. Aren’t I a lucky girl?
My pager for the firehouse goes off, and I sigh loudly before I sit up and grab it to see it’s a 911 for a housefire, and I move quickly.
At least I’ve got a distraction from life, because let’s face it, staying here and moping is not the way to go. Not when I know Venom will now be happy because I’m cutting Ivy out for a while.