Chapter 21
Venom
Cale,
Got called in at the firehouse,
but didn’t want to wake you.
I love you,
Raya x
Fuck me, does my heart skip a beat at the declaration.
I re-read the note more times than I’m willing to admit, my eyes lingering on the ‘I love you.’
Being told she was in love with me over the years and seeing that she claimed me was one thing.
Seeing the words written down on a piece of paper, it does something to me, and the need to call her and beg her to say the words out loud threatens to take over me, but I hold off as I look at her kitchen clock.
It’s nearing eight in the evening, and she still hasn’t returned, but I’m giving her until eight on the dot.
That is what I promised myself, at least until I unleash my venom and find her.
My phone has rang several times, Blade has been the most persistent, I haven’t answered him back since the first message he sent me this morning after I woke up alone.
I explained I’m not leaving my girls apartment until she’s back and packed, no matter what they threaten.
I won’t move, not until I see her, not until I speak to her at least. I need to prove to her we are happening, to tell her that she will be moving in with me and we will be starting our lives together like we should have done years ago.
I huff, seeing only a minute has passed, and my frustration builds, something in my gut gnawing at me.
Feeling the bed beside me cold at five this morning, it was a head fuck, a fucking big one. My first reaction was fear and then rage.
Raya was nowhere to be seen, and I was fucking pissed, no, I was fucking furious.
Realizing she snuck out, had me ready to tear this apartment apart.
The photos I noticed of me, us over the years on the walls not even calming me.
I stormed through her apartment, trying to find my shirt, determined to track her down when I saw the note.
I was still pissed she didn’t wake me to explain she’d been called into the firehouse, dodging the conversation she knew we needed to have.
Shortly after I realized she had my shirt, the one I wore yesterday and it instantly calmed me.
She took my scent with her…
I tap my finger on the counter and bounce my knee. I’ve been sitting at her counter for hours, working on paperwork from the club, using her laptop, which has helped me stay focused despite the continuous calls and messages but now I’m getting concerned.
Surely after being called in at what has to be four in the morning, she would have been home by now?
I eye my phone on the counter and slowly, I lick my bottom lip before I mutter, “Fuck it,” because let’s face it, it’s only a few minutes to eight and grab it but instead of bringing up Raya’s number, a small part of me believing she’s going to dodge my calls, I search for the firehouse’s main number.
She can’t decline my call without raising questions.
I find the number in seconds and quickly press it before placing the phone to my ear. A pit forms at the bottom of my stomach, my gut telling me something isn’t right.
“Rose Meadows Firehouse,” a female voice answers after four rings.
“Hi, uh, can I speak with Raya Wilson, please?” I say before chewing my bottom lip.
Something is telling me she’s not there, that she never went into the firehouse. I’ve had a funny feeling all day. My gut screaming that something wasn’t right, but I held back, and now I’m regretting it.
“Sorry, Raya hasn’t been in today. She was on the afternoon shift yesterday. Tom wants her to have a rest, especially with school,” the woman says, and my stomach drops.
School, what fucking school? Raya isn’t in school, is she?
Fuck, how much more do I not know about the girl I’ve fallen in love with, the girl I grew up with?
“Alright, thanks,” I say as my heart pounds before hanging up, and my body vibrates as I quickly bring up her number and press on it, but before I can put the phone to my ear, a phone ringing catches my attention near the stove.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I stand, shoving the stool out of the way before I storm over to the phone and pick it up to see a picture of me on Family Day when I was around twenty grinning.
I swallow the lump in my throat, the bad feelings that have built up throughout the day, the feelings I tried to push back, thinking maybe it was all in my head me.
Squeezing Raya’s phone in my hand, I put mine away in pocket, then turn and storm towards the door before rushing down the stairs.
I need to get to the club, to speak to Blade and my dad, and fuck, I need to put Raya’s name in the database finally. Something I have held off on doing, not wanting to lose her trust.
“Guess she forced my hand,” I mutter to myself as I slam through the front door of the apartment complex and walk over to my bike before climbing on.
Putting Raya’s phone in the interior pocket on my cut, I start my bike up, not giving a shit that I’m not wearing a shirt because stupidly, I left my other shirt that she stole, not that it would fit anymore, on her couch.
I rev my bike but I pause as my eyes go to the direction of her childhood home that I have tried my hardest to avoid over the years.
I would go there only when my sister forced me to drive Raya home when I picked them up in high school.
A home I always thought was too modest for a spoiled princess.
I chew my bottom lip, not taking my eyes off the road, wondering if Gregory can help me.
“Fuck it,” I murmur, making my mind up after a few seconds of debating, and I rev my bike again before heading down the road in the direction of Raya’s family home.
Maybe they’ll be able to shed some light for me.
Twenty minutes later, I pull up behind Gregory's black SUV and curse not seeing Raya’s car in the driveway.
I go to leave, but before I can pull away, the door opens.
Gregory in the doorway, his brows furrowed and his three-piece suit is nowhere in sight.
Just a normal t-shirt and jeans in place instead.
The fucker looks weird.
“Venom?” he questions with confusion and concern, and I turn my bike off.
I can’t just drive away to search for his daughter, not without raising suspicions, and honestly, maybe he knows where Raya is, though my gut is telling me he doesn’t. Something is wrong, I can feel it. And over the years, I have learned to listen to my gut.
“Have you heard from Raya today?” I ask, not climbing off my bike while also not beating around the bush.
He frowns as a woman appears beside him.
She isn’t as blonde as Raya, and her eyes are a different color too, but her facial features, the curved brow and bow lips, are all my girl.
“What’s this about Raya?” the woman, I’m guessing is Grace Averie, Raya’s mama, questions with concern.
“I haven’t heard from Raya since last night when she messaged you showed up again,” he admits, not answering his wife, and my pulse spikes.
Fuck.
I’m fairly certain Ivy mentioned that Raya stays in contact with her parents at least twice a day.
“I thought she may have been called in, which is why we haven’t heard from her yet,” he admits while the woman tilts her head at me, her hair falling to the side as her caramel eyes scrutinize me before they linger on my neck.
“You’re Venom, Ivy’s brother, right?” she confirms, I nod once, and she half smiles, a smile just like my girl’s, and admits, “I’ve heard a lot about you over the years, sometimes good, sometimes there is a lot of cursing involved. My daughter is in love with you.”
And there goes my ego…
Instead of letting her words get to me, or showing her what a dick I can sometimes be while trying not to puff my chest like a caveman, I admit, “I’m in love with your daughter,” making her smile wider but her smile vanishes when I admit, “And at five this morning I woke to her gone after she finally let me in, leaving a note claiming to have been called in at the firehouse.”
Grace freezes, her eyes wide as her face pales, already seeing where I’m going with this, while Gregory goes solid and replies, “The firehouse wouldn’t keep her all day if they called her in before five, not after she did a shift yesterday.”
“The firehouse never called her in. I called before I came here,” I confirm, and Grace's tears fall, and my heart stutters because I know Raya isn’t dodging me, I know something bad has happened to my girl, and ignoring that feeling this morning when I woke up was a big fucking mistake.
True fear radiates from the woman, and for the first time in a very long time, my fear builds. The fear that I’m about to lose the woman I’m in love with, the woman who has taken over every second of every minute of my day.
“When Raya was fifteen, she lost her father, her best friend,” Grace whispers and Gregory flinches but she ignores his reaction and chokes, “She spent all day waiting for her daddy to get home so we could go and celebrate with Ivy. It was the only thing she wanted for her birthday, though Chase did leave her the necklace she wears every single day before he got called into the firehouse, he never returned… breaking her heart.”
I fucking hated that necklace over the years, always thought some guy gave it to her before I actually read the engravement, and that should have been an eye opener for me – I was jealous.
Grace sniffles and admits, “Just before Raya turned sixteen, she went to get revenge, using a study date with the girls as a cover.”
“Revenge how?” I ask as I lean forward, putting more of my weight on my bike, my legs already weakening, knowing what she means, but needing to hear it.
“She tried to kill two Hyenas,” Grace confesses, her words shocking me.
I thought she meant burning down Hayden’s warehouse or something, not fucking murder.
Grace’s tears fall as Gregory admits, “She killed one, Venom, Anna, Blades' mama, covered it up after Skylar and Ivy found Raya being raped by the other and your dad got involved.”
No, no, no.