Chapter 23
Venom
My tears fall as I lean forward in my chair, placing my elbows on my knees as I rest my mouth on my linked fingers not taking my eyes off Raya asleep in my bed, bruised and cut, her chest slowly moving up and down as she allows her subconscious to keep hold of her like she has for the past twenty nine hours since we found her at Mama’s old house.
Cherri finally fucked up, giving me the information we needed to find my girl.
While we haven’t found her flash drive yet, she was still messaging people, including Hayden, as well as the unknown number I couldn’t trace, which I believe was Mama’s.
I blink, then rub my sore eyes, sleep wanting to take hold, but I push through as I look at the screen, trying to follow the cameras, just as I have been for the past four days, trying to find my girl, every one of Hayden’s men becoming a dead end.
Ivy is inconsolable, Grace has stopped eating, Gregory has been tearing the town apart along with some of my brothers. As for me, I haven’t moved from my computer screen, trying to trace several cameras around town and the surrounding areas, but keep coming to a dead fucking end.
Raya’s car was found on the campus where she’s studying family law, and I’ve followed the cameras to an alleyway not far from our territory, which Hayden dubbed his stomping ground.
Hayden was in the mouth of the alleyway before he was hit over the head by Raya with a metal pole, but she was tackled and knocked out before she could hit him again.
Hayden recovered, and with the help of his goon, they dragged Raya into the alleyway, then nothing.
The cameras on the other side showed that they never left through that way, so Dad and Viper went to the convenience store, which, surprise-surprise, had no cameras inside.
They found a tunnel in the basement and followed it through, coming out in the library basement, and since then, I have been trying to trace every camera in that area, not one showing the fuckers leaving with Raya.
Four days she’s been missing, and four days since Mama and Hayden have also gone underground.
Not one of his men knew where he went, each one losing their life, including his father Talen, who was the one who ordered the hit on the home Chase died in.
He suffered slowly in the hands of my father and Brick, who knew Chase personally, giving Raya the revenge she wanted.
Slowly over the past four days, we have killed most of Hayden’s men, yet he still hasn’t resurfaced.
My phone dings, indicating a message, and I quickly look at it, thinking maybe it’s about Raya, but instead I glare at the device.
Angel:
see, pregnant. I think we should meet up and discuss our future, baby.
I narrow my eyes at the scan photo before I turn my attention back to the computer. I access the hospital database, encode my IP address, and then log in. I type in Angel’s name, Fraya Angelo, and her details show instantly.
“Fraya Angelo came into the ER claiming to be pregnant but was experiencing cramps. A scan showed no fetus, and her hCG levels were low, indicating no pregnancy despite her claims otherwise,” I murmur then mutter, “Lying fucking patch chasing bitch…” And log out of the database.
She’ll get her comeuppance, one way or another but first I need to find my girl.
Just as I think it, my computer makes a noise, and I quickly look and bring up my server, which is flashing. My heart pounds as I see that the chat between Mama and Cherri has been activated, and I quickly open it.
Unknown:
Hayden has decided he wants more fun with Raya before he kills her. We’ll have to wait to negotiate a price for the flash drive.
Fuck….
“Blade,” I shout without moving my eyes off my computer, watching as bubbles appear indicating Cherri is writing back.
“Did you find something?!” he demands as he rushes in, several other footsteps following his before my sister gasps, “Please tell me you found her…”
I feel Blade come up behind me and look at my screen as Cherri messages back.
Cherri:
what? Why? She can’t be that good in the sack!
My body tenses as Blade whispers, “Fuck no…” as he grips my shoulder.
He’s raping her, the fucker is raping my girl.
I feel hot lava fill me, the need to kill consumes me as little bubbles appear before Mama returns the message.
Unknown:
well, apparently she is! I told him he has a week. otherwise, we will send the flash drive to the highest bidder and that I’m also telling my son that he has the woman he’s claiming in my old home. I need the money, and I’m not willing to hide out in this dump any longer!
“Mama’s old house, that’s where he has her,” I say quickly as I stand, not willing to wait around.
“I’m coming with you,” Ivy snaps, but I don’t pause in my tracks to console her, even as Psycho says, “You can’t, Ivy, you need to stay with Huddy,” and she shouts, “She’s my best friend,” I continue my path out of my office.
Everyone looks at me as I sprint through the common room, the brothers on my heels, my only thought, getting to my girl.
I didn’t expect to find what I did, the state she’d be in, the fact I could have lost her, that Grace, her mama, could have lost her daughter for the second time.
She spent at least ten hours sitting in my room at my home on club property with me. Holding baby Grace, Lake’s daughter, who loved that they shared the same name, before Gregory pulled her away, seeing the exhaustion on her face, the memories of when Raya was fifteen haunting her.
Ivy’s been here twice, both times having to be dragged away, as well as all the girls.
They want her to wake up, worried she might not, but I think Raya needs some peace, some time.
I look over her body covered in my dark sheets and my t-shirt hiding the worst of her injuries. I’m trying to breathe through the images of her naked, bloody, and bruised standing next to a dead Hayden, his head smashed in.
“I can feel you staring at me,” a sweet voice rasps, and more tears fall as I lock eyes with Raya’s beautiful, icy blue ones that I have come to seek out daily, her sole focus on me.
“You’re a pretty sight to stare at,” I whisper, meaning every word, even in this state, my body unable to move.
Her left eye is bloodshot and swollen, she has a concussion, her scars, scars I hadn’t seen in person on her back were cut open and needed stitching, she has several new ones on her hips, stab wounds, tearing of the vaginal walls indicating rape, more than once.
When she collapsed after seeing me, I just caught her before she could push the knife that had just been stabbed into her side any deeper.
Doc, an older generation brother, placed an IV in her arm after running some blood tests, which thankfully came back clean. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and she was lucky to be alive.
“I don’t believe that,” she whispers, and I smile slightly despite the tears, before she confirms, “He’s dead?”
I nod slightly and confirm, “He is, you killed him, kitten. Blade, Psycho, Fury, and Viper, along with several brothers, destroyed the rest of them. The Hyenas are no longer, not one member got away, including Talen. They’re all dead, your father's killers are dead.”
Her tears fall as she breathes, “Thank you, Cale.”
I try to swallow my emotions as I choke, “Anything for you, kitten, absolutely anything.”
She nods as her sobs come out full of relief and pain, and that does it. I move instantly before her and kneel, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my lips, not wanting to climb on the bed with her and hurt her more, even if everything inside me is pulling to do so.
She cries for over an hour, her reason for revenge the last ten years finally done before she quiets. I don’t move the whole time, trying to give her the support and love she needs before she finally speaks, her words completely breaking me.
“I need the morning after pill,” she whispers, and my tears fall as I close my eyes and, without a word, I move one hand into my cut pocket and grab the pill in its plastic sleeve before I finally look at her and hold it to her.
She takes it gingerly from my hand as her tears fall, seeing my pain, and I choke, “I’m sorry I couldn’t find you quick enough…”
Her bottom lip wobbles as she admits, “I didn’t want you to find me, I wanted to kill him then-then kill myself, it’s why I left my phone, why I parked my car on campus…”
Her confession stops my heart, and I plead, “Don’t leave me, Raya, not when I’ve finally got you, when I’ve finally opened my eyes to what a fool I’d been over the years, please don’t leave me.”
“Cale,” she sobs, and I drop my head gently to her stomach and sob my fucking heart out, terrified she’s going to do something stupid and try to kill herself.
The past four days, I’ve realized I cannot live without this woman, and if she leaves me, I’ll follow her.