by Rebel Hart
At the same time, Nathan and I pulled out phones out of our pockets, and I assumed he had the same collection of missed calls that I did. “I didn’t even hear my phone ring,” I said with a chuckle.
Nathan shook his head. “Me either.” He put a hand on Nikita’s face. “I’m sorry.”
Nikita had a look of judgment on her face. “What were you doing?”
“We were just talking,” Nathan replied, then he leaned in and kissed Nikita. “Easing the last of my guilt.”
Nikita shot a sideways glance at me and I was nervous that she would misconstrue the situation, but I nodded regardless. “Just two guilty souls not trying to irritate the shit out of our friends anymore.”
To my surprise, Nikita nodded and smiled. “Good.”
I must have gasped out loud because Avery linked one of her arms through mine and squeezed. “Yeah. Nikki’s a little different too. You’ll see.”
“Let’s head inside,” Kyle said from the back of the group. “Brayden’s ready to talk now.”
Brayden was standing behind Kyle and nodded. “I hope I can be of some help.”
We all walked back inside and took various seats around the living room space. Brayden sat next to Kyle on one of the couches, and Kyle made no attempt to be discreet as he slid so close the two were touching. “Just like we talked about,” he said. “Just be honest, and it’ll be fine.”
Brayden nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Nathan let out a sigh. “I hate to start with such a broad question, but Brayden… what happened?”
Brayden fidgeted a little in place. “I guess it started right at the beginning of the semester. A couple of men approached me, those two guys who attacked you, and they told me that you were in trouble and your dad needed my help. He told me that Deon was dangerous and looking for you, and all I really had to base anything off of was how much you seemed to hate him. It seemed plausible to me.”
“That makes sense,” Nathan assured.
“When I got to him, the story changed a little. He said that he was trying to get you away from Deon and the entire Royal Court because they didn’t have your best interest at heart. He told me that if I helped him, he’d…” Brayden’s voice trailed off and he stopped talking. After a few seconds, he turned and looked at Kyle and Kyle nodded to reassure him, then he looked back at Nathan and continued. “He said I could stay near you. That he’d make sure we could spend lots of time together. As much as I wanted. He said he’d make sure to remove anyone from the picture that I wanted. Cherri, Nikita… anyone.”
Nathan’s jaw clenched as his anger grew. “He knew exactly how to manipulate you.”
“Connor’s not a stupid man,” Kyle growled with the same level of aggression.
“Then things changed even more and Connor started talking more about trying to hurt The Royal Court, but he told me if I didn’t continue to do what I was doing, he’d kill me. At first, I didn’t care. I knew you guys didn’t really like me all that much, but then you all started treating me so much better, and…” He looked over at Kyle again. “Things changed.” His head drooped and his eyes fell to the floor. “I didn’t want to do it. Any of it, but there was nothing I could do. I tried to get some information on where to find Connor, but that was when he snatched me. He kept me locked up for… I don’t even know how long.”
“Where?” I asked. “Where were you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Whenever I was brought to interact with Connor, I was blindfolded. The two guys that attacked you always covered my eyes and ears and then handed me over to someone else.”
“How long did the trips take?” Nathan asked. “Thirty minutes? An hour?”
“It varied. I don’t think they were bringing me to the same place every time,” Brayden said.
“Shit,” Nathan replied.
“Why didn’t you just say something?” Avery said. “We would have helped you.”
Brayden started to chuckle, but it was drenched in self-loathing. “You guys just started to like me. If I’d told you I was working with Connor, that would have ended in a snap. I didn’t…” He looked up at Kyle again. “I didn’t want to lose you.”
No one responded to that sentiment. It was likely because they all knew he was telling the truth. We could pretend that we’d be better people and forgive Brayden regardless, but the truth was, none of us were that great of people, at least not back then. If I’d caught wind of that, I probably would have beaten Brayden black and blue. Everyone else had similar looks on their faces.
“Well, that’s behind us now,” Kyle said. “All that’s left is to look forward.”
“Towards what?” Colette asked. “No offense Brayden, but this hasn’t been very helpful.”
“Maybe not yet,” Nikita said, “but there’s another strand we can maybe tie with this one. Jaxon and I found Brayden. Together, we just might be able to find where Connor was hiding.”
7
Deon
Felicity had been nervously shifting her gaze all over the room, but at me. She was flicking the frayed edges of one of her pillows and her breathing had hastened. I didn’t want to press her to start speaking until she was ready, but I was growing impatient with how much time she was just sitting there saying nothing.
“If we need to talk about this later, we can,” I said.
Felicity shook her head. “No, it’s just, you like me so much and you care about Venom so much. I don’t want to ruin it just yet.”
“You couldn’t,” I said. “Not after everything you’ve done for me.”
“Reserve judgement until the end of my story,” she responded. “It’s like I said, your path crossing with Garrett’s was not serendipitous. He used to work for your father. He was one of the men who Connor frequently charged with taking care of anyone who posed a threat to him or his family. Garrett actually liked Connor quite a bit. He knew he was cutthroat, he knew he was ruthless, but Venom’s got a mean streak as I’m sure you’ve noticed.”
I had flashes of images of Venom beating the dog shit out of anyone who messed with me behind bars, threatening guards into doing what he wanted, causing even the warden to fear him. Venom was kind to me, but I knew what happened to people he didn’t like. He was probably pretty similar to Connor in that regard, but there was one difference.
He knew how to tell the difference between those he loved and those he didn’t.
“Yeah. When I first got to the adult prison, a few guys tried to punk me around. One of them never walked again,” I explained.
Felicity smiled. “Yeah. I remember Garrett telling me about that. He didn’t like that those guys hurt you like that. Not after everything you’d already been through.”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean? I never even spoke to Venom until after that. How did he know what I’d been through.”
“He didn’t just know,” she said. “He played an active role in what happened to you.”
My heart started to beat a little faster. “An active role? How?”
“Well, like I said, Garrett did a lot of Connor’s dirty work. A lot of it was questionable, but Garrett did a good job of separating himself from Connor’s shit. It was normally all just guys exactly like Connor, and Garrett didn’t mind thinning the 1%, but then one day about four years ago, Connor came to him and said he needed him to kill someone completely innocent with no criminal background at all, and then drop the body at a specific time and place, to be provided after the kill. Garrett didn’t want to do that, obviously. Why kill someone innocent? He refused, even after Connor offered him half a million dollars to get the job done.”
“He turned down half a mil?” I said, shocked. As good of a person as I may have considered myself to be, I didn’t know if I was that strong.
“Garrett’s hard, but he’s not evil. He wouldn’t do it for any amount of money. Unfortunately for us, Connor had an ace up his sleeve that neither of us was aware of until it was too late.” Felicity took a deep breath. “Me.�
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Just like that, it hit me—rather, it smashed into me like a speeding semi-truck. I realized why Felicity looked so familiar to me when I first met her.
I’d seen her once before.
“You’ve slept with Connor,” I said. “My mom has a picture of you.”
Felicity’s eyes widened. “What?”
“When Connor tried to fight for custody to take me from my mom, she had one thing that made him back down, and that was evidence of all the affairs he’d had. Pictures that he’d taken or screenshots from videos. She found them while she was cleaning his house and saved them in a box just in case. You looked familiar to me when I first met you; that’s why, because your picture is in that box.”
“Well then your mom did what the rest of us couldn’t do,” Felicity replied. “Yes. I’d had an affair with Connor while Garrett was locked up once. It was still back when Garrett liked him, and he and I have this arrangement that if he’s locked up, he doesn’t expect me to just go without. My heart will always be his, but… I’m only human. Turned out, being human in that situation tanked us. Connor had all sorts of videos and pictures, and he’d made it worse by discussing some of Garrett’s criminal activity with me too. If he released those videos, I wouldn’t just be shamed as a woman, but Garrett would have been locked up for life and I would have been barred. It left us no choice, Garrett had to do what Connor asked.”
“He killed an innocent person?” I asked.
Felicity nodded as she took a few deep breaths. “Garrett tried to make as discretionary a decision as possible and kill someone who was bad and just hadn’t been caught, but it didn’t make him feel much better. Then Connor gave him the order to drop him in Postings Proper park at sundown. He said he’d see two kids there, and he was to make sure the body dropped right in front of them.”
Slowly the realization hit me. Four years ago. Two kids in Postings Proper Park. Sundown. A body dropping from the sky.
“Our first date,” I said, more to myself than anything.
“Apparently, Connor wanted to frame his own son to give his other kid a leg up. Things didn’t go quite according to plan. The kid turned himself in and took all the blame on himself. It never went to trial and stayed pretty hush, despite what he wanted. When Garrett realized what you’d done just to protect Cherri, he was racked with guilt. Not just because he played a role in ruining your life, but because he felt like he should have done that too. Whatever it took to protect the woman he loved.”
“I don’t get it. If he did what Connor told him to, how did he end up in prison?” I asked.
“Garrett was technically on parole. Even though Connor assured us that he’d leave us alone if we did the job, he violated Garrett’s parole to make sure no one who knew the truth was on the outside. Then he gave me the half mil as hush money, telling me that as long as I took the money and kept my mouth shut, there wouldn’t be any other problems. So here we are.”
I looked down at the chair I was sitting in. “Am I sitting in a hush money chair?”
“God no,” Felicity yelped. “All of this is built through my and Garrett’s Connor-free hard work. I immediately turned around and donated the half mil to the NAACP. Made it in Connor’s name too.” A smile crossed her face. “That pissed him off pretty bad, but he didn’t retaliate. It was just money to him regardless.”
“He’s a monster.” I bit the inside of my lip. “I can’t believe it.”
“But he loves you, Deon. Like a son.”
I looked up at Felicity. “What?”
“Garrett cares about you. So much. When he took you under his wing, it was to make up for what he did, but he grew to adore you. He talked about you every time we spoke. He still does.”
“I’m not talking about Venom,” I said. “Connor. He’s a monster. I told you already, I could never hate either you or Venom. You’re just more of his victims. More people that he’s hurt. If anything, I have even more reasons to take him down now. As far as I’m concerned, Venom’s my dad, and Connor hurt my dad, he hurt my brother, he hurt the woman I love, he hurt you.” My hands balled into fists. “I want him dead, Felicity.”
Felicity nodded, a look of relief flashing before determination fell in its place. “You and me both, kid.”
“There’s one thing I don’t get. By the time I got out, Nathan was on top of the world regardless. There had to be a ton of ways to boost him that wouldn’t have ever had to involve me. Why go to such lengths?”
“Garrett has often said that he thinks there was more to the story than just what we got. The little bit that Connor tried to tell us never made much sense, and it’s like you said. Half a million dollars, killing an innocent man, all to frame a middle schooler, it just didn’t add up. Connor was up to something else, but what, I couldn’t tell you.”
I couldn’t even get angry any more, I was just astounded. How long had Connor been manipulating every facet of my life? How much longer was he going to? “If we can take Connor down, would there be a way to get Venom out?”
“That’s the hope,” Felicity said. “If we can get enough evidence, we can maybe file an appeal. If we fail, that’s it. Venom’s locked up for life.” Her voice cracked right at the end of the statement, and all I’d seen from Felicity was nothing but strength. But under the pressure of potentially losing Venom for good, she was cracking.
I owed it to her and Venom to find a way to fix things.
“I will find my father and I will take him down. I’m going to undo all the wrong he’s done in all of our lives, Felicity. I promise.”
Imagining wrapping my hands around Connor’s throat and squeezing the life out of him used to terrify me, but now it was all I could dream of. I’d ruin the man who ruined me, even if it was the very last thing I did.
8
Cherri
I jolted upright, holding my throat and gasping for air. My chest felt like it was about to cave in on itself, and sweat was pouring down my forehead. Connor’s evil smile loomed at the front of my brain, having been the last thing I saw in my dream as he braced his hands on my throat, slowly squeezing the life out of me. My heart pounded like it was trying to escape from my chest, and for a few minutes, I really struggled to convince myself that I wasn’t being drained of my life.
“Cherri?” My bedroom door flew open, and Nathan came running in with Nikita right behind him. He was shirtless and looked as if he had just jumped out of bed, while Nikita was wearing Nathan’s missing shirt, and looked like she was somewhere between terrified and irritated. “What’s wrong?” Nathan asked.
“What?” I said.
“You were screaming,” Nikita said.
My jaw dropped a little. “I was? I’m sorry. I had a nightmare.”
“About Connor?” Nikita asked. “I have them too.”
Nathan ran a hand through his dark brown hair. “I think we’ve all had them at this point.”
“I’ve been having them almost every night lately. I don’t sleep much,” I admitted.
Nathan waved a hand at me. “Come on. Come sleep on our couch. It’s really comfortable.”
“Um,” I stammered. “Wow, there is not much on the planet that sounds more goddamn awkward than that.”
“I’m with you,” Nikita said, “but I think it would help.”
The thought of going to stay in my ex-boyfriend’s bedroom with both him and his new girlfriend seemed odd to be sure, but it also seemed better than staying in my room all by myself. “Okay. Thanks.”
I grabbed my cell phone and one of the pillows from my bed and followed Nathan and Nikita out of my room. They led me down the hallway to the room that I recognized as Nathan’s old room. It had been completely rearranged and all of the furniture had been replaced with newer stuff. Nathan and Nikita’s bed was a big, four-poster bed, and in one corner of the room, there was a seating area with a couch and a couple of chairs. The couch had a high back and looked particularly plushy, so I walked over to it and laid down. Nikita disappeare
d into the closet and came back out with a spare comforter and unfolded it over me.
“Let’s not just think about how weird this is,” Nikita joked, then she winked at me and went and climbed back in bed with Nathan.
“Thanks guys,” I said.
“No problem. Goodnight,” Nathan said.
Weird though it was, I felt infinitely more comfortable in a room with other people, and the couch was pretty damn comfortable, and in no time at all, I’d settled into a deep and thankfully dreamless sleep.
By the time I woke up the next morning, Nathan and Nikita were no longer in the room. I took my time waking up, took a few minutes to text Ciara, my parents, and Gus that I loved and missed them, then I dragged myself off the couch and down to my bedroom. I changed into a pair of plain blue jeans and a black t-shirt to match a pair of my favorite combat boots, then I fluffed up my hair, starting at the brown roots and dragging my fingers down to the blond tips at my shoulders, then I left the room.
A murmur of voices got louder as I made my way downstairs, and just like the day before, everyone was sitting around the kitchen island, helping themselves to a new collection of breakfast foods, this time pastries and fruits. I took a seat next to Avery and dropped my head to her shoulder.
“Good morning,” she said, kissing my forehead. “How’d you sleep?”
I looked across at Nathan and Nikita. “Much better with a couple friends close by. Thanks.”
They didn’t respond, but each gave me warm smiles, and I was happy some of the discomfort was shaking loose and I was feeling better being around my friends. Sicily had gone home the night before, but just before I had a chance to ask if he was planning on coming back, he came wandering into the kitchen.
“Hey!” he called out.
“Hey!” everyone called back like we were on the set of a sitcom.
His jaw dropped. “Oh wow. I didn’t think that would work.” He looked across the kitchen at me and pointed. “There’s my girl.”