“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 disappeared 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.”
“Hey, Sis,” I greeted with a warm smile.
Sicily sat down at an open stool and helped himself to a few fruits and pastries.
“How did ping checking go yesterday?” Nathan asked.
“Really good,” Sicily said. “We still got a couple thousand left to go, but we can get it done in a week, maybe, with everyone’s help.”
“That’s good,” Nathan said. “Brayden was helpful, but we didn’t get a whole bunch of information to trace since he was always blindfolded when he traveled to meet with my dad. Nikita had an idea though.”