Page 17 of Ravaged By the Dark

Arek uncocked the gun’s trigger, and X sagged against the wall. “You can go now.”

“Do I get my gun back?”

“What do you think?”

“Fuck, now I need a new piece.” The guy turned and had taken four strides when Arek shot him in the back of the head. The gunshot echoed off the walls, and a small trickle of smoke rose into the air as X fell to the ground with a thud.

“Before you ask, I lied,” Arek said to the corpse. He’d made sure the guy didn’t suffer. That was his reward for giving him the info he was after. Every guy he’d tortured up to this point wouldn’t give him shit, no matter what he did to them. He had to admit he was kind of impressed with their resolve, but X here had been super helpful.

Not taking any chances, Arek stuffed the gun in the back of his jeans to dispose of later and squatted to take X’s phone and anything else that might deem useful.

Now all he needed to do was find this Cody.

All eyes turned in their direction when Renee and J.J. walked into her sociology class. Her brother gripped her hand a little tighter, so she offered him a warm smile and was rewarded with a toothy grin. She walked straight to the professor and waited for him to look up from the laptop he was setting up for a PowerPoint presentation.

“Ms. Walters, this is highly unusual,” the professor said as he adjusted his wireframes like that might change what he saw.

“I’m sorry, Professor, but my mom had to leave for business for a few weeks. I wouldn’t have brought him unless I had to, but I’m really stuck since the babysitter has taken ill and couldn’t look after him. I promise J.J. won’t make a sound. You won’t even know he’s here.”

Renee gave her best sad, pouty face and batted her eyes at the man who she was pretty sure wanted to lay her over his desk. He’d probably be into her wearing a plaid skirt and knee-high socks. She wanted to roll her eyes at the thought as his eyes locked on her lips. Yup, super predictable, and she knew she had him as his cheeks pinked, and he cleared his throat.

“Alright, as long as he doesn’t make any noise, I don’t see the harm until your mother is back from her business trip.”

“Thank you, Professor, I owe you.” Renee smiled wide.

She was not above using her looks when it was needed. She knew what she looked like, and it did have its benefits when used wisely. But, most of the time, she loathed it. If she didn’t look like this, then Tyson would never have been an issue. She wouldn’t constantly be jumping at her own shadow or waiting for the night Tyson burst through her front door and claimed her as his. A cold dread settled into the pit of her stomach. She quickly pushed it aside and led J.J. to the far corner of the room.

J.J. smiled at all the people they passed and raised his hand to wave at a couple of them. He was the happiest and most social creature she’d ever seen. She hated that all too soon, he’d learn that the great majority of people were judgemental assholes.

Their instant assumptions of a black kid, period, let alone one from the wrong side of town, were always bad, and his life wasn’t going to be sunshine and rainbows.

J.J. was her half-brother. Her mother had a knack for choosing terrible relationships with men that took off. J.J.’s father hadn’t been any different, just black, not white like her own father. What did that mean? Basically, if you were an asshole, it ran deeper than your skin color. She set J.J. up with her phone and earphones before placing a juice box and a couple of snacks in front of him.

“Nae Nae?” J.J. whispered.

“Yeah?” She continued to dig through her backpack, looking for her red pen.

“Is mama really coming back?”

His words pierced her heart like a sharp knife. She should’ve been more careful—J.J. picked up on everything. She looked down into his earnest big eyes that held way too much hope.

“You know, bud, I really don’t know. But, I do know one thing for certain. Whatever the reason was that mom left, it wasn’t because of you or me.” His face turned to look at the floor, his small shoulders slumping.

“Then why did she leave us?”

Renee paused, unsure how to answer this so that he would understand and yet not speak ill of his mother. She could, and damn she was tempted to drag her mother through a hellfire of accusations, but she couldn’t do that to him.

“Look at me,” she whispered and lifted his chin with her finger. His big brown eyes were filled with tears, and it took all her willpower not to cry along with him. “You trust me, right?” He nodded. “Then trust me when I tell you that I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that she loved you very much. For her to leave, there had to be a good reason.”

He nodded and reached for the drink box, but the uncertainty was still in his eyes, and she didn’t know how or if she could or even should fix it.

Renee grabbed the elusive red pen and settled in for the two-hour lecture. Her first love was contemporary dancing, and she’d been training hard to be accepted at the Martha Graham School in New York, but she didn’t have the necessary tuition. She planned to earn a scholarship with her grades and use the funds to apply, but now with J.J., she’d have to consider him in any of her plans.

She looked down at the adorable kid beside her, and her heart swelled with love. No matter how much harder her life was now, she couldn’t picture it without him. He had no idea how much of a solid rock he was for her in her island of insanity.

He flipped through the apps on her phone until he found the game he wanted to play and then looked up and smiled as if he knew she needed it. She gave him a wink and then tuned in to the lecture as the lights dimmed.

J.J. yawned and stretched as the lecture wrapped up. Renee felt how he looked. That had to be one of the most boring lectures she’d sat through. You’d think that with a topic like economic and global inequality, it would have been engaging, but the Professor couldn’t have made it drier if he tried.