♤PACTS♤

Chapter 6 - Late night visits

Danny Torent's POV

After a long day of going through countless lists with Penny and running into dead ends, I call it a night and head to my room.

I might not be a blood Griffin, but I still get the respect they have. I've had my fair share of dealing with stuck-up assholes, so it comes as no surprise when some teenagers walking the opposite way on the same corridor as me, bump into me on purpose.

"Well, if it isn't the wannabe Griffin?" The Moses of the group slurs.

Alcohol and stupidity are a dangerous combination in any situation.

"What'd ya do to get Sam to welcome you in? Sold your one-night stands out, or did you fuck his granddaughter to oblivion?"

When their last statement came out, I raised my hand and helped the cleaner mop the floor with the kid as my mop stick. Efficient, don't you think?

His companions scattered when they saw it, and I took the opportunity to grab the collar of his shirt and hold him against the wall.

"Didn't your mother teach you manners, or did you want to have a date with the devil's Spawn?" I say calmly.

The way his eyes are lined with tears and fear is the only answer I get. I drop him onto the floor, and he pushes himself as far as the wall will let him. The carpet underneath him darkens, and I resist the urge to scoff.

'Pick your fights clearly,' Sam's voice infiltrates my mind.

I step over his quivering figure and walk to my room. This time I don't get any distractions. I strip out of my clothes and get into the shower.

If someone had told me that the girl I hated the most back in high school would be my cousin, I would have laughed in your face and gladly told you to fuck off. Not to talk of me working with her to secure her position in an empire that I didn't even know existed.

My life before all of this was both simple and complicated. My mother was one of the reasons I put up with Joey's stupidity, but as a wise man once said, some people need a taste of their medicine. Unless they remain single-minded.

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. The thought of how my mom felt when she discovered Joey's infidelity was a day I would never forget. The noise of the shower drops on the floor became a distant noise as the memory plays out.

I returned from school to a trashed house and a sobbing woman on the kitchen counter. I approached her with caution, but my mother had keen senses. I stepped on a broken piece of glass, and her head shot up. She looked at me with regret. A look of a woman who knew what needed to be done and wasn't ready to do it. She got up from the chair and walked to me.

She pulled me in for a tight hug and kissed my forehead, "Take care of yourself." She whispered and walked out of the house with nothing but the clothes on her back.

The endless scenarios of what would have happened if I had gotten home earlier or stopped her from leaving played in my head like a broken record. My frustration didn't happen till my father and his mother arrived at the house later that evening.

I turn off the shower when the heat gets too much to bear.

Once dressed in a simple pair of sweats, I lie on my bed and look at the roof; till I hear someone opening the door and trying to be quiet but failing horribly.

The only illumination in the room came from my window, but I didn't need to strain my eyes too much. I knew who would sneak into my room in the middle of the night. Half of her shit was already in it.