He shook his head and kept walking.  J said his goodbyes too and left me alone to contemplate the afternoon ahead of me.  Yvette, my sister, had texted me about half an hour ago to let me know Dad had been taken to hospital so that’s where I was headed.  He’d had a heart attack about three weeks ago which was why I was back in Brisbane, and now it seemed he’d had another one.  Fuck, if it wasn’t one thing messing with my family, it was another.

I started walking outside when a familiar laugh slammed into me, jolting my senses.  The woman it belonged to was a woman I did not want to see, but her voice rang out as she caught sight of me.  “Havoc,” she called out to me, and I heard the tap of her heels across the floor as she came closer.

For fuck’s sake, why couldn’t I have some peace and fucking quiet in my life?

Her hand landed on my shoulder, and I spun around and shrugged it off.  My hard glare landed on her.  “Don’t fuckin’ touch me, bitch,” I snarled.

She flinched, but quickly recovered.  “Baby, I didn’t know you were back,” she said in that breathy voice of hers; the voice that used to make my dick jump to attention but now made it want to shrivel up and pretend she didn’t exist.

I shoved my angry face in her personal space.  “Let’s get one fuckin’ thing straight, Kelly.  I’m not your fuckin’ baby, so cut that shit right now.”

“There’s no need to be such a bastard,” she complained, still trying to move closer to me.

I reached out and gripped her shoulder, halting her progress towards me.  “Stop whatever the fuck it is that you’re doing, and leave me the fuck alone.  We haven’t been together for two years, and if you think I’d ever go there with you again, you are seriously mistaken.  You fucked me over, remember?”

Her eyes widened, and she took a step away from me.  But it was clear she hadn’t expected that reaction from me.  Probably because for the five years we’d been together, she’d had me wrapped around her little fucking finger.  Her voice was soft when she spoke.  “I made a mistake, Havoc, and I know that now.  Let me show you how sorry I am.”

I raked my fingers through my hair as I felt the tension punch through my body.  She was a piece of fucking work.  “Letting you show me anything is the furthest thing from my mind.  I’m leaving now, and I’m telling you for the first and the last time, don’t fuckin’ come near me again.  You’ve no fuckin’ idea how close I am to losing it with you, and I can promise you, that is something neither of us want to happen.”

I turned to leave the club and was relieved she didn’t follow.  She’d managed to drag me closer to the edge where I lived; the edge that threatened to rip every last piece of sanity from me if I stumbled over it.  I lived precariously on that edge, but now, after seeing her, I needed to get my shit under control so I could find my way back from it.

Fuck.

Chapter Three

Carla

––––––––

I stared at my teacher in alarm.  He’d just given me the choice between sleeping with him or failing my subject. And I had to decide now, right this moment, because he had to report my grade for this semester tomorrow.  “You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I demanded to know as my mind flicked through options.  Surely he couldn’t get away with this.

He leant back against his table, and gave me a creepy smile.  “I never kid, Carla,” he answered me, smoothly.  In that instant, I knew he’d done this before, probably many times and gotten away with it.  There was just something about his demeanour, and the confidence with which he spoke.

Shit.  I was far from a prude, but I wasn’t the type of woman to sleep my way to anything.  And I knew there was no way in hell I would ever give my body to this prick.  I made my decision.  “Fail me if you must; I’m not fucking you, asshole,” I snapped.  Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I made him a promise.  “If you do fail me though, just know that I won’t let it rest.  I will find a way to fuck you over.”

He laughed.  “I’m shaking in my boots, baby.”

“Yeah, well you should be.  You’ve no idea what connections I have,” I muttered as I walked out of his classroom.

He yelled out after me, “What, are you friends with the local gang or something?” he made fun of me.

I gave him one last filthy glare.  “No, you fucking prick, worse than that...a lot fucking worse.”

I didn’t wait for his response before I stalked out of the room.  My blood was boiling at the audacity of his demand, and I had to get out of there before I punched him.  As I walked to my car, my mind was conjuring up all the ways I could inflict harm on his body.  Just because I was a female didn’t mean I couldn’t make him hurt; I damn well could because my brother had taught me how.

“Fucker,” I muttered to myself as I opened my car door and slid into the seat.  Shit, he’d really riled me up.  If he did fail me, I would make good on my threat to fuck him up.  Passing my fashion design course was a major part of my life plan, and I was almost finished it; to fail a semester would mean extra time and money, and that time and money wasn’t in my fucking plan.

I shoved the gear stick into reverse and squealed out of the carpark.  Ten minutes later I was stuck in bloody bumper to bumper traffic.  Shit.  I didn’t have time for this today; I had to be at work in an hour.  My waitressing job paid for my course, and I’d missed a lot of shifts lately so I could spend time studying.  My boss was getting shitty with me about it, and I sensed that if I missed too many more, he would start looking for staff to replace me.  So this traffic was the last thing I needed, and after my run in with my teacher, it only served to put me in a worse mood.