RAW Deception (Round 2 in the RAW Instinct Series)

Chapter 13

At Shane's house, Beryl made Shane comfortable on a couch in the lounge. Gregory sat on the edge of the couch holding his hand. He was still drowsy and complained that he had bit his tongue.

Beryl said, "That's the anaesthetic still working in your body. You'll be just fine in a couple of hours."

"You don't have to talk. We're here with you," Raw said, and offered to make a cup of coffee for everyone.

A voice from the door leading into the lounge said, "I'd love a cup." It was Joe. "Sorry to interrupt this intimate meeting."

"Oh, fuck!" Shane whispered.

"If I were you I wouldn't show my face around here for the next, oh, say, fifty years, Joe," Beryl said.

"I'm here. You might as well get used to it." He approached the couch and leaned in for a kiss, but Shane turned his head away.

"What happened to you," Joe asked stepping back.

Gregory clenched his fists and stood up to push Joe away but Beryl stopped him.

"You don't know?" She frowned. How could he not know, he had caused it.

"You look like death warmed up," he continued while laughing.

"How dare you." Beryl exclaimed, walking over to him and slapping him across the face.

"I beg your pardon? What the fuck was that for?"

"How dare you stand there and laugh when you did this to my brother?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't know anything, do you? You hurt my brother the other day when he got back from Canton's Cottage. In your jealous rage, you hurt him so bad you tore him inside. He had to have an operation today because of you! How do you feel now, Mr. Humour?"

"I say bullshit! He enjoyed every minute of it."

Shane mumbled, "Not true. I told you to stop."

"You love it up the ass. It wouldn't be the first time."

Beryl shouted. "Stop it! Listen to me. You hurt him. You crazy fucking animal. You have no respect for him, least of all yourself. You ought to be ashamed of yourself and Shane, Shane; you should have gone to the police immediately."

Joe headed for the door. "If you're finished I have somewhere to be..."

"You stay right where you are, mister," Beryl said, this time standing. Joe stopped dead in his tracks.

"Where have you been these last few days?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Answer the fucking question."

"I was in Bloemfontein, working, which is more than I can say for every one of you here."

Beryl pursed her lips. "Working, huh."

"Yes. I need to pay my share of the bond on this place seeing you don't pay a dime."

"Don't make me the centre of this discussion, Joe. If you were working as you so admirably put it, then explain this."

She opened the image on her phone and showed him.

"What is this?" he asked with a look of disbelief on his face.

"You tell us, Joe," Shane said from the couch.

"This is nothing."

"You lied," Beryl accused. "You said you were in Bloemfontein, instead you were having lunch and kissing a man we have never seen, right here in Johannesburg. You call that nothing?"