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“That isn’t an insult, babygirl.”
“You don’t need to make me feel better. It doesn’t matter, anyhow. It isn’t my business, and I shouldn’t have asked.”
I started to laugh, not bothering trying to hold it back. Maybe it wasn’t the best thing I could have done, but holy shit. Her condescending tone was a direct contradiction to everything she was saying. I tried really fucking hard for her, and she hadn’t the slightest clue.
She clamped her ample lips together and readjusted in the seat, tracing a finger over where I’d bitten.
A distressed groan came from the backseat, filling the tense silence between us.
I didn’t put forth the effort to make her feel better. My mind was already wandering elsewhere, the man now awake being one place. She and Z both telling me to just be myself the other.
They had no fucking idea what that entailed. At seventeen, the darkness took root. At twenty-six, it had had years to do nothing but flourish as I ignored and caged it.
I hadn’t wanted to be that man.
I came to the same conclusion I had earlier. It was time she found out.
Chapter Seven
septem
V3 turned out to be nothing more than an old nursing home the Venom had decided to claim.
The large brownstone building sat adjacent to an abandoned church in the center of a rundown neighborhood that looked just as forgotten.
A large chain-link fence had been erected around its entirety, curled barb wire affixed to the top of it. Three Venom stood guard near the only entry point onto the grounds.
Tank top now back on, I leaned forward some and took in the few cars already in the parking lot. Off to the right of the main entry was a bonfire just getting started.
It reminded me of one of the Savage club houses—just full of Venom.
Hearing the sound of the vehicles, heads turned to see who had arrived. Zane swung the SUV into one of the empty parking spaces and Maliki pulled in right beside him and killed the ignition.
"Let's go," he said, hopping out without so much as glancing my way.
That was the most he'd said to me in a while.
I expelled a noisy stream of frustration. We had gone from joking to this in a matter of ten minutes. I knew I should have stuck to what I had been telling myself to do, what I'd been doing since I'd met him—minding my business.
I think I understood where the term 'crush' came from. The feeling could truly feel like it was crushing you.
If anything, this only asserted the fact that he and I should remain strictly friends. I didn't know what other avenue we could travel down without our past turning one another into targets.
I watched him through the window for a few seconds and then popped my door open, having to throw my shoulder into it to get the damn thing to cooperate.
Before my booted feet could even hit the ground, Zane and Maliki were at the van's back door and a small group of Venom had made their way over to see what was going on. Each one looked eager to speak to them; it was like a mini fan-club.
I moved back and stood beside Addy, who was watching the spectacle with an unreadable expression on her face.
Knowing my cousin as well as I did, I knew she wasn't feeling this dynamic at all. Her eyes fell on a pair of pretty women who looked as if they could be twins, both standing aside with wide smiles on their faces.
"You know, this is exactly how girls act around my brother? They're like cats in heat, pushing their pussies in his face."
I let out a small laugh. I knew exactly what she was referring to. Luce loved the attention. I’d heard excessive details about my cousin's sex life, but recent rumors would suggest he'd found himself a steady thing for once. He, Cam, and Butcher...
I swallowed thinking of the two brothers. I missed one more than I even thought was possible and fucking hated the other with everything I had in me.
"They have definitely tapped those asses," Addy remarked, watching the twins—I was convinced that's what they were—interact with the large Venom men.
