Page 76 of Venomous as a Snake

He stretches across the back seat, nodding his head as he glances out the window. “Get stuck in traffic somewhere. They won’t get too close, and we can lose them when it clears.”

“What are you thinking?” Drew asks his brother.

That’s the honey badger’s favorite question when he’s trying to figure someone out. His brother does it too.

“Whatever this agreement is…” Walker sighs. “It has nothing to do with the contract between Kody and Clay.”

“There’s a contract between them?” I inquire.

“Yeah. We don’t know what it says exactly, but it’s the reason her pets are still alive,” Walker explains. “Clay hates them, and she knew it. There’s a strike-for-strike clause that says any damage done to them by him or his friends gets mirrored. So, if he kicks Hooker, Kody kicks him. He doesn’t trust himself to not kill them, so he doesn’t touch them.”

I run my hand through my beard. “That’s a really particular clause to have in a contract between two people who were engaged.”

“She wanted to protect them,” Walker states matter-of-factly. “Because she knew he’d hurt them to hurt her.”

“He’s going to throw a tantrum over Collin knocking him out. I wish we could have seen that,” Drew muses, then turns to me with a grin. “We can. Pull up the security feed and roll it back.”

I open the app, clicking on the camera that faces Kody’s living room. As I roll the footage back, I watch Clay’s minions go near Carol’s enclosure, though they never touch it.

“Do you think she’s hiding something in Carol’s—”

“Oh, yeah.” Drew nods in excitement. “She keeps a stash inside that big-ass foam rock.”

“Clever,” I mumble to myself as I pause the video feed. “When you stop, I’ve got it ready.”

Walker sucks in a quick breath. “Damn.”

“You’re watching it without us,” Drew complains. “You fucking dick.”

“She was actually worried for Collin when he lunged forward,” Walker says, starting shit with his brother. “But she’s right. They left in a hurry, and the minions show up four minutes later.”

Drew slows his Jeep, stopping in the Meena Beach rush hour traffic. “Let me see.”

I hold the phone on the center console, and both of us lean in, watching the replay.

Kody says, “But we both know you’re too fucking stupid to listen to better judgment.”

“Stupid,” Clay shouts, standing taller to intimidate her. “You call me stupid like there’s no punishment for that?”

“Is he serious?” Forrest asks, his voice gravelly.

“Yeah,” Collin angrily replies. “I think he is.”

“Mind your fucking business,” Clay snarls at them. “This is between me and my bi—”

Collin launches across the distance, his fist solidly connecting with Clay’s jaw before the swan can register that he’s being attacked. His body tenses and drops to Kody’s floor.

She and Forrest stare for a moment as Collin curses, shaking his hand out.

And once she jumps into action, she doesn’t look back.

Walker sighs. “There’s another dead body in her kitchen. They didn’t take their fallen minion with them.”

I laugh… because I expect nothing less from my hissy mate.

She couldn’t pull the trigger on me.

But nothing will stop her from pulling that trigger when she points the gun at Clay.