Page 81 of Venomous as a Snake

No answer.

I click on Collin’s name next. The line rings and rings until the robotic woman picks up to tell me he doesn’t have his voicemail set up. I take a deep breath as my thumb hovers over Forrest’s name.

Knowing what’s happening doesn’t settle my soul. Even if I hoped that he’d take me instead of them… I knew this was coming. Clay likes the gut punch, the hit that hurts the most so he can get exactly what he wants.

What he thinks he wants.

He won’t like who shows up on his doorstep tonight.

My thumb touches the screen, and the ringing begins.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

On the fourth, someone answers Forrest’s phone. There’s rustling and scratching in the speaker, then it stops.

“Are you coming home now? I’ve got your guys and Carol,” Clay taunts, though I hear the disgust in voice. “I know how much you love your snake.”

“Funny thing about that contract between us…” I murmur, my voice a low hiss. “When you die, all your assets become mine.”

Anger radiates through the pastel yellow room as I glare at Clay. It’s not just my rage that’s directed at him, but the fucking swan feels none of it.

I really think he has worms in his brain, like Kody says.

Because how else can one man be so fucking stupid?

Well, he’s a spoiled brat, so I guess that’s part of it.

But not even Fangs can save him from Martin Ayers’s wrath if something happens to his only daughter.

While Clay is concerned with Kody, I’m worried about the outcome of her leaving this house with a single scratch marring her perfectly porcelain skin.

His minions have already grazed her with a bullet. There are consequences to that act alone.

I won’t warn him, though.

Martin is the least of our worries tonight.

The fucking swan stuck Kody Ayers in a corner like she was a five-year-old in time out.

That is what we should be concerned about.

Kody takes a lot of shit. Too much shit. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Clay has lit her fucking fuse. Nothing good comes from that.

For him, anyway.

For us? We get to watch her finally kill him. And anyone else who stands in her way.

The Kody who shows up tonight won’t be the same woman we spoke to this morning. With Walker at her side, they’ll… well, he’ll mostly stay out of her way.

A minion stands, opening the oak front door as headlights shut off. Car doors slam and feet stomp across the circular driveway.

And two minions come in carrying a very irate Lawless.

“Well,” I mutter. “Scratch that thought.”