Page 36 of Thorned Vengeance

“Fine,” I huff. “I am.”

I turn on my heel and storm away from the crowd, desperately needing to be alone.

What the hell have I done?

I’m in my room for less than two minutes before the doors slide open, and Jez walks in.

“You can’t do that,” I snap.

“Oh, stuff it,” she quips. “I was worried about you, so I came in uninvited. For all I know, you were trying to kill yourself in here.” She shrugs. “It was an emergency.”

I groan. “You’re insane.”

“And you’d be lost without me.” Jez moves to sit at my desk. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Do you really need to ask?”

“She looks like Tamara… Yeah, I know. But that doesn’t mean you have to claim her.”

“I didn’t.”

“Uh, Thorn, did you hit your head on the floor when Grim took you down? Because what you just did,” she says, pointing toward the common room. “You claimed her.”

“Fuck,” I mutter hotly. “I saw Zach put his hands on her and lost it. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Oh, you were thinking,” she returns. “Just not sure which head was taking the lead.”

“Did you need something from me?” I bark, annoyed with her assessment.

“No,” she admits. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stare at her without responding. She lifts her hands in mock surrender.

“Fine, Thorn. Be a dick. But when shit starts blowing up in your face, don’t come crying to me.”

With that parting shot, Jez walks out of my room, and only when the door slides closed do I relax.

Motherfucker!

CHAPTER 18

DELANEY

“Take a seat next to Thorn.”

Soul points to his left, and Thorn pulls out my chair. I promptly sit, waiting to see what happens next, but I have to bite my tongue before I say something stupid because I’m still pissed over Thorn’s outburst last night.

When Soul told me I’d be permitted in church, I had no idea what that meant until Thorn explained to me how big a deal it is. Only club members are allowed in this room, except on the rarest of occasions.

I guess hunting a serial killer is a rare occasion.

The room embodies Saints Purgatory. It’s painted in the club colors, black and purple, from the ceiling to the floor. A beautiful skull with roses and curlicues covers the expanse of one wall with the motto See evil, Hear evil, Become evil, Purge evil done in large blocky letters on the opposite wall. The detail in the skull and the words take my breath away, and I feel them to the depths of my soul. When Thorn took me down to the Confessional, it was easy to tell he expected fear from me, but that’s not what seeped into my bones… excitement did. The painted phrase resonates deep inside me, and, like the club, I need to rid the world of evil. And not just the Phantom Strangler.

As I’m taking in my surroundings, Jez waltzes in behind Grim like she owns the joint. The knots in my stomach loosen when she glances over at me and winks.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” Soul bellows.

Jez tosses her hair over her shoulders and sets her laptop down on the dark table.

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