Page 82 of Truths

Cameras. Shit. Of course, there are cameras outside. “Look, I think-”

“Yeah, you don't get to think anything right now,” Dax says. “Jennings, you good with the transfer?”

“Yep.”

“Done.”

Marnie steps up. “For the record, Dad, Venom saved me. You, too. I don't know why you think he's such a terrible person, but you may need to take a look in the mirror. There's nothing respectable about a man who hits a woman.”

“But there is something respectable about a man who saves a woman and puts the threat through a meat grinder before feeding him to pigs,” Colt says.

The curiosity of what Colt's talking about infuriates Snake. The last thing he wants is to ask what the hell Venom could possibly do that would help him.

Lex whips around to face the man Snake hates. “You did what now?”

“Yeah, about that... I kind of, you know, did that,” Venom says, but his eyes won't meet hers.

“And you didn't tell me!” she exclaims, pulling the ice away from her face. The swelling makes Snake realize how badly hescrewed up, and he knows he deserves to stay on the ground right now. “I'm so mad at you. And you, too, Colt! You knew and didn't tell me?”

“He didn't want you to think he was a monster, and then I kind of forgot with everything that happened recently,” Colt says with a shrug.

“With a friend like me, there's no way she could think you're a monster. She still loves me,” says the Black Valley President, Psycho, as he walks into the clubhouse. His eyes widen when he looks at Lex. “What the fuck happened to your face?”

Dani stands, making her presence known for the first time, her eyes wide. “Carson?”

Lex whips back around to stare at Dani as Psycho's own sunken eyes mirror hers. “Dani?”

Chapter Thirty

Griffin's Beach

Lex

“Wait, you know each other? And you call him Carson?” Lex asks, her eyes glancing to the pale face of Psycho's wife, Lacey.

Only one person in the world calls Psycho by his government name, and that's his redheaded wife.

“You're Dax's Dani?” Psycho asks.

“You're Psycho?” Dani responds.

Standing and waving her hands in the air, she looks between the two of them since neither seems to want to acknowledge her question. “Why do you call him Carson?”

“Because that's his name. Why do you call him Psycho?” Dani asks.

The question seems to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back on Lex's psyche, and she bursts out laughing. Hard. Her hands rest on her knees as she bends over, struggling to breathe.

“Lex, are you okay?” Jennings asks, his hand resting on her back.

“No, no, I'm not okay,” she says and wipes her eyes. “I think I've officially lost it.”

“We call him Psycho because he's fucking nuts,” Colt says. “In the best ways. For us, anyway. Not so much for his victims.”

Psycho steps forward and rests his hands on Lex's shoulders. “What happened to your face?”

“Snake hit her,” Venom growls.

“So not what I want to focus on right now,” Lex says.

---