Page 199 of A Love Like Venom

I stagger backwards.

Accidentally I collide into a hard chest. Steady arms grab a hold of my shoulders and balance me. Glancing up through blurry eyes I find Blake eyeing me with concern. Before he can say anything to me Rosa takes me in her arms and pulls me away. I follow her but my body does not feel like it’s own.

Floating, drifting away slowly from reality and into the darkest place of my mind.

Reed.

They have Reed.

Air does not want to enter my lungs. My heart bleeding tragically while trying to beat.

“Reed.” His name is a broken cry on my lips.

Swallowed in my despair, not able to take another breath my legs collapse beneath me. I fall to the floor but don’t feel the impact. No, I’m too far gone for that.

Rosa goes to pick me up but she can’t. It’s as if my body has turned to dead weight.

“Alice, please,” she begs of me. I manage to look up at her with glassy eyes. Not even daring to hide the sorrow, the guilt and the darkness coming for me.

“They have him.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own. It sounds distant, cold.

A rush of noise happens and footsteps fall harder as they come closer.

“What is going on? What happened?” Haven demands. Sparing her a glance she looks between Rosa and I waiting for an answer.

“They have him,” I repeat numbly.

A deeper voice that belongs to Dex asks, “They have who?”

“Snake,” Rosa answers for me. “The Crowned Devils have Snake.”

They all curse to the sky furiously. I can feel their anger.

“Then what are we doing here? We need to go after them!” Pax declares.

“We have no idea where he is at or where they are taking him,” Rosa says sadly.

“We have to do something,” Dex insists.

“We will,” she tells him.

“When?” Haven asks.

The sound of the door opens and closes. Sticks comes walking out with blood staining his clothes. He regards us all carefully but his eyes land on mine. “Slater will be okay. Blake managed to stop the bleeding until Dr. Garvey is here.”

“Sheriff Crow is here?” Pax sounds surprised.

Sticks nods his head. He glances over at Pax briefly. “He was the one who brought Slater in. Thanks to him he’s still breathing as of right now.”

“Never thought I’d see the day Sheriff Crow would be in our compound,” Pax mumbles to himself.

“Enough about Crow,” Dex says then asks, “How are we going to get Snake back?”

This is where Sticks returns his eyes back to mine. I see the determination in them but I also see how they waver. He kneels to where he is at eye level with me. “Alice, you need to be strong.”

“They have him.” It’s all I can seem to say. The cold hard undeniable horrid truth.

“They do,” he agrees with me. “Now what are you going to do about it?”

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