Page 200 of A Love Like Venom

My eyes widen. “Me?”

“Yeah,you.” He emphasizes the last part. “You going to fall apart like he’s already dead or are you going to get your ass up and fight for him?”

I blink once then twice. I can feel his heated stare on me. His blunt words hit me right in the chest. They shake me out of my despair and throw me into something else entirely.

The darkness I once thought was swallowing me whole only spreads through me like a wild fire.

He’s not dead.

My Reed Carter isn’t dead.

Closing my eyes I take a deep breath and when I look at him there is a spark in them.

“That’s what I want to see. Never count him out, Alice. You have to fight for him now. He’s going to need you.”

His words are like fuel to the flame. They ignite a fire inside of me. They dance with the darkness. Because there is a darkness I carry. For as much light as Reed claims I have I can channel the dark side of me, too.

When I unleash it I’ll make sure what happened to Chris Blackwell will be nothing compared to what I do to them.

Raising myself up from the ground I wipe away the remaining of my tears.

Rosa comes back to my side and clasps my hand in hers tightly. “Snake will come back to you, Alice. There is nothing on this earth that could keep him away.”

I know this is true.

And I also know there is nothing on this earth that will keep me from him.

I will get him back.

I will save him.

Even if that means handing myself over.

I will make sure he survives.

Snake

Iwake up disoriented.

My eyes are gritty. Blinking a couple of times I try to regain my vision but everything is blurry. When I go to open my mouth I realize how dry it is, like sandpaper. Swallowing proves to be difficult as I can hardly get my own saliva past my throat.

Fuck.

My entire body is weak. There is a burning sensation in my upper right shoulder and I vaguely remember what had happened.

As I try to take a breath, my lungs expanding to greedily bring in air, I end up coughing instead.

Fucking shit.

Coughing up some more I go to move my arms, except I can’t.

Tipping my head back, which is heavy and causes a blood rush, I see through blurry eyes that my wrists are restrained above my head. With my arms extended my wrists are bound by a chain that is attached to the ceiling.

Mustering up strength I pull on the chain and am rewarded with it biting into my skin. That’s when I realize the chain is wrapped with barbed wire. Every movement that I make willonly dig in my skin. Blood trickles down my arm. I stop my ministrations, momentarily defeated.

How the fuck am I going to get out of here?

A slow clapping has my head falling forward. I squint my eyes, following the sound hoping to see someone through the blur.

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