Page 7 of A Love Like Venom

It’s an even transaction.

I show them a good time. They release the pent-up frustration I have inside me.

Then, you wake up and do it all over again.

Put on a smile wide enough for the world to see. Share jokes that will have the people laughing. Distract them with a charming aloof personality.

Like I said, people are too easy to deceive.

They’re only aware when you allow them to be.

See, that was Dex’s problem. My brother in The Vipers MC couldn’t deceive the people around him when his woman, Haven, left out of the blue. He started to do things out of the ordinary. Changed his behavior. Fought more with his brothers. Lashed out at anyone who looked at him wrong. A man who loved to be around his brothers because he saw them as family turned to isolation.

Dex’s actions raised suspicion.

Fuck, they raised more than suspicion. They raised concern, worry. What he did caused the whole club to take turns being his babysitter. Everyone was keeping a close eye on him.

You never want people to keep a close eye on you.

Then they know too much.

I love my brothers. I love my President. Hell, I even love the woman he has claimed his Old Lady and made his wife. I would do anything for them. Put my life on the line. Ihavedone that.

But as much as I love them it’s from a measured distance.

They have my loyalty and respect.

They don’t have all ofme.

I only ever did that with one person. One person saw the real man behind this façade. She knew my weaknesses and strengths. Saw the vulnerability that I shielded from the world. Wore my bleeding heart on my fucking sleeve.

It wasn’t my momma. God rest her soul in Heaven where she belongs.

Nor was it my ex-girlfriend. And thank fuck I hadn’t given her everything.

She deserves everything terrible coming her way. But I suppose one would feel that way when you find your girlfriend at the time cheating on you. And then to learn she had cheated for the better half of our relationship.

If there is one thing I do believe in it’s karma. And I can’t wait to see the day it comes to bite her in the fucking ass.

I’m anything but a patient man, so I took matters into my own hands.

I gave karma a kickstart by burning her fucking car to the ground. My ex-girlfriend, that is. I loved the girl. Or at least I thought it was love. Truth is my heart has only belonged to one girl. And it wasn’t her. Seeing Caitlin’s car blow up was like watching the grandest of fireworks.

Happy fucking Fourth of July to me.

Even to this day I can’t help the genuine smile coming to my face when I think of it.

The girl was toxic. The deadliest form.

But she wasn’t the one who made me the man I am today.

She’s not responsible for this façade of mine.

She’s not even responsible for the burning hate that runs through my veins.

How can it be her when it washerbetrayal I never fucking saw coming.

She thought she was innocent. Painted herself as a little victim when all along she was the villain.

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