Page 110 of The Venom We Bleed

Lex smiles and arches a brow. “You’re not going to fight us?”

I glare his way. “Is there a point?”

He seems to think about it for a moment before shrugging. “Not really. You’ll just wear yourself out and we’ll make you do what we want anyway.”

Yeah, I expected as much. “Then, no,” I say. “I’m not going to fight. I’m too tired and hungover to do much.” And this is the first Saturday in well over a month that I’ve not had to work. I don’t really remember what other people do on their days off.

“We have work to do,” Nolan says. “Gio, you need to go check up on your mom. I’ll run Lex to the garage so he can pick up the SUV.”

“I thought you were working last night.” As I say the words, I watch the three of them. Just as I expected, they tense and go quiet.Yeah,I think sardonically.Errands, my ass.

Clearing his throat, Nolan recaptures everyone’s attention. “My mom picked up an extra shift at the hospital this morning, so I wanna run over something for her to eat.” He refocuses on me. “Then we need to go see how the Ritchies are doing with your place.”

My arms tighten around my chest. “I went yesterday,” I admit. “Mrs. Ritchie made it seem like it’d be a while more.”

Nolan nods. “I want to go in and talk to her myself. Mr. Ritchie is a cheap bastard. If you’re not kicking up a massive fuss, he’ll take forever to get shit fixed. Then we really do have shit to do today.”

I contemplate the three of them as Gio stabs the last of his breakfast and swallows almost an entire pancake whole. I’m surprised he manages it without choking, but once it’s gone and he drains his glass of orange juice, he’s up and out of the chair. He bypasses me to drop the paper plate into the trash and his glass into the sink. Just when I think I’ve gotten away from the awkward morning-after encounter, he stops right in front of me. My arms drop to my sides as he cages me in against the counter. Right there, in front of his boys, Gio Vargas leans down and puts his lips right in front of mine. I go still.

“Next time,” he says, voice low and deep and vibrating up through his chest, “I wanna see you come all over my cock.”

My lips part and he swoops in, damning me with a hot as fuck kiss. His tongue slips in and duels with mine, tangling together in an intimidating rush of heat. Then, he’s gone, slipping back out and stepping away.

“Remember what we said—find out when visiting is at the prison and one of us will drive you to see your dad.”

“Wha—”

But he’s already gone, disappearing through the living room and out the front door before I can even reconnect my brain with my body.

A beat of silence passes and then Nolan lets loose a low whistle. “Well, he certainly doesn’t beat around the bush.”

“You knew that.” Lex passes Nolan a look I can’t decipher.

Face threatening to go hot with a blush, I spin away from both of them. “Do you have things to do or not?” I snap as I head back down the hall to grab my shoes.

Behind me, I hear the two of them laugh and the weird little belly flip that happens in my stomach doesn’t make me feel any more grounded than that kiss Gio planted on me.

After breakfast, I’m squished into the white pickup between Lex and Nolan to drive over to the garage that Nolan works at. We drop off the truck and trade places into Lex’s freshly fixed up SUV. I frown as I hop into the back seat and glance back.

“Is it just me or does this thing seem higher off the ground?” I ask.

Nolan chuckles as he gets into the passenger seat up front and Lex starts the engine. “I’ve been wanting to deck out Lex’s ride for months,” Nolan admits. “Your little tantrum gave me the excuse I needed.”

Rolling my eyes, I click on my seatbelt. “It wasn’t a tantrum,” I mutter, sitting back.

Neither of them reply and we roll out of town. Lines of trees go by, flying past the windows as Lex takes the winding back roads that lead to the edge of Silverwood’s town limits. Just before he reaches the outskirts, he hangs a right and we veer off onto a gravel road.

“Where are we going?” I demand, sitting up straighter as I glance back towards the main road.

“I need to stop by my place to pick something up,” Lex says. A few minutes later, we pull up to a rusty gate and Nolan slips out, running up to unchain the lock and hold it open.

The SUV ambles forward and Lex stops again a few yards in for Nolan to run and hop back into the vehicle. They leave the gate open as we drive further down the path where we pass an old-looking farmhouse with a wraparound front porch and a bed of half-dead flowers out front. The place looks a bit on the rough side, but it’s clear whoever lives there does their best. The paint is new even if the front steps appear saggy.

We don’t stop, though, until we’re a good half mile further behind the farmhouse. My eyes widen at the small structure there. It’s a plain, undecorated square of a building that looks like it has three old wooden doors almost big enough for a small car to fit through. On top, there are small windows set over each door. A metal rooster shaped weather vane sits atop twin arrows with the letters ‘N, S, E,’ and ‘W’ underneath.

“What is that?” I ask, leaning closer to the window.

“My great-something granddad used to fix carriages back in the 1800s,” Lex says. “He built an extra-large carriage house back here for when some of the folks in the city would bring them to be refurbished or whatnot.”

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