Page 117 of The Venom We Bleed

“Juliet.” My fingers clench around the phone in my hand at how he says my name—it’s both a caress and a threat. “You don’t need to stay with me, but you can’t go back to your apartment.”

“Yeah? Who am I going to stay with then? Gio?” I snort in disbelief. “Didn’t you warn me how much Darrio Vargas hates me? What would the slum lord of Silverwood do if he found out that Juliet Donovan was living in his house, huh? Do you think he’d beat me? Rape me? Sell me to the highest bidder?”

Would any of that be any different than how I'm being treated by the town of Silverwood now?

“Maybe it’s a good thing my dad’s locked up,” I mutter. “He didn’t even know my mom had skipped down.”

“Jules.” This time his tone is softer. I can’t let it get to me. “I’m sorry you had to go there alone. I know we promised?—”

A droplet of water slides down the center of my cheek and I quickly wipe it away, not sure if it’s a tear or rain. “Yeah, well, promises get broken, don’t they?” I snap, my chest squeezing impossibly tight. “Or do you consider them broken promises even when you never intended to keep them?”

“I—we did, Juliet, I swear to you. We’ve had shit going on. We meant to keep our promise. You shouldn’t have gone off on your own; we could have rescheduled.”

“Right, because my entire life is supposed to revolve around you now, is that it? Am I supposed to be yourScorpion Girl?” Ihiss the last two words like the vilest of curses. “There for your beck and call at all times?”

When am I going to learn this lesson?I ask myself. Nobody really wants me, they just want to use me.

“Of course not—you’re coming back from Hansgard, right? Where are you?—”

“No?” I cut him off. “You’ve treated me like a Scorpion Girl. First you and then Lex. Gio’s the only one who hasn’t tried to fuck me—which is a miracle considering he’s the manwhore of your little group. I assumed he would be the first.”

Nolan growls again, a sound of pure animal rage. “I did not try to fuck you, Juliet.” His voice dips deeper with each word. “Believe me, if I’d really been trying—there would be no guessing. I would have fucked you good and hard.”

“Yeah, but now you’ll never get the chance, will you?” Water splashes onto the sidewalk and I look up to see the public bus careen around the corner down the street.

I move out from under the cover of the tree and head towards the bus stop. “Just…” Nolan sighs. “Just come back and let’s talk about this. You don’t have to stay with me if you truly don’t want to. We can figure it out.”

“No,” I tell him, nearing the stop. “Like I said, there’s no need. I’ll figure it out myself. I always do.”

“You are coming back, Juliet,” Nolan growls. “If I have to track you down myself, you are coming back here. You can’t escape us.”

“Yeah?” I feel dead inside. “Watch me.”

“Jul—” I end the call before he can get another word out and when it immediately starts ringing, I turn it off.

Letting an older woman with a cane and a short bulky looking man get on the bus before me, by the time I enter the mildly warm interior and swipe my card, I’m drenched to the bone. My sneakers make squishing noises as I stride down theaisle and find an empty seat towards the back. Thankfully, there aren’t that many passengers at this time of day so even as the bus starts up again and heads off to a new stop, most people decide to stick close to the front.

I recline back against the hard bus seat and turn towards the window. The phone in my pocket is a heavy weight, a reminder of the stupid trust I’d given them. Pointless. Utterly pointless. I bite down on my lower lip as it begins to tremble and then squeeze my eyes shut as those start to burn. I shift around in my seat, turning my head to rest against the cool glass of the window.

Everyone chooses themselves or they always choose someone else.

The Scorpion Kings choose each other, and I thought … maybe … but I’d been wrong. As always, I’d been wrong. I’d misjudged Avery and Brandon and now the Scorpion Kings. A deep, wicked voice in my head points out that between my old friends and the Scorpion Kings, there’s only one common denominator—me.

My eyes reopen. Maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I’m just … not worth choosing.

Actual tears fill my eyes turning the whole world into a blurry mess and I lower my head biting down harder until I taste blood. I force my eyes to stay open in the hopes that not blinking will stop the tears from falling, but I fail at that too. More and more come, leaking from my face and falling all over my lap.

To never trust again. Because trusting someone only ever ends in pain—and I’m always on the wrong side of misery.

45

NOLAN

“Fuck!”I dial Juliet’s phone and when it goes straight to voicemail—again—I haul back and throw the damn thing. The phone crashes into the wall—leaving a good-sized dent before it clatters to the floor. Lex stands in the center of the living room, his brows drawn low.

“She can stay with me,” he says. “When she comes back, we’ll go get her, and she’ll stay at my place.”

Lex’s place is a far cry from what someone like Juliet Donovan is used to. I scrub a hand down my face. “And what about your room of secrets, huh?” I point out. “You wanted her involved with us. You wanted her in the middle. Well, congratulations, you got your fucking wish. She can’t find out about that or she’ll run.”

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