Page 18 of The Venom We Bleed

Lex turns and leans against his black SUV. The paint is peeling along the side and two of the rims are missing. I kick one of the tires and look at him when I notice how one of the wheels is slightly closer to the ground than the others.

“You should bring this by the shop and let me fix it up,” I say.

He shakes his head. “No point. Don’t want new shit on it for others to steal.”

“Who would steal from you?” I ask, lifting a brow.

Everyone around knows he’d gut them without a second thought. Even now, I watch the way he slips his hand into his pocket, fingering the knife he keeps there, and somehow manages to get past the metal detectors every fucking day. It’s impressive.

He shrugs. “Druggies, out-of-towners, idiots.” Good point. In his part of town, there’s almost always some nomad roaming around, and druggies don’t give enough of a shit about themselves to care if they kill themselves via needle or a bullet to the head.

I sigh and lean back against it, watching him carefully. Lex lifts his gaze to mine but doesn’t say a damn word. “You can fooleveryone else, man,” I say, “but you can’t fool me. Say what’s on your mind.”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

Liar.As if the universe is hell-bent on calling the bastard out, a yellow bus rounds the lot from behind the school taking the side road meant solely for them. His eyes lock on one and I turn my head, immediately spotting exactly what he sees. The face of Juliet Donovan in one of the dirty, finger-smudged windows. The longing in his expression is enough to make even the most romantic of men sick.

“We’re still leaving,” I remind him. “Right after graduation.”

His eyes flash back to me. “You promised?—”

I hold a hand up as his tone darkens and he leans away from the SUV, his hands clenching into fists. “I did,” I say, “but you remember the stipulations. She has to agree to it. We’re not kidnapping her.”

“She will.”

The confidence with which he says the words has me lowering my hand back to my side. I’m gonna be late to fucking work, but oh well—Pyke can cover for me like I’ve covered for him a hundred times before.

“You sound sure,” I prompt him.

“I am.”

“Why?”

Lex tilts his head to the side. Unlike other men, the action has an animalistic quality to it, the movement slow and precise. “Why are you so curious now, Nolan?” he asks me. “You didn’t care about her before.”

That wasn’t quite true. I had cared about Juliet Donovan—but only in terms of how she could fuck up my plan for the three of us. His compulsion to watch her, to follow her, to learn all manner of fucked up shit that would be better spent gettinghimself out of this shithole town just so that he could see into her life was worrisome. Now, it might come in handy.

“She’s on our turf now,” I tell him. “She wasn’t before.”

“She might act different, but she’s still the same in a lot of ways,” he says.

“Yeah?” I don’t know if he’s just crazy about the girl or completely losing it. As far as I’m concerned, Juliet Donovan has done a total one-eighty on her personality. Gone is the preppy, pink-loving, blonde Princess. In her place is a blue-haired, violent-eyed rage queen. “How so?”

“She’s vulnerable.” That’s the only answer I get from him, and when several minutes go by without an elaboration, I give up with a sigh, knowing it’s all I’ll get.

“Well, she better prepare because if she thought today was bad, then she’s in for a rude awakening when her in-school suspension is over.”

Principal Long is a smart woman and one of few that any of us actually respect. Megan White and Juliet Donovan will both spend the next two weeks in the detention classroom, trading weeks of in-school suspension for this morning’s fiasco.

I had a feeling that Principal Long had done that on purpose to keep Juliet from the rest of the masses for as long as possible. There was only so much she could do though. Soon enough, the princess would have to step out again with the rest of us, and despite Lex’s belief, she would have to face the consequences of her father’s sins.

8

LEX

Beautiful.So. Fucking. Beautiful.

I reach out, touching the tip of one finger to the length of pale skin that is her neck, and drag it slowly down to where the collar of her white button-up uniform shirt gapes open ever so slightly.

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