Page 36 of The Venom We Bleed

I can’t breathe, but I don’t let that stop me. I punch the back of his head over and over again. I lift my legs trying to kick him or knee him in the face. I don’t care if it means I’ll land face-first on the pavement. I don’t care if I get punched back or bruised. I just need his hand off me or I swear I’m going to throw up.

“Jesus, for fuck’s sake!” Gio finally releases me, but only to toss me into the backseat of the SUV. I crawl away from him on my hands and ass until my spine slams into the opposite door.

Stay calm,I try to urge myself. Not that it does much good. Bile threatens to come up my throat. I’m honestly shocked it hasn’t made its entrance yet.

Breathe.In and out. Count.Five.I reach for the door’s handle. I need to get out.Four.Low masculine voices bite at each other behind me.Three.Locked. The door’s locked. Fuck.Two.A body hops into the backseat with me. Not Gio.One.The front passenger door opens and closes and the SUV pulls away from the curb.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply through my nose. I picture all of my emotions and bundle them together. Rage. Hate. Fear. Anxiety. I squeeze them all into a ball and stuff them down, deep down. Further and further until I can’t feel them anymore.

A firm hand touches my shoulder and when I expect to jerk back automatically, I surprise myself by not moving at all. Instead, my eyes open and I watch as Nolan leans around me, grabs the seatbelt, and pulls it over my chest before clipping it into place. His hand grazes my breast, but he doesn't stop orcop a feel. He just glares at me as if he hates my guts and can't believe he's doing this.

Whyarethey doing this?

When I speak, my voice is smooth and monotone. “Where are you taking me?” I demand.

Gio looks over the back of the passenger seat in front of me with a wild, annoyed look. He’s holding on to the back of his head and scowling. “You just lost your shit on me and now you’re calm?”

I frown at him. “That’s what you get for kidnapping me, asshole,” I reply.

My eyes flash to the man in the driver's seat. I recognize him now as the same one who stopped me in the back hallway of The Dionysus Lounge after my interview. He doesn't say a word to me, but he does release a low chuckle as if he finds my words amusing.

Gio ignores my words and rounds on his friend. “Don’t fucking laugh at that, Lex,” he snaps. “The bitch damn near gave me a concussion!”

Lex goes still and his smile drops away. Slowly, as Nolan sits back and sighs now that I’m buckled in, Lex turns his head to Gio and scowls. “Don’t call her that,” he growls, his voice deepening impossibly until I swear I can feel a reverberating bass deep in my ears.

Silence stretches between the two of them, sliding through the vehicle until it’s filled with a strange sort of tension. I wait a beat and when none of the men say anything, I decide enough is enough. I jerk on the door handle, recapturing all of their attention.

“Let me out,” I demand coldly.

In response, Lex turns his gaze back to the windshield and pulls on his seatbelt. Nolan shifts next to me and reclines against the seat.

“No,” is all he says.

Scowling, I jerk harder on the handle, wishing I could break it off. My fingers squeeze the hard plastic to keep myself from planting a fist in the man’s face. He’s built like a Greek god, all lean muscles and chiseled features, and I have no doubt I’d bruise my knuckles if I tried.

A thundering rumble from overhead keeps me from speaking again and I frown as I glance out of the window just as the sky opens up and it begins to rain. My hard grip on the door handle eases, but only a little. I cast a dark look at the man in front of me, but Gio is looking at himself in the pull-down visor mirror, turning his head one way and then the other.

When his eyes finally connect with mine in the reflection, his narrow. “Thank you would be the appropriate response,” he gripes.

“Thank you?” I scoff.

Before I can tell him where he can shove that thought, his irritated expression morphs into amusement and he replies with a swift, “You’re welcome.”

I gape at him, my mouth opening and closing for several seconds as I try and fail to muster an appropriate response. What do I say to that? He certainly knows I wasn’t actually thanking him. So, instead, I merely release the handle and sit back in my seat, folding my arms as I glare from Gio to Nolan and then to the third and final man in their trio. I start a bit when I notice that instead of keeping his gaze firmly trained ahead as he meanders down the back alley we're stopped in, Lex’s eyes are focused on me in the rearview mirror.

What I once thought were dull brown eyes are actually not brown at all … they’re a dark silver. Deep and covered in a layer of smoke that it took me until now to realize it. Brown is a normal color, it’s the most common. Perhaps that’s why Iassumed his were brown. Now, I know better. Lex’s eyes are the color of a switchblade, and they’re just as threatening.

Unable to help myself, I look away and out the window to my right.

Moments pass and it isn’t until the familiar sight of my apartment building and the shitty green and brown pool nearby comes into view that I realize they’re taking me home. I sit up straighter as Lex pulls through the parking lot and slows over a few speed bumps before he finds a parking spot in front of my building.

The second the car stops, I unbuckle my seatbelt and reach for the door handle. Pausing just before my fingers touch it, I look back over my shoulder at Nolan. I expect him to be facing forward, ignoring my presence even though it’s clear the three of them planned this. Nolan isn’t ignoring me, though. Cinnamon eyes stare at me—through me—as my hand hovers over the door handle. I blow out a long breath.

“Say it,” I tell him, lowering my hand with a scowl.

He arches one brow and I roll my eyes.

“I’m not stupid,” I say in response to his unspoken question. “You obviously have something you want to get off your chest. You wouldn’t have your boy kidnap me for a quick ride home to avoid the rain out of the goodness of your hearts.” In fact, I doubt any of them have any good inside their cold, dead hearts, but I don’t say as much.

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