Page 51 of The Venom We Bleed

The responding growl thrums through the air, growing in volume before tapering off. Sweat coats the back of my neck and the adrenaline that had hit me when I realized just how much danger I’d placed myself in by coming out here to save that Cara girl screams back to the surface.

Lex scrubs his free hand down his face and then back over the longer strands of ink-black hair at the top of his head. The glint of metal under the moonlight reflects against the rings he wears. I find myself focusing on them, needing something to ground me in the scene before me. One ring is a simple, plain band. Another is shaped in small links—a chain. And the middle one is a skull.

A shiver skates down my spine.

“W-we were just fucking around, G,” Josh continues in a rush of air. He’s not fighting Gio’s hold, but neither is he comfortable.

My eyes flash over Gio’s face. Unlike his friend, he’s standing directly under a beam of moonlight that floods the clearing, the light illuminating the raw anger in his expression. The muscles in his forearm bunch and bulge, forcing his veins to stand out next to the seam of his shoved-up hoodie sleeve. Black inked lines circle his arms and disappear beneath the fabric.

“We both know what you were doing out here, Josh.” Gio's voice is a cool mask of indifference even though his face is anything but.

“You don’t know fuck all!” Rich snaps, kicking out against Lex in a futile attempt to break free. “Why do you even care? No one wants that bitch around anyway. Donovan is the reason all our parents lost their fucking jobs!”

I stiffen, the pain in my hand and calf temporarily forgotten in a brief moment of all-encompassing fury. Before I can step forward and correct him though, Lex’s fist jolts out and slams into Rich’s face. Once, twice, and by the third strike Rich sags, his head lolling to the side as he goes unconscious. Not that his awareness, or lack thereof, seems to stop Lex.

No. Instead, Lex continues to beat Rich’s face in. The sharp crunch of cartilage breaking under his knuckles echoes into the night and the sound seems to break something in Josh.

“Dude, he’s killing him!” Josh scrambles, bucking against Gio’s grip. With a sigh, Gio releases his captive and steps to the side. Josh stumbles at the sudden freedom he finds and catapults himself into a nearby tree.

At first, I think Gio’s letting him go, but that’s not the case. He turns and plants his hands on his hips, watching on as Lex releases his unconscious victim and attacks Josh. With a barely stifled shout of dismay, Lex takes the other man down, gripping him by the head and slamming it against the ground.

“Stop!” The begging yell is swallowed by the sound of Josh’s skull meeting the hard-packed earth. The air in my lungs becomes stifling, swallowing in on itself until all I can taste is foul carbon on the back of my tongue.

Josh goes silent a few minutes later and his body collapses into the leaves and underbrush. I wait a beat, wanting to see if Lex will stop now that his second victim is also unconscious. He doesn’t. He just keeps pounding away in near silence. I don’t even think he’s breathing particularly hard or with any effort.

A minute passes. Then another. And another.

Someone should stop this. They should tell Lex he’s done enough, but I don’t want to be the one to end Josh’s torment, even if he isn’t aware of it. That cruel, wicked sensation from earlier rises back up inside me.

I wait to feel guilt start to creep in, but it never does.

In its place, I feel nothing but satisfaction.

I glance at Gio to see if he’s going to end Lex’s actions any time soon, but he’s no longer watching his friend. His eyes are fixed squarely on me.

I jerk back, nearly falling on my ass as something smacks the back of my legs. He advances on me and I don’t have time to step over the root that stopped my retreat before he’s on me, grabbing me by my upper arms and pressing me against the very same tree Josh had.

“Hey!” I shove a hand against his chest, forgetting about the splinter and biting back a curse when the action forces it deeper into my flesh.

Gio’s dark eyes narrow on me and he hovers closer. “Don’t fucking think you’re blameless either, Prep Girl,” he snarls. “What were you thinking following these guys out here?”

“None of your damn business.” Balling my hands into fists and ignoring the ache in my palm, I press him back a step. “But if you’re done going caveman on me, I’m leaving.”

“No, we’re not done,” he says. “Not by a long shot.” Then he turns his head and barks over his shoulder. “Lex! Get your ass up and stop beating them. They’re too unconscious to enjoy it.”

The consistent thudding of a fist meeting an unresisting body ceases and the shadow that is Lex appears over Gio’s shoulder. The irony of trading Josh and Rich for two of the Scorpion Kings is not lost on me. When Lex moves closer, his big body remains shockingly silent as if he’s not real but a wraith, a creature belonging to these woods. My ribcage constricts tightly around my heart and lungs.

Rich and Josh might have been two men high on the power of being strong, but Lex and Gio are different. In the world of Silverwood, they are filthy kings. Monsters in their own right. I tip my head back and wait for them to pass their royal judgment, but no words escape their lips. They remain silent as the noises of the forest return gradually to replace the silence I hadn’t even realized held us in a bubble. A small animal chitters nearby as it squirrels away in the underbrush. The scream of insects seeking a mate echo into the night. A strange sort of pressure keeps me locked in place.

Neither of them had hesitated to attack Rich or Josh. Gio had known what Lex would do if he released his prey. Turning my cheek, I gaze past them to the two men collapsed on the ground, their faces each beaten to a bloody pulp.

Josh’s nose is at an awkward angle that tells me it’s certainly broken and blood runs down under his nostrils over his upper and lower lip, dripping down his chin. Gravity grabs ahold of that dark crimson liquid and drags it further down, coating his Adam’s apple with it. I’m so consumed by watching the blood drip down Josh’s face that I almost forget I’m standing here, held up against a tree by a man I certainly don’t trust. Gio’s hands ease on my upper arms and move up until they’re cupped on either side of my throat—the feeling catapults me back to reality with all the subtlety of a raging bull.

Yanking my gaze back to his face, I scowl up at the handsome playboy of Silverwood Public. “You gonna let me go?” I demand.

Gio leans closer, and Lex does the same. I’m surrounded by the scent of fire and musk, the two masculine bodies against me now so very different from the ones before. My belly drops and my thighs tremble as an emotion I thought I’d left behind months ago burns to life.

Arousal.

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