Page 58 of The Venom We Bleed

I know I shouldn’t, but I still want to. I want to hurt her.

As if my body moves on its own, I bring the flame up and hold it in front of her eyes. “You see this?” I ask, moving it closer as her hands slap against the metal doors and she screams in shock and fear.

“Stop!” Lindsey forgets herself for a moment and jerks back.

“If I recall correctly,” I say, my voice far calmer than it should be as I lower the flame until the ends of her hair curl away from the heat. “That’s exactly what I told you to do. Are you going to leave me alone now? Have you learned your lesson?”

“Yes! Yes! I’ll stop. Oh, my god!” she screams as more of her hair curls away from the flames. “Someone get this psycho off me!”

“Princess.” I release the lighter’s button as that low voice whispers against the side of my cheek. I’d been so focused on Lindsey’s struggling body that I hadn’t noticed when Nolan had gotten close. Now that he is, though, and I recognize it, I’m viscerally aware of the heat of him pressed to my side.

He reaches for my hand, fingers circling my wrist, and forces me to take a step away from Lindsey ... then another and another until we’re across the hall from her.

“Gio! Do you see what she did? She’s fucking crazy.” Megan’s shrieking enters my ears, but it’s like listening to sounds in water—muffled and laborious.

“I saw that you started shit, Meg.” Gio’s voice pops the bubble, coming through clearly as he steps into my line of sight. “She told you to stop—you didn’t.”

“She could’ve scarred Lindsey for life!” Megan shoots back.

Lindsey sobs and collapses to the floor as her friend—the nameless third girl—approaches and puts her arms around her, glaring in my direction as she does. I take comfort in the note of fear that shudders her expression when she can’t seem to hold my gaze for longer than a few seconds.

“I doubt you would’ve been kind about beating the shit out of her,” Gio says.

Nolan reaches down and gently retrieves the lighter before passing it off to someone on his left. I jerk my head up and to the side, watching as Lex takes the lighter and slides it into his pocket. Gray eyes meet mine and he holds a finger up over his lips as if telling me to stay quiet about where it’s going.

I don’t care. I turn away from both of them, only drawing up short when my feet refuse to keep moving. I glance down. It’s not my feet but my arm. Nolan is still holding on to me, his fingers a manacled grip on my wrist.

“Let go.” The words are quiet but no less steely.

“Not yet,” is all he says back.

My jaw clamps down, clenching tight enough that the bones beneath my ears begin to ache. I am so done with people touching me, grabbing me, trying to control me.

“Nolan,” I choke out his name, “if you don’t want me to lose it on you right here, then let. Me. Go.”

Nolan turns, his body blocking out the rest of the hallway. “Look at me.”

I tip my head back, meeting a pair of crimson-brown eyes—like blood-soaked chocolate. “Take a breath,” he orders, and somehow I find myself doing just that.

Sucking in one mouthful of oxygen and then the next and the next until I no longer feel like I’m about to scream or shatter into a million pieces. His fingers release my wrist and he takes a step back just in time for me to see a familiar figure come barreling around the corner. A low groan emits from my throat.

Nolan grins. “That’s what you get for losing control, Princess,” he says, the taunt in his tone obvious. “Next time, when you plan to fuck someone up—do it somewhere private.”

“Giving me advice now, asshole?” I shoot back. “Careful, someone might think you have experience.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask what happened to Rich and Josh, but I swallow the curiosity back.

Nolan’s eyes narrow on me and he leans in again until my entire field of vision is filled by him. “Experience is something no one can take away from you, Princess,” he whispers and the words sound more like a promise of sin. It immediately makes my skin go tight.

With a vicious growl, I flip him off before turning to face the music and worse … Principal Long.

24

JULIET

“You want to tell me why you attacked that student, Miss Donovan?” Principal Long has mastered the art of the disapproving scowl. Despite her relative youth for a principal, her face is a mask of deep lines and narrowed slits for eyes.

I shrug. “I was defending myself.”

“Hmmm.” The sound that escapes her makes it clear she’s not buying my story—even if it is the truth. A moment passes and then another. Silence fills the office and I have to smile because I know what she’s doing. It’s something my father always preached about. People feel uncomfortable in silence, and if you let them sit long enough they’ll weave enough rope to hang themselves just by talking. I’m not uncomfortable in silence—not anymore. I find peace in the silence of the world because it’s certainly not silent in my head.

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