Page 61 of The Venom We Bleed

“Megan’s become a problem.” It takes a moment for me to recognize Lex’s voice.

I turn my head in his direction, giving him a solid nod, and then I flip to the right to eye Gio. “You need to take care of it,” I inform him.

The coach yells out again and we do another push-up, holding for as long as he forces us to. Gio hisses out a breath between clenched teeth before responding. “I’m not fucking dating her,” he snaps. “I’ve told her to back off now.”

Knowing Megan, she won’t. She’ll blame Gio’s loss of interest on Juliet and if she tries to attack her in a less public setting … well, I’m not worried about Megan so much as I’m worried about what will happen if Juliet takes a page from our book and kills someone.

Wait, I’m worried about her killing someone?The realization slams into me and I nearly slip on the already slick ground, but I catch my sliding hand and stabilize my position.No,I tell myself.It’s not Juliet I’m concerned with. It’s Lex. That’s who I care about.If Juliet ends up in jail, there’s no telling what Lex will do to get her out. He’d probably even risk burning his hacker identity—the 5C0RP10N.

Which reminds me … my eyes slide back to Lex, but I clamp my lips shut as Coach passes in front of us once again. When I’m sure he’s clear, I direct my question to the man on my left.

“Have you had any more contact with Allen Donovan?” I ask, keeping my voice low so only the three of us can hear.

Lex pushes up, the muscles in his arms bulging even beneath the black t-shirt he wears. “Yes.” He hisses out the word as the three of us drop to our bellies once again.

“And?” I press. My fingers flex and the black lines that stretch over my forearms shift as we lift back onto our palms.

“I’m working on it,” Lex grits out.

If Lex hasn’t figured shit out by now then the chances that Allen Donovan is as guilty as everyone thinks he is just shot up.

“Why are you even bothering?” Gio bites out, the strain in his voice adding to the shaking of his forearms when I look back at him. “Whether or not Allen Donovan is guilty or innocent won’t change anyone else’s mind.”

No, but it would mean something different for the girl that Lex is in love with. “Quiet,” I snap as Coach’s footsteps approach.

Coach Kale stops before the three of us. “Keep it up,” he calls out over our heads. “If you want to beat those preppy motherfuckers then I wanna see your asses sweating.”

The corner of my mouth tips upward. No other coach would ever get away with talking to students like that, but here at Silverwood Public, the coaches are as real as the rest of us. They know what’s on the line and they know what will get us motivated. It’s not promises of pizza parties and polite preaching.

Practice passes in a haze of pain and sweat. By the time Coach calls an end to the run, reminding everyone of the upcoming game a few short weeks away, I have no interest in heading over to Laurenti’s Auto Shop. The other players all groan through their after-practice showers, moaning about soreness and exhaustion that I understand all too well.

Planting myself against the row of lockers older than even our parents, I let my head slide back against the metal and wait for the room to empty out. The guys are smart and quickly get their asses moving, offering up hands and goodbyes as they head out. Once there’s no one left but Gio, Lex, and me, I get off my ass and strip down to my skin.

“Tell me what you’ve found,” I order as I head into the nearest shower, twisting the knobs and gritting my teeth at the icy spray that shoots out over my chest.

“If Donovan is being framed, then the cover-up is well done. It’s professional.” Lex’s voice echoes in the near-empty space of the shower room just beyond the thin plastic curtain separating us.

The water slowly begins to heat up and my muscles unclench enough for me to reach for the bar of soap waiting on the rack beneath the shower head. “Are you still convinced he’s innocent?”

“I’m not convinced of shit,” Lex admits, “but if he is, I want to know.”

“I’ll be honest,” Gio pipes up, “when everything first hit, I thought it was weird. I mean, why would a guy who has everything risk it all by embezzling from his own company?”

Working up a lather, I scrub down the front of my chest. As I move, the skin of my back—stretched beneath the scars—tightens, an old ache building up as the nerves beneath resist the movements. Gritting my teeth, I force myself to move beyond the pain.

“People are greedy,” I say. “He didn’t think he had enough.”

“Yeah, I’d get that if he were like an employee,” Gio agrees, “but why wouldn’t he embezzle from his partner’s funds or even one of their associate partner companies? He had to know he would get caught.”

“I agree,” Lex says, “and I’ve been following that trail. All of the money was well hidden, but they found it fairly easily and every link directly comes from one of Allen Donovan’s accounts.”

A silent curse threatens to break free when the soap slips from my fingers and my back seizes. I slap a palm to the wall and breathe out.

“You good, Nolan?” Gio’s concerned voice rises up over the shower wall and curtain and a man’s shadow hovers on the other side.

“Fine,” I bite out. I reach back and work my fingers against my spine, every vile, disgusting curse I can potentially think of screaming through my mind as the pain nearly overwhelms me.

“Coach went pretty hard on us today,” Gio continues. “You might need to take it easy tonight—ice your back.”

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