Page 71 of The Venom We Bleed

"Don't think about what you might owe us, Princess," he tells me. "For tonight, just think about getting some rest."

I shouldn't trust him. I shouldn't trust any of them. I know that. Yet ... I'm fucking tired. More tired than I've ever been in my life and I just want to close my eyes and pretend like tonight never happened. If that means I'll owe the Scorpion Kings a debt in the future then so be it. Some things are worth selling your soul—killing the man that tried to rape me is one.

29

LEX

"Do you know him?" Gio's question isn't a surprise. If anyone is familiar with the criminals that infest Silverwood, it would be me. Though, considering that all three of us are more than familiar with backdoor deals and murder, he could be asking himself and Nolan that same question.

Unfortunately, he won’t have to because my answer is yes.

I lean over the man splayed out on the ground in the narrow walkway between Juliet’s building and the next. My nose twitches at the acrid scent of urine and shit. Reaching into my back pocket, I feel around for a cigarette pack. When I come up empty, I curse, but Gio is already there, holding one out for me as well as a lighter.

With a grateful grunt, I take it and put the cigarette between my lips before responding. "He's a criminal for hire," I tell him out of the corner of my mouth. "Name’s Otis. I've seen him around."

Flame bursts to life in front of my face as the two of us stand over the body of the man who attacked Juliet Donovan. I burn the end of my cigarette and then return the lighter to Gio. The bastard is lucky he died before I got here.

Gio’s stare burns into the side of my face. "Is Otis a first or last name?"

I shrug.

Gio shifts at my side, crouching down and using a nearby stick to poke at the man's head, moving back the hair so we can get a better look at his face. The burn scar that covers his jaw and moves down his throat is enough of an identifying marker, but no doubt Gio isn't familiar with him. Otis kept away from the actual gangs of the town.

"You think someone hired him or he came on his own?"

The nicotine rush is much needed after a night like tonight, especially since my girl is going home with Nolan and not me.

"He didn't strike me as all that smart," I say. "Not a real self-thinker." Someone put him up to this. Someone wants to hurt Juliet. When I find out who, I'm going to enjoy flaying them alive.

Gio drops the stick and gets back to his feet, hands on his hips. The longer I look at the piece of shit on the ground, the more my gut twists. What if Gio hadn’t been here? What if he hadn’t heard her fighting with the bastard? An insidious urge swells within me and I have no reason to keep it contained. After blowing out a long tendril of smoke, I put the cig back between my lips and hold it in place as I reach for the front of my pants and unzip.

Gio’s head whirls towards what I’m doing before he really thinks about it. A curse slips free of his lips as revulsion rolls across his features. “Seriously, man? Here?”

“You can leave if you want, but I gotta take a leak.” The words form around the cig in my mouth. Holding my cock, a jet stream of piss rockets out of the head and right onto the corpse of the man that attacked my girl. Gio throws up his hands and turns around completely.

He’s seen his fair share of death and violence, but he’s still a halfway decent person. I’m not, and I don’t give two shits about desecrating the body of a bottom feeder. I shake the last few droplets over the fucker’s face before tucking myself back into my pants and zipping up.

“We should hurry up and get this place cleaned up," he suggests. "It'll be dawn in a few hours."

He's right. The people on this side of Silverwood know better than to poke their noses into shit that ain’t none of their business. They know better than to peek their heads out at the sounds of a domestic disturbance and ask questions. A nosy bitch is a dead bitch. Still, it won’t do to leave Otis’ corpse rotting out here any longer than necessary.

"Get the tarp," I order, jerking my chin toward my SUV a few yards away where the pavement ends and the grass begins.

"Roger that." Gio jogs away and I pinch the cigarette between two fingers, ashing it over the body at my feet.Shit-stain motherfucker.

My upper lip curls back as rage, white-hot and violent, spears through me. I know the reason Nolan took Juliet away, the reason he'd refused to let me take her home with me. Of the three of us, his place is the most normal. She'll need normalcy. Not the isolation I could offer out on my aunt’s farm. It’s unspoken that she wouldn’t be safe at Gio’s either. If anyone would off the daughter of Allen Donovan just to prove a point—that he’s the most badass motherfucker in Silverwood—it’d be Darrio.

Gio returns in record time, unfolding the dark swath of plastic material on the ground. I hold the cig in place as I go for the legs, and together, we lift Otis' body onto the tarp before wrapping it up like some morbid Christmas present. A snort escapes and I nearly drop my cig from my lips as I fold one corner of the tarp over the body.

“What?” Gio glances up and frowns at me.

I shake my head, but then, because the thought intruded and I can’t seem to help myself, I ask, “You think if we dropped this on Pillard’s front lawn he’d shit himself?”

“Brandon Pillard? Prep's defensive lineman?”

The shriek of duct tape pulling away from its roll is loud in the night as I rip off several strips and toss the roll to Gio. “Yeah, her ex,” I say by way of explanation.

He catches the flying roll of duct tape. “You’re a fucking psychopath,” he mutters with a shake of his head, then smirks. “But yeah, that little fucker would probs shit his pants and pass out.”

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