Page 72 of The Venom We Bleed

The two of us chuckle at the image as we get to work. Within five minutes, we've got the body taped shut. We lift the big ass form and cart it over to the still-open back of my SUV and with a swinging toss, Otis' body crashes against the floorboards. The bloody stains inside the plastic make me grin. Then, I notice an odd sort of bulge around the lower side of his back.

The knife, I realize, as her recollection of the attack resurfaces in my head. She’d stabbed him in the back. I make a mental note to pull the knife free before we start the process of stripping the body later. If I clean it well enough, she might like it as a gift.

I blow out another stream of smoke and shut the hatch. "What about the cameras?" Gio asks, nodding up to the burned-out light pole and a black half-globe that's stationed towards the top. I roll my eyes and drop the cigarette to the pavement, crunching the end under one boot before reaching down and lifting the remains to deposit into my pocket.

Killing is one thing. Body disposal, another. But littering? Completely unnecessary.

"It's fake," I tell him. "They haven't replaced those lights in months. This complex is cheap as fuck." Something that hasbeen a constant annoyance since the day Juliet moved in. I'd had to rely on traffic cameras and security feeds from the stores across the street to spy on her. The lack of light had probably emboldened the motherfucker that had attacked her. Bet that made him feel real safe climbing into her apartment and—I cut that thought off with a curse and turn away, stomping towards the front of the SUV. Gio follows and gets into the passenger seat.

Cranking the engine, I keep the headlights off as I ease around the side of the apartment building. "What are you doing?" Gio swivels to look at me, his brows creased with confusion.

I gesture to the front of Juliet's apartment. "Got some planks in the back seat," I tell him. "We need to make sure no one is breaking in while she's away."

"Oh, right." Gio climbs out of the seat and reaches into the back to withdraw the wood planks and some nails. I stay in the car, keeping my eyes on the rearview mirror and the area as he does his job. Twenty minutes later, he clomps back to the SUV, hammer in one hand and a familiar backpack in the other. When he hops back into the SUV, he stows it at his feet. "Nolan forgot it when they left," he explains.

My chest swells with excitement. Returning her backpack will give me another reason to see her.

"We'll have to come back for Nolan's bike," Gio says as he looks over at the Indian parked by the curb.

I grunt my response. "Later." We ease out of the parking lot, just under the speed limit. "No one will mess with it," I say. "Everyone in town knows it’s his."

"He better not fuck upmyride," Gio huffs. "I don't like anyone—even him—driving my baby."

Once we're on one of the main roads, I flip my lights back on and slow at a red light. "If she ends up back in that apartment, I want cameras inside."

The sharp sensation of someone watching me pricks at my senses. I don't have to look over to know Gio's staring at me. "Because you want to protect her or because you want to stalk her?" he asks after a beat.

A snarl of warning works its way up my throat. "Stalkers escalate," I snap. "I haven't fucking touched her." No matter how much I want to. No matter how much I crave knowing what it feels like to have her naked body under me, on top of me. To taste her sex. To pin her down and fuck her until she screams. To lead her into my den of deviancy and show her everything—all of the pictures and videos of her that I've kept over the years. To have her accept me ... and ultimately, to let me keep her.

"It's only a matter of time, bro," Gio says.

I grit my teeth and punch the gas as the light changes to green. Seething in the silence that follows, I try to tamp down the desire to take out all of this anger on the man sitting next to me. Gio and Nolan aren't my enemies. They're my brothers. Bound in blood. Forged in fire. Raised in darkness. Without them, I'd be too far gone to even be remotely human.

Without them. Withouther.I am nothing if not a bag of skin, bones, and blood walking.

"I still want cameras in her place if she goes back," I repeat.

With a groan, Gio laces his fingers together and stretches them forward in front of himself and then up. "If I can get in, I’ll make it happen," he says. "It'll be safer all around to have you look after her anyway—Nolan should be fine with it too, just in case she catches wind about Rich and Josh disappearing."

My head swivels to the side as I slow around a bend in the road. "She killed a man tonight,” I snap. “Why the fuck would we care if she finds out now?”

"Jesus, watch the fucking road!" Gio shouts, his hands slapping the dash.

I snap forward and curse, swerving around a deer skipping across one side of the road. "Shit, sorry."

Gio leans in and breathes. "God, I thought you'd almost wrecked this shit. Nolan would've been pissed."

I roll my eyes. "No, he wouldn't. He wanted to do upgrades on the SUV anyway. No doubt, he'd love the opportunity, but back to the cameras. You're good with putting them in if needed?”

“Unless you’d rather do it yourself?" Gio releases the dashboard to sit up in his seat.

Get back into her space? Touch her things? Languish in her scent? My cock throbs. No. It’s not a good idea at all. I shake my head. “No, it’s probably better if you go.”

We drive out of Silverwood, hopping on a back highway that lost most of its traffic the day a nearby interstate exit had been built. Now, it’s mainly used by farmers and locals looking to avoid slow-downs and wrecks.

Several minutes pass in near silence and then, Gio speaks up again. “I don’t want you getting close to her while she’s with us.”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “I don’t know what you mean.”

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