Page 104 of Consequences

Snorting, she laughs and wipes her eyes. “It’s… You would’ve had to be there.”

“I know. The whole thing about his hand not being sufficient.”

“He really does tell you everything, doesn’t he?”

It both amuses and annoys Marnie how much Venom confides in Lex. Certain things should be private, but when he used Lex to deliver her panties back to her to drive the point home that their situationship was over, it shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Cinder took a knife or scissors or, hell, a box cutter, maybe, to it. I’m not really sure which. He told me why you gave it to him when I was a little concerned about your sanity when I saw the destroyed thing.”

“At least he knows he can talk to you.”

“Cinder lost her ever-loving mind when she saw what you’d given him, and she became a tornado of destruction. Smashed everything in his apartment. Based on the towel she had wrapped around her hand, she cut herself pretty good in the process, too. Then she attackedhim.”

Eyes wide, Marnie feels like she can’t breathe. “With the knife?”

“No, her fists.”

“Is he okay? He’d never hit her back… How much damage did she do?”

Lex studies her, and it makes Marnie uncomfortable. “I broke her fucking face for it. He’s fine for the most part, but she’s not. And if she ever comes back around, I’ll fucking kill her. Which I told her before choking her ass out and having her delivered back to the junkyard.”

“Wait, she lost it because he got a gift from me? I didn’t even sign my name.”

“Oh, babe, you have no idea. She and Shep had a thing a long time ago, and she scared him.”

Marnie’s heard rumors about Shep before he met Heidi, and not many of those were positive. Not that she can blame him after how horrifically he lost his daughter. She’d probably dive off the deep end if she were him, too. As she’s learning, grief affects everyone differently.

“So… Not that I don’t appreciate the visit, but I would have expected you to tell me to get my ass out of town, not to stay. Why are you telling me stick around? I thought you hated the idea of us together.”

“If I hated the idea of you and Venom, I wouldn’t have given you ideas to put into that little basket, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have let you into his apartment to leave it for him,” she says. “Cinder went apeshit when he confessed he lied to you that night.”

Heart racing, Marnie braces herself on the bar top. As much as she doesn’t want to, her hopes begin to rise. “Lied to me about what?” It comes out as a whisper as though anything louder would shatter the possibility Venom could still love her.

“We both know what he lied to you about that night. He’s stuck on this bullshit idea that second chances don’t exist, but I think he’s finally coming around. If you leave, I worry it’ll show him that he was right. That giving in and being with you again wouldonly break his heart. I don’t want him to be right. Personally,Iwant to be right.”

“You want to be right about what?”

Folding her hands, she leans forward even further. “I believe you love him, and I believe you’ve seen how big of a bitch you were when you made him feel like trash.”

“I do, and I have,” she whispers.

“I’ve listened to him, and we’ve talked, and I think you two will find your way back to each other. Your father’s going to have a fucking heart attack, but no one really gives a shit what he thinks anymore. Unless you do.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I don’t care what Dad thinks. Have you told Venom you think this? Because I think it would go a long way to—”

“Oh, no. And I am not going to. Just like I didn’t tell him I thought Cinder was nothing but an epic mistake upon meeting her. He has to come to this on his own, otherwise he won’t trust his heart.”

“That makes sense.”

“The real question is whether you still want him back or not.”

Lip trembling, she fights back the sob stuck in her chest. “I don’t know that I ever really had him. He looked me in the eyes and said he doesn’t love me anymore and doesn’t know that he ever did. Lie or not, that shattered me.”

“Got a taste of what he felt in Summerville, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess, I did.”

Tapping the bar top, Lex sits up. “You asked me what was needed for us to be good. Stay and fight for him. Unless you feel it’s too far broken to fix, don’t let him push you into giving up. You deserve to work for it, but I really do think he’s coming around.”

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