Page 271 of Craving Venom

My pussy clenches.

Because I liked being hunted.

“Okay,” Tria places her hands on her hips. “You two are officially the most deranged pairing I’ve ever witnessed. One of you needs therapy, and the other needs to stop being the reason for it.”

Zane gives her a lazy smile as if she’s just complimented him. Then he turns to me. His gaze softens by a fraction.

“I should probably go.”

“Yes, you should,” Tria snaps before I can say anything. “Preferably before I call animal control.”

Zane chuckles, as if that wasn’t meant to be a threat. He steps around the bed, leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll pick you up at midnight tomorrow.”

He turns to leave, and I grab his wrist. I don’t know why. Maybe because everything in me is still spinning. I look up at him and ask the one thing I shouldn’t.

“Have you ever killed an innocent person?”

Zane meets my gaze and says, “No.”

It’s alie.

A clean, effortless lie.

And I smile at him anyway.

Zane watches me for one more second before he turns and walks out. Tria sighs, moves to my bed, and drops onto it like she’s aged ten years in the last ten minutes. She stares at the ceiling for a beat, then turns to me.

“What kind of date happens at midnight?”

I slide down next to her and bury my face in my palms.

“The kind that... requires breaking out of prison, I guess.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

THE BEAUTY

“So, just to recap,” Tria says, flicking her lighter and cupping the flame against the wind. “Zane’s the city’s most wanted terrorist, who used a fake curfew to fuck you—”

“Can we not lead with that part?”

She ignores me. “and he’s also the infamous Nighthawk, bad boy turned morally gray vigilante, currently saving girls from a cult that auctions them off to men in demon masks. And apparently he hacked every building, made a bomb threat to a police station, faked a lockdown, and still had time to make you coffee?”

She inhales deep as the cigarette burns hot between her fingers. “Jesus. What happened to just getting a guy who texts back?”

I snatch the cigarette from her hand and take a drag.

“Corrine,” Tria says next. “She’s taken by that cult?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re going with Zane to extract her?”

“Why are you repeating everything?”

Tria snatches her cigarette back and blows smoke toward the ceiling. “Because I’m trying to process the fact that my best friend just became a sidekick to a man who probably has C4 hidden in his boot soles.”

I roll my eyes and stretch out on the bed. The sheet slips down my thighs, and I don’t bother pulling it up.

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