Page 280 of Craving Venom

Faith doesn’t want to play a part. She wants to see it with her own eyes. Wants to step into the belly of the beast and dare it to bite. I don’t question her ability to handle herself. I’ve seen the way she handles fear, how she turns it into teeth. But strength isn’t the problem.

It’s my fear for her that fucks everything.

That irrational, boiling thing in my gut that makes me want to rip out anyone’s throat for looking at her too long. That scream in the back of my head that says she doesn’t belong in this kind of filth.

I trust her more than I’ve trusted anyone in years.

But trust has nothing on fear. Fear always wins.

“Don’t worry,” she says after a long stretch of silence. “I won’t judge you.”

It hits harder than it should. Not because I believe her, but because some fucked-up part of me wants to be judged. Wants her to look at what I’m about to do and still stay. Still touch me. Still kiss me with blood on my hands like it means nothing. Or everything.

“What if someone tries to touch me?”

My hand slips off the gearshift and finds her thigh instead. I grip it. Not gently. Not cruelly. Just hard enough to make sure she feels every ounce of what I’m about to say.

“Good girl,” I say. “I’ll kill them. And sleep like a fucking baby next to you.”

Her breath stutters. She gulps. I see the pulse in her throat jump. She doesn’t say anything right away, but I know what that silence means.

She’s into it.

She might not admit it, but her pussy clenches at the thought of me killing for her.

And that takes me back to Trevor.

If I could drag him out of hell just to kill him again, I would. I only wanted to beat the shit out of him for touching her. Until I overheard him talking to theInitiation Head. The guy who assigns tasks to recruiters. The moment I heard Faith’s name, I snapped.

The only thing I regret is that the phone got destroyed. If it hadn’t, I could’ve tracked the bastard who gave the order. Terry tried to salvage what was left, but D.O.M.’s tech scrubbed everything.

But it won’t matter.

I’ll find him. I’ll find every one of them.

And when I do, they will cease to exist.

“Why college?” Faith uncrosses her legs, then crosses them again the other way. “I mean, not that I’d want any teenage girls involved, but if all this cult does is manipulate… wouldn’t younger girls be easier?”

“When you join D.O.M., you’re required to sign a form. It’s clean. It’s consensual. It’s all documented under bullshit terms like ‘obedience therapy’ or ‘discipline retreats.’ College girls are easier to frame it that way. They’re legal adults. That saves these bastards legal trouble.”

She stares straight ahead and goes quiet for a second.

“But it doesn’t save them from you.”

“No,” I mutter, shifting gears harder. “It fucking doesn’t.”

“What happens to their bodies?”

“Gone,” I say, downshifting with more force than I need to.

“Gone as in disappear?” she asks.

“Something like that.”

“You ever eat to erase their trace? I’m asking because I watch a lot of true crime, and, well, a lot of serial killers tend to indulge in their victims.”

I let out a low laugh. It’s so sudden I almost miss the curve ahead and have to jerk the wheel to straighten out.

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