Page 7 of Karma
“And when you do?”
“They don’t call Lex the Female Psycho for nothing.”
Lex simply shrugs and gives Venom a knowing look. His best friend will make sure his mother pays for what she’s done to his love.
“What the fuck happened?” Snake’s voice bellows in the small room.
Just as Venom’s about to give him a piece of his mind for not being at his daughter’s wedding, Lex steps up to the plate to take one for the team instead.
“Um, well, you’d already know if you’d, you know, been at your daughter’s wedding. It was really beautiful, actually. At least, until Venom’s psycho bitch of a mother showed up with a gun and tried to shoot him. Marnie pushed him out of the way to take the bullet herself,” Lex says. “Again, something you’d have witnessed and been there for if you’d, you know, been there.”
He glares at her, but his face pales as he locks on the same thing Venom does. Lex is covered in blood. Marnie’s blood. If her dress wasn’t black, even more would show.
“You helped her?”
“No, I just stood there thinking how strange it was to see the bride wear fucking red. Seriously? Of course, I did what I could to help her,” she snaps at him. “I seem to be the one around when people in this club get shot. Something I wouldn’t mind changing.”
Looking down at his shirt, Venom sees more blood, and he wants to hurl. Again. Outside the hospital when Marnie was wheeled in, he lost what little he’d eaten for breakfast.
“This shouldn’t have happened. She should have let me take the bullet,” he says.
“We finally agree on something,” Snake says.
“And where the fuck were you?” Everlee snaps. “Our daughter took a bullet for the man she loves, and her father was nowhere around to help her.”
For the first time since Venom met Snake, he actually looks ashen. Contrite, even. “You know where I was.”
“Because you’re so far into your feelings that you can’t see past the fact that you were wrong about the man Marnie chose to spend her life with?” she says, her voice shaking. “You should have been there to protect her!”
“Baby—”
“Lex?” she asks and turns her back to her husband.
Startled, Lex’s head snaps up to Venom’s almost mother-in-law. “What?”
“When you get Raena, promise me that you’ll help me take care of her.”
“Yeah, okay,” she says and nods. She locks her eyes on Venom. “I just need parameters of what you’re okay with.”
“Kill the bitch,” he says, his teeth clenched.
A tsking sound comes from her, and she points with a wink. “Got it.”
“Marnie doesn’t deserve this.” He hates how his voice shakes. So much for being so tough. “I can’t lose her.”
“Venom—”
“Lex, I’m not gonna make it without her.”
Snake grabs his arm and yanks him into the hallway away from everyone else. Lex shouts to stop, but Colt holds her in his lap to stop her from following them. Whatever Snake wants to say is meant for Venom and Venom only.
“She’s stubborn,” he says, his eyes locked on Venom. “My daughter is one of the most hardheaded women on this planet, and that’s how I know she’ll make it.”
“I’ll never forgive myself if she doesn’t. If she doesn’t make it through, I want you to kill me.”
Snake looks taken aback. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve already lived without her once, and I can’t do it again. I don’t want to be anywhere Marnie isn’t. She’s one of only a handful of people who sees past the monster I was made into, and I need her.”
