Page 27 of Venomous Vows

I lean back in my chair and gaze up at him. There isn’t shit wrong with me. I just ask for one thing: loyalty. “Tell me what you’d do that’d be different.”

Zane stares at me, and I wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

We might be cut from different shaded cloth, but Zane and I aren’t that dissimilar with a lot of things. And the last thing I need to worry about is them being under the same roof and Elena severing us as a whole.

Then why would you kill him and not her? She’s already fucking with your head.

“If you are immune to her, brother,” I state through my inner thoughts, “then I have nothing to worry about. Maybe…you being here will make it tolerable for her.”

“Now you want me to stay?” he leers back. “Make up your mind.”

It’s very unlike me to do shit like this. But I’ve never been married or had a woman in this house, so it’s new territory and I’m not a fan of how it makes me feel.

“I’m trying to keep us safe,” I vouch. At least that’s what I tell myself. “I don’t know her intentions. And she came out of nowhere for our help.”

“If you were worried about it, Adrian, you never would’ve gotten here.”

“That may be true, but she has a lot of time to serve with me when I could get her sister tonight if I wanted to.”

He perks a brow. “Then what are you waiting for?”

“To send a message. Because when we do get Marcella, it’s not going to be a clean trade-off. I want them out of the area because of the constant attention they’re drawing.”

“We’re going to war with them?”

“War would ensue that I’d actually have to lock up the borders, but they don’t have that kind of power.”

“You’re sure?” he hedges. “You think one message is going to be enough?”

“No. If my message isn’t received, then I’ll cut its head off. A chicken can’t function without its head.”

Zane shakes his head at me, but some of the ill-tempered rage he just felt for me seems to simmer down. “And, let me guess, you’ll do the honors?”

“I think it’s only fair to meet me in person.”

My brother lifts his drink in silent cheers. “May God have mercy on their souls.”

8

ELENA

“I’m goingto go lock up the back. And then we can head out.”

I glance over at my best friend, Celine, also one of the head bakers ofFlour Power Bakery,and jerk my thumb over my shoulder. “I was gonna do the books tonight.”

She immediately frowns at me. “It’s late.”

“I know,” I reply matter-of-factly as it’s not a secret. “But I’m wired up and?—”

“You okay?” she presses, striding closer to me in slow steps as if she’s going to scare me. “You’ve been off lately.”

That’s because my life just did a one-eighty and I’m trying to get settled in any way possible. However, it’s been a bitch living with Adrian and it’s not my place. I’m living in a stranger’s home and about to marry someone who was a complete douche nut to me.

“Just have a lot of things on my mind,” I state honestly. “It’s nothing to worry about.”

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