Page 18 of Deception (Deranged Drifters MC #22)

Chapter Eighteen

Griffin’s Beach Marnie

“ A ny idea what’s going on in there?” Marnie asks Lex at the bar in the clubhouse.

For a woman who once wanted to beat Marnie’s ass into the pavement in Summerville, Lex has been surprisingly welcoming to Marnie. Not only did she save Marnie’s life, she also played an instrumental part when it came to Venom finally accepting Marnie’s apologies.

“Not a clue,” Lex says and hands her glass to Kent. “More tequila, please.”

Jace’s son may only be an inch and a half shorter than him, but Kent towers over Marnie and Lex. It’s cute how much he looks like his dad. And it’s hard not to wonder if Kent takes after his father in all aspects.

“Colt’s going to have a good time later, huh?” Kent says with a wink as he refills her glass.

“Not as good of a time as your dad and Mel.”

Grimacing, he shudders. “It’s weird hearing your dad fucking his girlfriend.”

“Imagine how he’ll feel hearing you fucking your girlfriend.”

He straightens up, and his face turns more serious than Marnie has ever seen him. Normally, he looks stoned. “You know, don’t you?”

“I know many things, Kent.”

“Do… they know?”

Shrugging, she leans forward and smiles at him. “I don’t know. Colt hasn’t said anything, so I don’t think so. But I don’t really think they’ll care.”

“Who’s he screwing?” Marnie asks, leaning forward and keeping her voice low. It’s clear whoever he’s bedding isn’t common knowledge yet.

“No one,” he says and hunches down. “We’re just dating, and things have… happened, but I haven’t had sex with her yet. Not until she’s ready.”

Laughing, Lex turns to her side and rests her elbow and forearm on the top of the bar. “She will be. Trust me.”

“Lex…”

“I won’t say a word. Promise.”

Marnie stares, bewildered. “Wait, you know who he’s dating, but you don’t know why all the charters have crammed into the Chapel tonight?”

If she’s being honest, having her father here makes Marnie anxious. When she told Snake she was moving to Griffin’s Beach to win Venom back, he threatened to disown her. She didn’t care, and she left anyway. He hasn’t talked to her since.

Waving an arm around the room, Lex snorts. “Okay, that’s fair, but I don’t in this situation. I can’t tell if it’s good or bad, but I think it has something to do with the bullshit warrants. Egotistical prick.”

“You don’t think…” Kent says and leans forward as he joins Lex looking at the Chapel doors.

Shaking her head, she sips her tequila, which Marnie has never been great at handling. To her, that’s a shot, not a drink. Not without mixers.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I hope not.”

“Hope not what?” Marnie asks. “How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Have a conversation without actually having a conversation? He doesn’t complete his sentences, and you just know what he’s saying,” she says. “Teach me your ways.”

Kent laughs and taps the bar before straightening up. “Good luck with that. You can’t teach intuition.”

The Chapel doors open as Lex turns to answer, but she stops when Snake barrels out of the room and right towards Venom. He grabs Marnie’s man and slams him against the wall.

“Dad!” she shouts and jumps off the barstool.

“You fucking prick,” Snake growls. “You’re fucking my daughter, aren’t you?”

“Again with this obsession with your daughter’s sex life?” Lex says with a bored tone as she walks over to stand by Marnie. “It’s creepy at this point.”

Glancing at Lex, Marnie knows she’s buzzed, and she’s not helping. When she looks at Venom, her boyfriend just stares at her father without moving. Everyone knows he could break free and kill her father within seconds, but he doesn’t. Yet.

“What I am or am not doing with your grown daughter is none of your goddamn business.”

“The hell it’s not!”

“Dad, let him go!” Marnie cries and tries to pull his arm back.

Snake slams Venom against the wall again, nostrils flaring, and presses a forearm against his neck. “Are you fucking her?”

“Yes!” he growls. “Now take your arm off my throat before I rip it from your body and beat the shit out of you with it.”

Backing away, Snake clenches his fists but changes his mind before he swings. He pushes him into the wall but doesn’t hold him there this time. “Fuck you!”

“No, fuck you!” he shouts back and pushes him away. “I’ve kept my temper in check out of respect for Marnie, but touch me again, and I’ll make you wish I killed you.”

Marnie moves between them, keeping Venom behind her as she faces her father. “Stop it!”

“You… How could you let him turn you into a club whore?”

“What the fuck did you just call her?”

She puts her arms out wide to stop Venom from lunging at her father. The only way to do it would be to knock her down, and she knows he won’t.

She’d be lying if she said the words didn’t sting, and she can’t help but stare, stunned, as the tears burn in her eyes.

Her father being angry wasn’t unexpected, but the hatred towards her was.

It momentarily paralyzes her, making her look like a girl trying desperately to fly in large gusts of winds.

“How does that work, exactly?” Lex asks, her drink in her hand as she helps lower Marnie’s arms to her side. “You know, because with your logic, that would make me a club whore, too.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Snake asks and backs away.

Smart move, Dad. You smacked her before, and if you do it here, Mom will be burying you next to Grandpa.

“Well, Marnie’s a daughter of the club. So am I. She’s an old lady to a member of the club. So am I. If she’s a club whore, that means you think I am, too.”

“Me, too,” Lily says, and Marnie sees the fellow blonde daughter walk over to them. “I’d suggest not getting arrested anytime soon because you’re not really giving me warm and fuzzy feelings. I take offense to being called a whore of any kind.”

“And you just called the wife of the President a club whore. God, you’re one stupid motherfucker, aren’t you?”

Marnie looks at the three blondes. The lawyer wears what she’s come to learn is Lily’s signature outfit.

A pencil skirt, three-inch heels, and a silk blouse.

She moves so effortlessly in a way Marnie can’t comprehend, and she almost laughs at the three of them lined up like they are.

All blonde. All varying attires. Professional, casual, and slutty. It’s the whole spectrum.

Melanie will jump in and defend Lex with anything, and Marnie suddenly longs for a friend like her. A ride or die. Even in Summerville, she’s not sure Sutton Cannon would have done that like Melanie does for Lex.

I do have a ride or die. Venom. He’d do anything for me.

Kai Russell, a strawberry blonde Marnie barely knows, joins. “I guess I am, too, right?”

“Hey, Creeper, how do you feel about this asshole calling your daughter a club whore?” Lex calls.

“Hey, Snake?” Creeper responds. “Fuck you. My daughter is not a club whore.”

“I wasn’t talking about anyone except my daughter,” Snake defends.

Shrugging, Lex sighs. “You see, that’s where you’re just fucking wrong. Why would her situation be any different from the rest of us?”

“Because he’s fucking trash.”

Her drink splashes in his face so fast that Marnie didn’t even see Lex’s arm move. “The only trash in here right now is you, Snake. You don’t get to come into this clubhouse and insult one of our old ladies. And you sure as fuck don’t get to say anything about our Sergeant at Arms.”

“Throw another drink in my face and see what I do,” he growls and wipes tequila from his face.

Marnie backs up against Venom. Whether out of fear of what Snake will do or how Venom will react, she’s not sure. All she knows is that she wants him out of the line of fire.

“Here, take mine,” Lily offers.

Taking the amber liquid filled glass, Lex tosses it in Snake’s face and steps forward to look directly into his eyes. “Now what?”

“I’d be real fucking careful what you do next,” Colt growls, his voice low and menacing from behind Marnie’s father.

“You see, I have a personal issue with a father degrading his daughter like you just did, and I won’t stand for insults against my officers.

Don’t even get me started on threats against my wife. ”

“Especially because he’s not an officer anymore,” Ky says. “Big, tough guy doesn’t even have that Secretary patch on his kutte anymore.”

“It’s really not a smart move to insult our women,” Phoenix says and walks up to wrap his arm around Lily.

Looking around, her father realizes he won’t win any fight in this room, especially now, and he shakes his head. “This is a family matter.”

It’s Marnie’s turn to step up. Everyone else has done their part, but she needs to make sure Venom knows she meant everything she’s told him. She’ll choose him over everything.

“If you can’t accept that Venom and I are together, that’s on you, Dad,” she says.

“Marnie—”

“A good father would be happy his daughter found a man who not only loves her more than anyone else ever could but also protects her and makes her feel safe.”

“He’s a monster.”

Her slap against his face surprises even her. The anger quickly takes over her shock, and she glares at him. “If you can’t accept this, then you don’t get to be part of my life. I love him, and he’s done more for me than you know. More than you deserve to know.”

“You’re going to choose the guy you’re fucking over me?”

Just like Venom had to, Marnie has to choose.

Venom or her father. “Yes,” she says, her back straight and chin out.

“If you can’t accept him as the man I love and want to be with, then I choose him.

He should be the one issuing me an ultimatum, but he wouldn’t do that to me.

He’d suffer through your bullshit. For me. He’d do anything for me.”

Nodding, Snake backs away. “You’re choosing that piece of garbage you’re fucking over your father?”

“If you think what they have is as simple as fucking , you don’t have the slightest clue,” Lex says.

“That’s like saying your marriage, which is still kind of on the rocks right now, is nothing more than ten years of being unable to please your wife in bed.

Is that the most important part of your marriage? ”

“Shut your fucking mouth.”

“Hey, you started this, asshole,” she says and holds her hands up.

TK laughs. “She’s right. And if you haven’t figured out yet, Lex is really fucking good at finishing shit.”

Holding his own hands up, Snake locks eyes with Marnie and shakes his head. “Fine. You want him? You can have him, but you don’t have a father anymore.”

Marnie gapes as her father leaves. Part of her had been so sure he’d back down when he realized she was in love with Venom. That she’d stand by him no matter what. She didn’t expect his pride would overtake his love for his daughter.

“Marnie?” Venom asks, his hand gently resting on her shoulder. “You okay, love?”

“If he can’t accept us together, and he’s going to act like that, then I don’t need him.”

He pauses, and she knows he expects her to say more. Instead, she continues to look at the door, part of her still expecting him to walk back in and apologize. But she knows better than to bank on him admitting he was wrong.

“He’s your father.”

“And he’s a disappointment. I don’t need him in my life enough to put up with how he treats you. That’s not okay, and I’m sorry, Venom.” Turning, she faces him. “I don’t need him as much as I need you, and I told you I’d choose you over everything.”

“Marry me.”

If there was ever a moment where an entire group of people took a collective gasp, it would be right now. The room falls silent, and Marnie blinks as she lets the two words she hadn’t expected settle over her. “What did you just say?”

“Marry me.”

His hands cup her face, and he looks down into her eyes. She momentarily gets lost in his blue eyes as he searches for an answer in her green ones. “Yes,” she whispers.

“Yes?”

Nodding, she kisses him. “Yes.”

“Let’s hope this wedding goes better than the last one we had here,” Ky says. “Maybe you don’t want to do it at the clubhouse. Bad juju and all.”

Both Marnie and Venom look at Lex, worried she’ll be upset by the comment, but she just rolls her eyes, a new drink in her hand already. “Fuck you, Ky.”

“Hey, it wasn’t yours!”

“Yeah, but at my wedding, my husband wore the gown, not me,” she says with a giggle.

Colt wraps her up in his arms, earning him a squeal as he tickles her side. “I didn’t exactly get an option of attire when they had to remove a bullet from me.”

“Congrats, you two,” Lex says, swatting Colt as she moves to hug both of them, mindful not to spill her tequila.

“Thanks,” Venom says and wraps her up tightly in his arms, lifting her off the ground. “We wouldn’t be here without you.”

Marnie smiles when Lex whispers in her ear as they hug. “Break his heart, and I’ll make you wish you’d left with your dad.”

“I won’t,” she promises. “I know you’re still a little unsure, but you can trust me, Lex.”

“I’m counting on it,” she says. “Now, go celebrate your engagement.”

“See, this is why you’re the brains of this whole operation,” Venom says and lifts Marnie into his arms bridal-style.

Giggling, she can’t believe he just asked her to marry him in a room full of people, and she shakes her head as he sets her down in his apartment. “This night went from bad to amazing.”

When he says nothing, she turns around to find him on one knee with a ring box in his hand. Her eyes widen as she stares at the beautiful round cut diamond in a yellow gold setting with smaller diamonds encrusted in the band. It’s a breathtaking design.

“I’ve had the ring for a while now,” Venom says with a smirk. “Just waiting for the right time to ask you.”

He slips it on her finger, and she stares in awe. “It’s beautiful.”

“It doesn’t compare to you, love. Nothing will ever match your beauty.”

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kisses him. They quickly move to the bed, and she knows the disappointment and sadness she feels at losing her dad from her life won’t last long. In fact, her elation and excitement for the future overtake her.

“I love you,” she whispers.

“I fucking love you.”