Page 40 of Poison Touch (Monarch Vipers #1)

KINSLEY

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

I don’t bother going to the usual spot to have lunch with Bryce and Eden. They’ll be able to read my face and know something happened in the library that I can’t explain. I can’t let anyone know.

This isn’t part of the plan. Getting close to him—yes. Getting him to trust me—check. But letting him feel me up—hell no! And wanting more of it?

Absolutely fucking not.

I stay in the library. Edge is right. I’m unable to concentrate on anything other than the feeling and the memory of him touching me, inducing sensations that make it impossible to think straight.

All I want to do is touch myself, imagining my hand is his, and finish what he started.

I consider going to the bathroom to do just that when I stop myself, refusing to be that desperate.

Instead, I crush my thighs together and ignore the pulsing between my legs.

I skipped out on the rest of my classes, staying in the library to try and study.

When my head feels like it’s going to explode, I pack my stuff and head for my bike.

I’m zipping my backpack when I look up to see Venom and their groupies standing no more than five feet away.

My shitty timing sucks lately. My steps slow when the onslaught of them forms a wall between where I am and where I want to go.

The clicks of too-high heels and the heavy footfalls of boots echo off the corridor’s stone walls.

Seeing Brielle standing next to Edge twists my insides.

Option one, I can take this chance to show the jealousy that has slithered into my chest, or option two, I can beat the shit out of Brielle, or option three, I can turn and walk away.

Option three is the most responsible and mature approach, but it’s also the least fun and unsatisfying.

Option two would most definitely make me feel better.

And after how Edge left me in the library, I already feel very unsatisfied.

After dismissing the other options, I create a new one.

I let my backpack slide down my shoulder.

It thumps on the floor by my feet. Without moving my eyes from Edge’s, I take off my blazer, then slide down my skirt, kick it off, catch the flying fabric with the toe of my boot, and shove them into my bag.

I unbutton my shirt, slide it off, then tie it around my waist. Picking up my backpack, I hang the strap over my shoulder.

“You are such a nasty slut. No matter how many clothes you take off, no one will ever want your stank ass,” Brielle snaps.

I smile at Brielle. “You’re welcome.”

She sneers. “Welcome for what?”

For not taking option two, I say to myself. To her, I say, “For priming him.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I glance over her head to meet Edge’s eyes. He’s biting the corner of his lip as he gives me a simple wink meant for no one else. I move my gaze back to her. Then I take a step forward, with the only intention of letting her know she can’t get to me.

“What, you want to fight, biker girl?” Brielle tries to provoke me as she starts toward me.

Edge places his hand on her shoulder. “Bri, I wouldn’t if I were you.”

She places her hand over his. He slides his out from underneath it. “What, you don’t want me to break a nail over this piece of trash?”

Gunner laughs. Even I crack a smile.

Edge grumbles, “Oh, trust me, you’ll have more than that broken.”

Brielle ignores him. Her enraged glare is still on me.

“Keep your panties on, Brielle. I’m not fighting you.” But shit me if I don’t feel tingles down my spine at the idea of kicking her ass.

Catching Kade’s eyes, I ask, “When’s that race?”

He flicks his tongue bar. “Soon.”

I smile and nod. “Looking forward to it.”

“What fucking race?” the rest of them ask behind me as I walk away.

The clouds are heavy with the threat of afternoon rain. They’re like a mirror image of the thoughts and feelings thrashing in my head and heart. I put on my helmet, lower my visor, and race out of the parking lot. Just because I can, I lift the front of the bike up into a wheelie.

A light rain begins to fall as I pull onto my street.

I make it onto my driveway just as the heavy downpour starts.

It’s not the getting wet that sucks. It’s the needle-like pinpricks as each drop splatters against my already-sensitive skin.

I feel like it’s on fire, unable to cool down from Edge’s touch.

I throw my bag under the porch’s overhang and walk out into the rain.

I ache to have every emotion washed away, to cleanse every tear of pain, every memory of his touch. I can’t have him being a distraction. I can’t afford to feel something for him, but damn, he isn’t backing off. And fuck if I don’t want him to.

An engine revs, grabbing my attention. I open my eyes and lower my arms.

Kade idles in his Ferrari in front of my house. He lowers his window enough to shout, “Want to go for a ride?”

I’ve only driven in a Ferrari once. It was with one of my dad’s work buddies.

He took me around the neighborhood at a snail’s pace.

It was cool but not the way a Ferrari should be driven.

My dad was more into luxury cars like Bentleys and Rolls-Royces, not fast cars.

So, any chance I got to speed, I was all in.

“Give me a second. Let me change.”

Taking only a couple of minutes, I pull off my wet clothes, quickly dry off with the towel I threw on my bed this morning, put on a dry tank, and slide on leggings. Grabbing a sweatshirt, dry socks, and my boots, I race out the door.

Curiosity, more than anything, has me agreeing to go with him. He barely speaks to me, much less offers me rides in his car. I’m hoping this little side gig will clear Kade from my dad’s murder.

I close the door. The inside is sleek, the dash full of gauges. Unsurprisingly, there’s the slight scent of weed.

“So, I know Edge didn’t send you.”

He shakes his head. “No, not this time.”

There’s a very good chance that I just got into the car with a murderer, but something in my gut tells me to trust Kade. It may be because of what I know about his sister, his loss. Could he take another life after one was taken from him?

I wait for a beat, but he doesn’t elaborate as to why he followed me home. So, I guess. “Is this about your sister?”

He doesn’t look at me as he explains. “He raped her. She’s dead because no one believed her except me. And I wasn’t enough to keep her alive.” His eyes never leave the road, not even when we stop at the red light.

Holy shit, that’s a heavy admission.

“Why are you telling me this?”

He shrugs. “The madness needs to end sometime.”

Those words could mean a million different things, but I take them to mean two in particular: his sister needs justice and I’m possibly the one to deliver it.

The delicate exchange between us opens up much more than I bargained for.

Do I want to be involved with getting revenge for Venom’s demons?

The same guys I swore to take my own revenge on?

But then another thought haunts me, is there another girl out there who might have the same fate as Kade’s little sister?

“Kade.” My voice sounds small and unsure.

“Yeah?” His reply is thick with sadness and anguish.

“Why hasn’t Venom done anything?” I hope to get a different answer than Edge told me. I understand the red tape and financial excuses, but I need more than that. This is about rape and girl’s. life

He answers without looking at me. “We can’t.

A few days before she was found dead, a Venom meeting was called to order.

We were given strict orders, forbidden from touching the asshole.

” He takes a breath. “I can still see the look on Edge’s face.

He was on the verge of committing murder.

We all were. But if they found out we even laid a finger on the fucker, it would be our asses they would have taken out.

Josh’s daddy knows too many other assholes in high places.

” He shrugs. “The day after we were warned, all the evidence disappeared. That’s when my sister lost it.

After everything she was dragged through, tests, questioning, the humiliation, all of it, she lost the one thing that kept us from going to the dark side.

She lost hope. Hope that she would be believed or vindicated for what happened to her. ”

He shakes his head as his foot presses harder on the gas pedal. I grip the armrest as I look at the speedometer. Eighty-seven. I like speed, but we’re approaching a red light.

“That’s what killed her,” he says over the roar of the engine. His knuckles are white on the steering wheel. “The next day, she took her own life. There was nothing I could do to help her.”

The light changes green seconds before we blow through the intersection. I let out a breath of relief. It’s like Kade either knew his timing was perfect or didn’t give a shit if he killed us both.

“It doesn’t sound like there was much you could have done to help her.”

The engine whines just before he presses down on the clutch.

He shifts up again. “I saw the exact moment Abigail decided to take her life. And there wasn’t anything I could do.

I was just a stupid kid. There was nothing left, just a small shell of a girl.

” Kade rubs his chin, lost in some faraway, hopeless memory.

He shakes his head. “Her will to live died. Then, the next day, she really did. In a fucking bathroom. She was that desperate to die.”

Nothing is said for several miles until he pulls into a gas station with a Quick Mart. “Every day, I’m haunted by her. I know she would have forgiven me, but I’ll never forgive myself. Not fucking ever.”

I wonder who he was before she died, before he blamed himself for something out of his control. “What was her name?”