Page 60 of Poison Touch (Monarch Vipers #1)

EDGE

Reluctantly, Ninja nods but doesn’t take my hand.

Gunner, Levi, and Kade stay behind as I guide her away from the library.

Tension mixed with relief coils in my gut.

The combination is virtually impossible to conquer as I try to keep my cool.

I’ve had days to think about what I would say to her, how much I would tell her, or if I should tell her anything.

The smartest thing I could do is leave her the fuck alone, but then she’d be in even more danger than she is now.

No one has ever been able to tear down my steel walls, but she managed to find a way to get under my skin and burrow her way into my life.

I can’t leave her to fend for herself against wolves she has no way to defend herself against.

The courtyard is empty. Side by side, we walk to the stone bench in silence.

She sits down without glancing in my direction.

I do the opposite. I straddle the bench so I can look directly at her.

Even with the hurt, fury, and confusion streaking across her face, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.

It takes more power and self-control not to reach out to touch her than it does to take down a beast of a man in the cage.

I wind my hands around each other to keep them from drifting toward her.

The last thing I want to do is freak her out.

If she runs from me, then I can’t protect her.

I need to figure out what’s going on in that pretty little head of hers.

Talking to her and getting her to open up won’t be easy unless I’m willing to give her something in return.

Where she is in all this, what her intentions are, and how dangerous those intentions are to Venom.

And, in turn, how much she’s putting herself in danger.

She plays with the ring in her eyebrow as she impatiently waits for me to start the conversation.

The first time I ever saw her, despite the pure agony splayed across her face as she watched her father brutally murdered, I knew, one way or another, she would be the one who could end the madness.

She’s been marked by Venom for over a year.

I can’t blame them. A powerful and fierce fighter lives in that perfect body and could bring millions to the table.

What they didn’t bank on was for their new plaything to make her own agenda after what they took from her.

They also haven’t figured into their plan that their all-star fighter would fall for her.

I wish I could change our circumstances, but there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about that now.

“What do you want, Edge?” Exhaustion, above all else, settles into that question.

“Why are you ignoring me? We—we had—are?—”

She lets out a small laugh, but there’s no humor in it. “There’s not even a name for what we had . And now, we’re nothing.” She shrugs. “It’s as simple as that.”

As much as her words sting, I can’t focus on the label of what we were or still are.

It doesn’t matter right now. I just want to get to the bottom of what made her shift.

“Tell me, why the hell are you so mad at me? The last thing I knew, we were eating apple pie, and then nothing. Friday morning, you were a ghost, then after I saw you at the fight—” I run my hand over my head. “Fuck!”

I expect her gaze to still be distant when I look at her, but she’s looking at me. Light glints off the silver bar above her tired eyes.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

She shakes her head. “Don’t play stupid. Did you honestly think I wouldn’t find out that you fight for Venom?”

With my frustration rising to dangerous heights, it’s taking everything I have to stay calm. Losing it will only push her further away. “You knew I was part of Venom.”

“I knew you were part of the Venom that was feared at school, the part of Venom who fought and trained in a secret dojo, not the part of the Venom who are murderers,” she says, and I wince at her selected word.

“I didn’t want to believe you were part of the money-hungry scoundrels who kill innocent men.

” She closes her eyes and tries to catch her breath.

“That’s what I’m trying to say. I hoped you weren’t part of them. ”

Hope. What a fucked-up notion. When what you’re hoping for is still possible, all is still right in the world. But when that hope comes crashing down, there’s no pain like that kind of devastating loss.

“I couldn’t watch as you delivered your final blow to Python.

” She turns to look at me. “I knew it would be like watching my father murdered all over again. I saw you glance at your manager. A nod was given, and you followed the order, carrying out your strike... just like a viper.” Her face is a mask of pain and betrayal.

Slowly, she reaches up and lightly skims the line of my jaw.

“Etched in the lines of your face was a hate and fury so palpable and intense it chilled me to my core. I’ve been around fighters my entire life.

I know that look all too well. It’s the one worn when more than just pain is intended to be inflicted.

It’s the same one Python wore when he killed my father. ”

She drops her hand. Her shoulders hunch forward in defeat. All of the energy seems to have been sucked out of her with that one admission.

I take the chance and rest my hand on her lower back. The pressure in my chest eases when she doesn’t jerk away or recoil from my touch. Her hazy blue gaze shifts to look at me.

“Kinsley, I told you it’s complicated.”

Her tense muscles relax a little under my fingers.She lets out a breath and closes her eyes. “Complicated isn’t an excuse for murder.”

She’s right. My hand slides from her back to the cool stone bench. I keep replaying what she saw, and aside from the pain I caused—opening her barely healed wound of losing her dad—the thought of my girl at the UG makes me want to punch the shit out of something.

My girl. I drag my fingers through my hair again. The UG is the last place I ever wanted her to be—again. My world slowly closes in around me as everything settles into place. I knew this day would fucking come. I just wasn’t ready for it this soon.

“I never wanted you to see me like that,” I admit.

She looks at me then. “Like what? A murderer?”

It’s my turn to duck my head.Python—fuck! Things got way out of control the night her father was murdered. I felt as though I was possessed by the assholes running the show. I did things that night that would haunt me forever. “I wasn’t the one who killed your father.”

“But you would have!” she lashes out. “If you were in that cage that night instead of Python, you would have taken the orders just as easily as he did. Just as easily as you did Friday night.”

I don’t say anything for fear of what I’ll lie about, who I’ll make excuses for, or worse, because she’s not wrong. She has every right to hate me.

“After you pinned Python, I saw how you looked at Venom to see what your next move should be.” She blows out a harsh breath. “Python did the exact thing right before he killed my dad. He waited for some kind of fucked-up command or something.”

She’s right again, and we both know it. My father controls me and the rest of us.

The worst fucking part is the girl I’m falling hard for is the key to all of it.

Ninja is who he really wants. She has been all along.

Killing her father was only to get to her.

This is something I can no more admit to her without implicating my father or, worse, giving her the perfect out to never speak to me again.

I can’t face that—not when I know what she fucking tastes like, the feel of her next to me, the pure passion she exudes. Fuck!

And worse still, what will she do with that information? I planned to shut it down before now, but there’s no stopping Venom when the stakes are raised to immeasurable heights. If Ninja were a fighter for Venom, she would bring in millions. And that’s the problem.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.There’s no way out of this unless I put both our lives on the line, and I’m not sure I’m ready to do that yet.

“I know you watched your father die in the most horrific way.”

In that single nod lives a thousand reasons why she went to the UG on Friday. Strands of her black hair fall against her face as she bows her head. I brush her hair away from her damp cheeks and tuck it behind her ear.

In a hushed voice, she says, “You knew it was me the whole time.” With her head lowered, she waits for me to respond.

“I’ll admit the black hair threw me at first, but the second I saw your fearless blue eyes, I knew you were the girl with blonde hair I saw at the fight that night. Then, in gym class, your tattoo confirmed it. It’s the same one your father had, except yours has cherry blossoms.”

“It was you that night at the fight? You told me to leave.”

I purse my lips before giving her the truth she already knows. “Yes.”

She tilts her face just enough to look at me. I hate the betrayal dwelling in her eyes. “You stabbed me.”

I jerk at her accusation. “What? No! I would never.” She looks like she believes me, though it’s another half-truth on my part. With utter shame, I close my eyes and whisper, “It wasn’t me, but I know who did.”

When I open my eyes, she’s staring at me with absolute horror etched into her face. “You know who stabbed me?”

“I tried to get there in time, but?—”

“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” She bursts up from the bench.

I grab her arm before she runs off. “Kinsley, I know you hate me right now, and you don’t owe me shit, but I need you to hear me out.”

She shoves my hand off. The hatred in her eyes could set fire to a forest. “You’re right. I don’t owe you anything. My father is dead because of?—”

“Mine!”

“What?”

“Mine,” I repeat in a softer voice. “My father had your dad killed.” There, I fucking said it. The release should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. “Please sit back down. Please.”

“All for money?”

I shake my head. “Mostly, yeah, but it’s more than that.”

She slowly sits back down. Her ass is barely on the stone bench as if she’s ready to bolt at the first second she gets.

The girl next to me has been through hell. It’s obvious Ninja came to Monarch University with the intention of revenge. Her need to avenge her father has not only gone unfulfilled but has also been pressed and compromised into something more dangerous and formidable than she knows.

“Hey.” I guide her face toward mine using the lightest touch. “Whatever you’re planning, I want in.” As calm as my voice is, it’s the opposite of the storm raging through my body.

She doesn’t deny my accusation that she’s up to something. Her face is still a mask of pain and confusion. Slowly, she shakes her head. “No. It goes against everything you stand for.” Her voice is even. Her tone is ominous.

It makes complete sense that she would believe that.

“I can help,” I insist.

She shakes her head violently. “Not with this, you can’t. And even if you could, I don’t want your help. I don’t trust you.”

“I’m not letting you go that easily.”

She drops her head as she laughs mercilessly. “You can’t let go of something you never had.”

I want to scream at her, shake her until she stops spewing shit about us.

I take a deep breath and slowly release it.

As calmly as I can, I say, “You can tell that shit to yourself all fucking day, but you know goddam well you were and still are mine.” I know I’m being a controlling and relentless asshole, but I don’t give a fuck.

I move closer to her and wrap my arms around her waist. “Let me in, Ninja.”

She slowly shakes her head. “I can’t.”

I lift her chin so she’s looking at me. “You know I’m not fucking going anywhere. And whatever you have planned, I can help. I don’t want this fucked-up life anymore. I want you.”

Relenting, she rests her hand against my chest. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

I smooth my hand over her cheek. She lays her head against my hand. Wetness coats my palm.

“Yes, I do. I want to bring him down just as much as you do. I’ve lived with this shit my entire life, and I’m done.”

When everything comes crashing down, one of us, or both, won’t make it out of this unscathed. But I’ll do everything in my power to keep her safe. I just wished she believed me.