Page 101 of Renascence

“Shit.” Gage jerks his head at Charger. “Charger, get Emily.”

A minute later, he returns with her in tow. She looks around nervously, walking in my direction when she spots me. I pull her down on my lap, arms circling her waist.

“Emily.” She glances up at Einstein. “We can’t possibly understand what you’re going through right now, but we need some information, beautiful.”

“What… what kind of information?”

“You have any idea who could’ve done this?”

“No.”

“How about when it was taken?”

“It was today.”

“How do you know?” I ask.

“Well, I was looking at the picture with Ellen and Raven, and I noticed that the shampoo is a new one I only started using today.”

“Great eyes, Emily,” Razor commends her.

“Okay, now we got a timeline. Tek—”

“Pulling up the security feed now, boss.”

“Darlin’.” She shifts on my lap, facing me. “You know anyone who owns or works at a restaurant in Midtown?”

“No. No one. Why?”

“Just something Tek found. We don’t know what it means yet. You think it could be James?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think not.” She leans in close. “Venom, I’m scared,” she whispers, bottom lip quivering. I pull her close, wanting to rid her of the feeling.

“It’s all going to be okay, Emily. Trust and believe that.”

“Okay, boys,” Gage commands the room’s attention once more. “Here’s the deal. Crow and Motor, I want you two to go case out the place while Tek does his thing. When we have more info, we can make a plan.” He turns to me, speaking softly. “Go take care of your woman, brother. We got this for now.”

With a dip of my head, I stand, lifting Emily in my arms. I take her to my room, laying her on the bed. She observes me, moving over so I can join her once I’ve discarded my clothes. Placing her head on my chest, she burrows into my side,

“I’m sorry, Em. I can’t believe I let this happen.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Bullshit. It happened under my roof.”

I grab my phone, calling Kurt and telling him to shut down the showers. That picture was taken from the next stall and from above. There’s going to be some major renovations in there. I can’t allow something like this to happen again.

“Venom?”

“Yeah, darlin’?”

“When you find the people responsible, are you going to… to kill them?” Her voice is low, shaking with fear.

“What do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t think I’d get caught up in this part of your life.”

“I’ll make it right. You’ll see.”