Page 95 of Sweet Venom

I should’ve known better than to trust Julian’s doctors and establishments.Everythingin the medical field is under his or Regis’s thumb.

Including Violet’s coma.

The final piece of information that confirmed my suspicion was Violet’s disappearance from the hospital two days ago.

I remember the fucking tightness in my chest when I walked in like I usually do early in the morning—because Dahlia spends most nights by her side—and I didn’t see her lying in bed.

There was no pale face or frail body or shell of a person. Only emptiness—and Mario sleeping peacefully.

The nurses mentioned a transfer to one of our headquarters, and I knew Julian must’ve been behind it. There’s no way a meticulous, well-planned transfer would happen without his interference or approval.

Turns out that Julian and Grant—Kane’s father—were using Violet’s kidnapping to twist Dahlia’s arm. Maybe hurt Kane through her. Maybe delete her and her annoying snooping habits from town.

I didn’t give a fuck what the reason was. All I cared about was having Violet back exactly where she belonged—under my thumb.

So I barged into Julian’s office and threatened to crush his skull if he didn’t tell me where she was.

He merely ignored me, so Kane spoke to him, trying hisboring diplomatic shit that also failed, because Julian doesn’t change his mind when it’s set on something.

I searched all our safe houses, holding out hope that he’d be keeping her in one of them. Naturally, he’s not that stupid, so I couldn’t find a trace of her.

Today, however, Lucia managed to locate her in one of the unmapped hospitals.

Well, it’s an illegal experimentation center window-dressed as a clinic on a small island right off the coast. I had no goddamn clue this shit existed in the Callahan empire, but then again, Regis has never considered me his actual heir, not when golden-boy Julian exists.

Seems Julian’s tyranny and degeneracy run a lot deeper than I thought, because that goddamn place looked like an asylum. It was full of patients, many of whom I recognized as Vencor members who betrayed the organization and, therefore, were dead.

But apparently not, because Julian is using them as his lab rats.

Despite the high security, I managed to raid it with the help of Lucia—and my Callahan last name that made the guards hesitate to hurt me.

Point is, I got Violet out, kidnapping one of the doctors as well so he could look after her.

Under some torture, he mentioned a coma drug experimentation and swore he’d recently started working on the project and didn’t know much.

He said Violet’s vitals were pretty good throughout the period they were monitoring her and that if she didn’t take her assigned daily dose of the drug, she’d start to wake up soon.

It’s been almost twenty-four hours, and she still hasn’t.

Maybe Julian’s drugs messed with her indefinitely.

No—she’s moving, her eyes fluttering and her body restless. She’s no longer in a coma.

She hasnever beenin a coma.

Why did Julian do that to her? If he’d wanted to hurt her, a simple injection or food poisoning would’ve done the trick. Or was she aware of what was happening? She wouldn’t…do this willingly, right?

I have so many questions, but the most important thing is that she’s here and safe.

“Yeah,” I say to answer Kane’s question.

A long sigh escapes him. “Is she waking up?”

“Slowly, as the doctor keeps saying.”

“Good. Dahlia will want to see her.”

“Fine.” I tighten my grip around the phone. “And, Kane?”