Page 20

Chapter Twenty

Summerville Venom

“ W hy are we going to the bar?” Venom asks as they climb off their bikes.

The last time he stepped foot in this bar to see Marnie was before he decided he needed to take a step back from the fucked-up situation they were in.

“Rocky ended up with a Kingsmen in his house looking for Dani. And Dax's house was trashed as they looked for her there. He wants us to check up on all the women of the club to make sure no one else is getting attacked,” Colt says. “He's heading out to my place, but he claims he's just hanging out outside to make sure everything is good.”

“Why not send Snake here? It's his daughter. Plus, there could be Kingsmen here. Are we going to take them ourselves?”

Colt stops and glares at him. “First, Snake has to check on Everlee. She's closing up the hair salon tonight, so he's gotta keep an eye on her. Second, I thought you'd look forward to the potential fight. Third, if there are more than we can handle, I told Dax we'd call in reinforcements.”

Sighing, Venom stops at the door, his hand on the handle. “I haven't seen Marnie since I told her I was done. I was hoping not to go out of my way to see her again.”

“As long as we know she's good, we'll leave, and she doesn’t even have to know we were here.”

“Yeah, like it's that simple.”

They walk inside and look around, but no one wearing a Kingsmen kutte seems to be in the vicinity. “Okay, we can go.”

“No, thanks,” Marnie says, her voice carrying and catching both of their attention.

A large, buff man sits at the bar wearing a white tank top normally worn as an undershirt, and Venom can't help but think it's at least the first red flag this guy has. His arms are blacked out with ink, which looks ridiculous on him.

“Come on, I know you want the money,” the man says. “I'm Pat, by the way.”

“Great, Pat ,” Marnie says, “but I'm not interested.”

“I don't think no is a good answer, do you?”

Colt looks at Venom, but his eyes are locked on the man in front of Marnie. “Probably not gonna be able to convince you to leave now, huh?”

“Not a chance,” Venom says.

“I think no is a complete sentence. Now, go away and let me do my job.”

His hand reaches out and grabs her wrist. “I can tell by what you're wearing that you're a good little whore. Trust me, I'll make it worth your while.”

“Good little whore?” Colt asks, anger in his voice.

His anger doesn't compare to the rage building within Venom.

“Let me go,” Marnie says, looking him straight in the eyes. “Trust me, I'm the last woman you want to piss off. I'm not going with you anywhere, and as far as I'm concerned, you can get the hell out of this bar.”

“I'm just talking about one quick blowjob in the bathroom. It can't be the first one you've given. It'll be well worth it. I'm a big spender.”

“I'm not a hooker,” she says and tries to yank her wrist from his hand. “Get off me, asshole.”

She continues to struggle, and Jed, the other bartender, hurries over, trying to help her. “Let her go!”

“She's coming with me whether she wants to or not.”

“I'm calling the cops!” Jed shouts.

“Go for it. By the time I'm done with her, it'll be too late anyway. No payment for you now, bitch,” he says, yanking her over the bar.

Within a flash, Venom moves beside the man named Pat, and he taps him on the shoulder. “Hey, asshole.”

“She's mine! I saw her first!”

Venom's fist hits him square in the nose, forcing him to release Marnie as his eyes water while blood drips. “She said no.”

“I don't take no for an answer.”

“And that's why you're scum,” he says, taking the hand he gripped and yanked Marnie with. Slamming it on the bar top, he continues until he hears the satisfying crack of broken bones. “Scum who will have to use his other hand to get some tonight.”

“Fuck you!” he shouts. “You just broke my wrist!”

He grabs Pat's hair and slams his face onto the bar three times before tossing him back to fall on the ground like a tree being cut down in the forest. Everyone around him scattered before he could land on them. “And your face. I would've asked if it was okay, but you said no isn't an acceptable answer.”

His leg moves out to kick Venom, but he jumps over it like a jump rope. “Fuck you!”

“Oh, you want legs included, too? That works for me.”

Three swift kicks provide the satisfactory cracks of ribs while Pat cries out in pain on the floor. Colt stands off to the side, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, ready to jump in if needed. With the anger and pain Venom has raging within him, no help is needed by anyone.

“Anything else we want to do? Oh, yeah,” he says, stomping on his groin, feeling a not-as-satisfactory squish beneath his boot. Even though he deserves it, the mental pain of the injury he just inflicted makes his own groin ache.

“Call an ambulance!” Pat cries out in excruciating pain. “I think you just broke my balls.”

Marnie walks up to them and bends down. “Remember when I said I wasn't someone you wanted to fuck with? This is why.”

“Call an ambulance, you bitch!” he squeaks.

“That's no way to talk to someone you're trying to get help from, don't you think?”

A few patrons lifted him and then carried him out to their car to bring him to the hospital. “Guess he's getting medical attention. Well, I can't convince everyone to be a heartless monster. You good?” Venom asks Marnie.

“Uh, yeah, it's just a bruise.”

“Still more than you should have,” he says and walks outside with Colt quickly behind him.

“Venom, wait!” Marnie calls outside.

Colt and he both turn around, and Colt slaps his arm with the back of his hand. “I'll be at the bikes. Take as long as you need.”

“What?” he asks.

“What were you doing here tonight? I thought you wanted nothing to do with me.”

Swallowing, he looks at the ground. “Dax wanted us to come and check on you. The Kingsmen are stirring up some trouble, and he wanted to make sure everyone was safe. Colt and I were closest to the bar, so we came to check it out.”

“You didn't volunteer to see me?” she asks with a smirk.

If only she understood that this wasn't easy. That he's trying to do everything he can to fall out of love with her when she'll never see him as anything more than a monster. “No, I tried to get out of it, but I didn't have an option.”

“Oh,” she says, her face falling. “I'm sorry to bother you.”

“I'm glad you're safe,” he says, turning back around.

“Do you even care?”

Whipping back to face her, Venom stares hard. “Excuse me?”

“You didn't want to come, and you want nothing to do with me. Were you just following orders, or do you care?”

“I never want you to hurt, Marnie. And I sure as hell will never just stand by as a man tries to hurt you. That'll never be what I do.”

“Because you don't let men hurt women, right?”

He steps closer to lower his voice. “No man should ever touch a woman like that, but I will be damned if I ever let a man lay a hand on you against your will. I'll kill him if given the chance.”

“I... I didn't think you'd care. That you want nothing to do with me because you hate me.”

“What the fuck makes you think I hate you?”

Her eyes avoid his. “Because you want nothing to do with me anymore.”

“For a smart woman, you can be awfully dumb sometimes.”

“Excuse me?”

“I can't hate you, Marnie. Did you get that from the last conversation we had? I'm in love with you, but you'll never be in love with me. You see me as less than you, and for the first time in my life, I'm standing up for myself. Forcing me to see myself as more than dirt, and I can't do that if I let someone I would do anything for look at me as mud.”

Snapping her eyes to his, she gapes at him. “Wait-”

“If you think I'd ever stand by and watch someone hurt you, you really don't know me at all. It kind of proves my point that we're not good for each other.”

“Venom!” she calls, but he's already walking away.

He hops on his bike and starts it, drowning out her calls for him to come back, and Colt looks at him. “You good?”

“I need to get the fuck out of here. Once this shit settles with the Kingsmen, I'm gone. I can't do this anymore,” he says, backing out and peeling out of the bar parking lot.

Colt quickly follows after him and follows him to Venom’s house. “Venom, wait-”

“William.”

“Say what now?”

“Are we friends?”

Snapping his head back, he looks at Venom like he's a crazy man. “Yes.”

“Then call me William.”

“Your real name is William?”

He nods. “Surprising, isn't it?”

“Kind of. I would've pegged you for a Brantley or Caden or something.”

“Something edgier than William?”

“No offense.”

Laughing, he just shrugs. “Want a beer?”

“Sure. The longer I stay away from my house, the better the chance of Lex kicking Dax's ass, so I don't have to get involved for trying to get inside the house.”

They walk into his house, and he sits at the kitchen table after grabbing two beers from the fridge. “I need to tell you something.”

“What's up?”

“What has Lex told you about my... whatever you want to call it with Marnie?”

Opening the beer, Colt laughs. “That's not really telling me something, but she hasn't mentioned much. Just that you were basically screwing in secret, and then she suddenly wanted to kill Marnie.”

“Seriously?”

“You didn't know? She almost hit the woman in the parking lot when she gave her back her panties from you.”

“Why?”

He shakes his head. “The thing you have to understand about my wife is that she's loyal to a fault. You earned her loyalty, and she'll go down swinging for you. So you better never betray her because getting on her bad side sucks.”

The idea Lex feels protective of him feels strange. Good, but strange. “I fell in love with Marnie.”

“You did what now?”

“I fell in love with her even though I knew it was stupid and pointless. I'm not good enough for her, but-”

“Why aren't you good enough for her?”

Laughing, Venom looks around. “Look at me, man.”

“I am.”

“I'm dirt.”

He lifts an eyebrow. “Let my wife hear you say that. I dare you.”

“I'm nothing. The only thing I'm good at is scaring people, and I've been told since I was a kid I was never going to be anything. That I'd never be worth anything or worthy of anyone. I guess I just lived up to that low expectation. Part of me thought Marnie might feel like it was worth taking a chance, but she just saw me as something to use. And as much fun as it was physically, it was killing me inside.”

“It's good that you called it off.”

“I killed the owner of the bar for her.”

Setting the beer down, Colt blinks. “Say that again?”

“She was acting weird at the clubhouse. It was before we hooked up, and she said it couldn't be a club problem. Her boss caught Snake on video dumping a body, and he was going to force her into sex acts to keep it from the cops. So... I killed him.”

“What'd you do with him?” he asks, leaning forward as though listening to a ghost story around a campfire. “Where is he? He's been missing since...”

“I murdered him? Yeah, I forced him onto his knees like he did to her, and made him think he'd have to blow me. Then I shot him in the groin before popping a few rounds into his skull. Then I... put him through a meat grinder and fed him to the pigs on a farm I know about.”

Whatever Venom expected, the laughter from Colt was not it. He tosses his head back, laughing so hard he has to hold his sides. “You... You... You put him through a meat grinder? How?”

“I had to go and buy an industrial one. I'm the type of dude who can't let go of an idea once it comes into his head.”

“That's fucking beautiful,” he says, wiping his eyes. “Can I tell Lex? Please?”

“No!” he shouts, his eyes wide. “She'll... She's the first woman to ever think I'm worth getting into a fight for. That I'm worthy of having feelings. If you tell her, she'll never look at me the same way again. And it scares me, but I kind of like knowing she sees me as more than a monster.”

Leaning forward again, Colt looks into his eyes. “I have to ask you a straight question.”

“Okay.”

“Do you have a thing for Lex?”

“No!” he says. “God, this is all sorts of fucked up. She's like... like a mom and a sister and a best friend all rolled into one. I don't pine for your wife. If you haven't noticed, my tastes are a little younger and brunette. Nothing against Lex.”

He holds his hands up. “I just had to ask, man. But I can tell you this... she won't think you're a monster.”

“Yeah, right.”

“She killed a man to save my life and helped me dismember him in the bathtub once.”

Jaw dropping, Venom stares at him. “You're lying.”

“Swear to God. Probably not a great choice of words, but yeah. And one of her best friends is Psycho. When we finally had her stalker who kidnapped her, she watched him force-feed the guy eyeballs. Well, one. She kind of wanted to throw up after the one she saw, but she's not one to run for the hills when it comes to... unconventional methods.”

Maybe she won't see him as a monster. “You promise she won't hate me?”

Laughing, Colt shakes his head. “No, she sure as hell won’t hate you.”

“Okay,” he concedes. For the first time in his life, he's choosing to trust people. He hopes it doesn't bite him in the ass.