Page 7

Chapter Seven

Summerville Marnie

M arnie watches how Venom jumps in and defends Lex. How he threatens to kill Chance for getting in her face. She finds herself both jealous and turned on. Having someone like that, ready to go to bat and risk everything for her, is something she realizes she had with him herself until it all came crashing down.

Chance leaves after Kara's long gone, and Marnie watches Venom move back along his shadow area away from the crowd while everything settles down and goes back to normal. It makes her very aware of just how tough Lex truly is, and she knows she should try and stay far away from her bad side. Well, further than she currently is. If she's willing to jump in and argue with a member, she probably can kick Marnie’s ass like she threatened.

Moving towards Venom, Marnie clears her throat to get his attention.

“What are you doing?” he asks, his eyes glancing at her but focusing on the rest of the room.

“Can we talk?”

“About what?”

Yep, he's not going to make this easy. “Um, us?”

“There is no us, Marnie.”

“I kind of got that when you gave Lex my panties to give me,” she snaps back, her voice low and thick with annoyance.

Venom's tongue slides out to run over his bottom lip, and all she can think about is the other places he's had that tongue. The areas of her body he's made feel better than she ever thought possible.

“I need space, Marnie. Plus, Lex is cool. She's not going to say anything.”

“For now,” she bites.

His head shakes. “No, not ever. Unless she's forced to. But if your dad walked up to her and asked her, she'd lie. She told me as much, and I believe her. I trust her.”

“Yeah, because she probably needs something from you.”

“Your dad's here, Marnie. You should walk away now,” he snaps back and moves towards the back of the room, leaving her standing alone.

No, this is not how it ends with them. She doesn't get broken up with through someone else. She's not in high school anymore.

“Meet me outside,” she says as she passes by, praying he listens and meets her in their spot. She needs to talk to him about this. And if it goes the way she wants it to, she'll leave without her panties after having her skirt hiked up over her hips.

Leaving out the front door, Marnie walks to the shadow-covered corner and presses her hand against the brick. The surface her hand has been countless times while Venom gave her orgasmic bliss she hasn't had from anyone else. This arrangement would be any other man's fantasy. Commitment-less sex. Why does Venom seem so against it all of a sudden?

Time continues to pass, and she worries he's standing her up. Just as she's about to walk out to her car, footsteps catch her attention, and he stands before her. “I didn't think you were coming out here.”

“I wasn't going to,” Venom says, “but I figured we should have a conversation.”

“You think it's cool to dump me through someone else like we're in the eighth grade?” she asks, her anger surprising her.

He just chuckles and looks away as he leans against the building. “I can't dump you when we were never together, Marnie.”

“We were together. In a very, very intimate way.”

“You were using me. It was one thing when it was all banter and theoretical, but once it became reality, it didn't work anymore. Not for me.”

“What are you talking about?” she asks and touches his face with her hand. “We work very well together. If I remember correctly, very well and incredibly efficient.”

His face pulls out of her grasp, and she can’t ignore the sting the gesture causes. “What is it you want, Marnie? You gotta spell it out.”

“I want what we had before. Where we met up and had the greatest sex of my life. I don't know if it's the greatest of your life, but I think it's pretty damn good, at the very least.”

“The only reason I'm here tonight is to make sure Dax doesn't need anything with the shit going on with the Kingsmen with Dani back. I'm not your play toy. Not anymore.”

“That's not how I see you,” she exclaims, trying to pull him back to her. This is not how she planned the evening going.

He never looks directly into her eyes, and she feels him drifting away. “You see me as someone who's beneath you. I'm okay to take care of dirty business and save you, but I'm nothing more than garbage otherwise.”

“I never... I never said that.”

“You agreed with Snake when he talked about me being dirt. You'd rather save face with your dad than admit you have actual feelings for me. Feelings outside of sex, and while I never used to think I was worth more than that, I have a friend telling me I deserve better. And I believe her.”

Lex. Damn Lex. Ruined this great thing Marnie had going. “This was something we both knew wouldn't be able to go anywhere. I mean, you don't exactly have a great reputation around here, and I'm a daughter of the club. Plus, it's kind of against the rules.”

“I wasn't expecting a happily ever after where we ride off into the sunset, but I didn't expect to be told that meeting up at my house instead of always here outside would ruin the illusion of what we were doing. That we'd be making it real. I would do anything for you, Marnie, because I fell in love with you, but I have to stop. I can't be willing to kill myself inside to make you happy. Not when you wouldn't piss on me if I was on fire. Not in public, anyway.”

“Oh, and I suppose Lex would?”

“Lex would stop the fire from happening. She doesn't care about appearances.”

Rolling her eyes, Marnie sighs. “That's what she says, but-”

“She sees me as a person, Marnie. A man. Someone who has feelings. You never saw that, and I can't really be mad at you because I didn't think I deserved that. But I do now. I can't be with you and pretend it doesn't mean anything to me, and I can't stand there and act like hearing you talk about how I'm dirt doesn't hurt. It's better to just make a clean break.”

“I'm not giving up.”

“You should,” he says and walks away towards the back entrance.

Her eyes stare at his retreating form until he's turned the corner, and she feels something break in her chest. Something painful. Rejection. She never thought Venom, of all people, would ever reject her. It's not a pleasant feeling.

Summerville Venom

L ex still sits at the table with Colt, and everyone in the room looks at her a little differently. It's not very often women of the club stand up to the men, and even though it needed to be said, many of the members don't know how to react to her brazen outburst.

Venom personally loves it. Lex is amazing, and he kind of wishes he'd met her sooner. Maybe he wouldn't have gotten involved with Marnie and broken his own heart.

“Hey,” Venom says as he sits down.

Colt nods. “Need me to leave?”

“No, you're cool,” he says.

“I saw her talking to you. Guessing you met outside?” Lex asks, her voice low.

“Yep,” he says and sighs.

Her hand touches his forearm, and it registers how such a simple act of physical comfort in a room like this seems so monumental. It wouldn't be for any other man in here, but it is for him. No one else would have the balls to do it.

“What happened?”

With anyone else, he'd assume the ask would be all about gossip. With Lex, though, it feels genuine. Like she's worried about how he feels. No one else gives a shit because they assume he doesn't have feelings.

“She wants to go back to how things were before. She's not a fan of yours,” he says, worrying maybe he shouldn't have said anything.

Colt laughs. “Not the first woman of the club to dislike my wife.”

“Won't be the last, either,” Lex says and smirks. “Don't worry. I'm tough.”

“I'll say. You got in Chance's face like he was nothing,” Venom says.

“He is nothing. He's... I'm just going to get angry if we talk about him again. It took everything in me not to punch him in his stupid face.”

If he's honest, he was worried Chance would reach out and hit Lex. It would be the last thing he ever did if that happened. Grinding his jaw, he glares at the spot the whole altercation took place.

“Don't worry about Lex,” Colt says and pats his shoulder. “She can more than hold her own. My best friend in Griffin's Beach is over six feet tall, and she used her entire body to punch him, knocking him on his ass.”

“That was fun,” she says. “Ky knew he deserved that.”

Part of Venom wants to see Lex in action. Real action. If her words are any indication, she can scrap. And she can probably win. Like she told Chance, the club is in her blood, and he suspects they’re more than just harsh words in her repertoire.

“I don't know if I can stay here too much longer,” Venom admits. “Seeing Marnie tonight was too hard. I wanted to give in. And until you guys showed up, no one wanted anything to do with me unless they needed something taken care of.”

“It's your decision if you do or not,” she says.

Closing his eyes, he sighs. “But I don't want you to think badly of me. More than people already do.”

“I don't have to agree with your actions to support you. I can't stop you from making mistakes, but I'll be here to help you when you realize them. I might point them out and tell you that I told you so, but I'm not going to stop being your friend because of it.”

Friend. He has a friend. It feels strange. Even though she’d admitted it in the basement, he didn’t really take it to heart until now.

“You have two friends,” Colt says, reading his mind. “Probably more. After how you reacted in that house when we got Dani, I think Dax sees you that way, too. And Undertaker really liked you.”

“I like Undertaker,” Lex says, her voice sounding dreamy.

Opening his eyes, Venom sees her chin in her hand with a goofy grin while Colt rolls his eyes and stands. “I'm getting another beer.”

“What the hell?” Venom asks.

She just giggles. “Something about Undertaker is so captivating, and I think it comes down to that deep voice. I just want him to rock me to sleep reading me a story. But I also do it because it gets a rise out of Colt. And that really benefits me later, if you know what I'm saying.”

“How long have you been married?”

“Longer than most,” she says and smiles. “But you'd think we were newlyweds. Just ask Bodie. He lived with us for a while.”

Kudos to those two. “I was going to ask where the kiddos are tonight.”

“Bodie and Jolie have been staying with them. We all talked and thought it might be good to have me free in case Dax needs help with Dani again. Colt said you suggested having me come and help when she got combative in the basement.”

“I seriously want to murder every Kingsmen I see now. She looked so broken. I've never had someone beg to die before.” Lex raises an eyebrow, and he smirks. “Without me torturing them first,” he clarifies.

“It was a smart move. In a situation like that, especially when our imaginations of what she went through likely aren't even touching the surface of her reality, having another woman in there can help ease things a bit.”

He just shrugs. “I figure if you can comfort me, you can comfort a scared woman.”

“I comfort you?” she asks, her lip sticking out in a happy pout. “Really? You’re not just saying that?”

Laughing, he shakes his head. When was the last time he laughed with someone? Really laughed and had a normal conversation without hidden sexual tension and secrecy? “Yes.”

“I'm touched!”

Colt sits down and places three beers on the table for them. “Better not be.”

“He says I comfort him,” she says and clinks her bottle with both of them.

Venom stares at the beer in his hand. Colt thought to bring him one. Again, something so simple yet so out of the ordinary for him. “Thanks.”

“You gotta stop looking surprised when people do common courtesies, man.”

“No one does this. Hell, no one would sit here and talk to me without it being club related. Usually asking a favor.”

“Well, I have a favor,” Lex says and leans back.

His eyes narrow. “Yeah?”

“Stop acting like you don't deserve this. You do, so please stop looking so surprised that we want to befriend you. It makes me hate she-who-shall-not-be-said even more because I have a feeling you still feel like what she gave you is all you deserve from someone.”

Swallowing, he looks at the beer. “It's all I've ever been told.”

“Stop letting people kick you around. You don't deserve it, and letting them do it just makes them think they can. Plus, if you don't start standing up for yourself, Lex is gonna end up starting fights with all the men around here, and we'll get our asses kicked out of Summerville,” Colt says.

“Speaking of getting out of Summerville,” he says and leans forward. “I think transferring is the best option. I can't keep avoiding the clubhouse like I have been.”

Colt looks at his wife. “You're calling in favors?”

“I think I only have, like, a million to cash in on,” she says and smirks. “Griffin's Beach or Black Valley?”

“Griffin's Beach. But I want to make sure Dax is good before we do anything. I want to be here when he decides what retaliation he wants to inflict, and if he needs backup like he did the other night, I want to be available.”

Taking a drink, she nods. “Just let me know when, and I'll make the call.”

“Thank you, Lex.”

Winking, she smiles and rests her head on Colt's shoulder. These two may have just unlocked something he keeps buried after years of being told he's worthless and unworthy. Venom can't quite decide if he's happy or upset about it, but no matter what, he knows he'll always owe the both of them. Anything they ever need, he'll do. Oddly, he feels like the feeling is mutual, and it surprises the hell out of him.