Page 43 of Venom (St. Sebastian’s at Cravenmoor Academy #1)
Rafferty
“ T ate Corven?” I bark down the phone loud enough for Blake to look up and frown. “Are you sure about that?”
“Completely. He was seen entering and exiting the building opposite Perfect Tens, and this failed hit has his incompetence written all over it.” Jake’s dry tone would make me laugh if this weren’t so fucking serious.
“I’m going to twist his dick into a knot and string him up by it,” I growl.
That fucking little punk. I hang up, my jaw clenched so tight it might shatter.
Tate fucking Corven. That weasel-faced prick with delusions of adequacy.
He’s a bottom-feeder in the hierarchy, a wannabe hitman who couldn’t shoot straight if his life depended on it.
“Problem?” Blake asks, his voice smooth as silk despite the tension radiating off me.
“Tate Corven,” I spit the name like it’s poison. “He’s the one who took the shot at Venetia.”
“Oh, dead man walking.”
“He’s known for being a fucking moron,” I snap. “Which explains why she’s still breathing. But it doesn’t explain why he’d target her in the first place. He’s small-time, desperate to climb the ladder. This is way above his pay grade.”
“Unless he’s been subcontracted, so whoever the real killer is keeps their hands clean.”
The thought makes my blood run even hotter. “Whoever’s pulling his strings, I’m going to find them. After I’ve dealt with Tate, but this still all comes back to whoever it was either couldn’t afford to pay for someone decent to not miss, or it wasn’t a real hit.”
“I’m banking on couldn’t afford. What does it cost to hire a contract killer these days?”
“Fifty kay, or more.”
“That’s not pocket change.”
“No, but if this is connected to the trafficking rings, they have all of this…” I gesture to St. Seb’s.
“Or if it’s a solo mission, they don’t have access to all of this.”
“We are going around in circles,” I snap. I yank my phone back out and dial Jake.
“He’s gone underground,” Jake says before I can even say a word. He knows me too well. Quick to temper, questions afterwards.
“Then find him.”
“Already on it. Might take a few days. Possibly fled the country.”
“Arsehole,” I snarl.
“Go on, you can hang up again,” Jake says with a snicker, and I take great delight in cutting him off. He is my dad’s best guy for digging up dirt. I don’t trust anyone else with this.
“He’s gone underground, Jake’s looking,” I mutter as Blake tries not to laugh at me. “Might take a few days.”
“In the meantime, the sharks are about to get startled out of the water by the kraken.”
“And the kraken would be you in this analogy?”
“Venetia’s word, not mine,” he says, but I can tell he’s enjoying the comparison. It’s fair. He is monstrously better than everyone else.
He checks his watch and then smiles.
All around the library, phones are going off, panicked 999 calls from fathers to heirs.
“What did you do?” I ask with a slow smile as Leonard Dibley rushes past, his face ghost-white.
“I know a guy who owes me a favour.”
“Must be some guy.”
Blake gives that pain in the arse enigmatic smile that I want to punch off his face on a good day. Today isn’t a good day.
“Who is it?” I prod, leaning closer. I’ve got a killer to hunt, and I’m not in the mood for Blake’s mystique routine.
His eyes glitter with that cold intelligence that makes him so lethal. “Let’s just say I’ve encouraged a simultaneous audit of every financial institution that handles several of the major families’ legitimate holdings in Venetia’s name.”
“You fucking what?” I stare at him, genuinely impressed despite my foul mood. “That’s...”
“The equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on their financial operations,” he finishes smoothly. “Every transaction frozen for review, every account flagged, every asset temporarily inaccessible while the authorities conduct their investigations.”
“Bloody hell.” I run a hand over my buzzed hair. “That’s why they’re all freaking out.”
“It’s amazing how quickly priorities shift when money is threatened,” Blake muses, tapping something into his phone. “Venetia’s trafficking investigation just dropped out, and she is on the hunt for bigger prey.”
The library continues to empty as more students receive frantic calls from home. The panic is insane. The heirs to criminal empires are suddenly cut off from their allowances, their investments, their cushions of wealth that make their lives so comfortable.
“How long will it last?” I ask, watching Leonard practically sprint out the door, his face twisted with panic.
“Long enough.” Blake rises, straightening his already impeccable suit. “The audits will find nothing, of course. I’ve made sure it’s just a farce, but Venetia’s name will be tied to this.”
“Aren’t we putting her in massive danger?”
“Not once word gets out that she is willing to call off the investigation for favours owed.” He holds up his phone. “And word just got out.”
I grin. “You are unbelievable.”
“I know,” he says smugly.
I snicker. “We had better go and tell her she is about to be inundated with offers.”
We walk across campus, the afternoon sun casting long shadows across the quad. Students hurry past us, their faces tight with panic, phones pressed to their ears. Blake’s financial bomb has detonated spectacularly, and the fallout is spreading fast. But so is the fix.
Venetia’s name is on everyone’s lips as we stroll to her room and push the door open without knocking.
“What did you do?” Venetia asks as soon as she sees us. “Everyone is going crazy.”
“Let’s just say everyone knows you are no longer looking at the trafficking rings but have set your sights higher.”
“This had better not backfire,” Viper says. “We’ve already had more fun than we’d like for a while.”
“Meaning?” I ask, going to Venetia and pulling her close against me. I can’t get enough of her. She is like a drug, and I’m happily addicted to her.
“Someone let Lucy out,” she says. “Presumably the same arsehole who left the second lily and sniffed my knickers.”
“What the actual fuck?” I snarl, my body instantly going rigid. “Lucy, as in the seven-foot venomous snake? The one that could kill everyone in this building?”
“The very same,” Viper says with disturbing calm, considering what she’s just told me. “She’s back in her tank now.”
I stare between them, noting the slight tremor in Venetia’s hand as she slides it up my arm. Whatever happened before we arrived clearly shook her, though she’s doing her best to hide it.
“Whoever’s behind this is escalating,” Blake observes, straightening his already immaculate cuffs. “They’re becoming desperate.”
“Or more confident,” I counter. “Releasing a deadly snake is a hell of a lot bolder than just leaving flowers.”
Venetia moves away from me, pacing the small room with restless energy. “Either way, they’re sending a message. They can get to us whenever they want.”
My eyes flick to the tank where Lucy is now coiled, watching us through the glass with those cold, reptilian eyes. “On another note, I know who took a shot at you.”
“Who?” Viper asks instantly.
“An idiot by the name of Tate Corven. Seriously,” I shake my head. “Whoever hired him is either thick as pig shit or cheap.”
“Or both,” Blake chimes in.
“Or someone who wants to make a statement, not actually kill you,” Viper says, his eyes narrowing. “A warning shot.”
“So, someone wants me scared, not dead?”
“It could be connected to the lilies,” Blake says thoughtfully. “Psychological warfare. Keep you off-balance, looking over your shoulder.”
Her phone buzzes, and she picks it up. “Messages from people I barely know, from family associates I’ve met once at most. All of them are suddenly desperate to talk to me.”
“I’d say your plan is working. Half the criminal elite of Britain is suddenly very interested in having a chat with her.”
Blake smiles that cold, calculating smile. “Perfect. Now we use it.”
“How?” Viper asks.
“We set up meetings,” Blake explains. “Venetia becomes the power broker they all need to appease. The person who can make their financial nightmares go away—for a price.”
“And that price,” I say with a look at Venetia that does nothing to hide my growing feelings for her. “Is that they fall under your rule here at St. Seb’s.”
She grins. “I’d say that’s fucking perfect.”