28. Venom
28
VENOM
“ B rutus and the old-timers have been taken to Doc’s clinic,” Slash informs me. I don’t stop pacing from one side of his dining room to the other. I’m afraid that if I stop moving, the failure I’m running from will catch up with me, and I’ll never escape it. “I’ve sent Cub, Isaiah, and Sander to deal with the scene. Hunt’s too busted up to help much, but he’s doin’ what he can to find Toker.”
The second part of his information dump makes me stop dead in my tracks. “Why the fuck is Sander involved?”
“‘Cause we have no one else. The prospects and the few hangabouts we trust are helpin’ clean up the road where the Shamrocks were ambushed. They’re baggin’ anything they think will help us track down the cunts who did this… the Inadale chapter is still an hour away. I’m doin’ the best I can with what we’ve got.”
He’s not wrong.
We were hit from all sides tonight.
The faux loyalty test with Honey.
The bogus emergency call from the Wheatbelt chapter.
The attack on Lily.
It was the perfect storm. Well thought out. An obvious inside job, yet I can’t exactly start pointing the finger at anyone without proof. And, outside of having Joker hanging in the bunker and Honey locked in the freezer, we have nothing more than a dumb comment about voting with Brutus and a whole bunch of suppositions to take to the Shamrocks during church.
No one is going to believe us.
Not when someone attempted to take Brutus out tonight, as well.
Aware that I’m taking my frustration and worry out on Slash, I change the subject. “You think Toker’s still alive?”
“Cub said his bike is still there, but they haven’t found his body.” I close my eyes to block out the hopelessness clouding his gaze and sink down onto the dining chair next to his. “If anyone could pull a Houdini act in the middle of an ambush, it’s Toker. He’ll probably stagger into the clubhouse with a girl under each arm and some wild story about trippin’ over an orgy.”
“He wouldn’t leave Lily without…”
I trail off when a muted thud comes from the direction of the guest bedroom.
“Slash! Slash!” The panic in Bebe’s voice has us both on our feet before she’s shouted for her man a second time. “Come here.”
I beat him through the bedroom door.
When my footsteps grind to a halt, he makes it to the bed before me.
Through disbelieving eyes, I take in the blood on the covers, then I spot Lily slumped on the plush carpet with Bebe on her knees next to her as she tries to rouse my sweet thing. It hits me hard. My mouth turns into a desert. My head spins. Heart pounding, I watch my best friend pick up my woman and follow the instructions Bebe shouts at him.
While I stand by and watch uselessly…
He lays Lily on her side on the bed.
He holds her head while his redheaded fling checks her airways.
He pulls my woman’s arm straight and whispers to her when she cries out after Bebe injects her with something.
He gets a damp hand towel, then looks away as Bebe uses it to clean between Lily’s legs.
He is kind, gentle even, as he ushers me out of the room when the good doctor tells us we need to let Lily rest.
He also asks the question that’s banging around my skull when Bebe joins us a few moments later.
“What’s happenin’?”
Bebe is matter of fact when she tells us, “She’s miscarrying.”
That last word jerks me out of the daze I’m trapped inside. Shaking my head, shaking all over, I grab Bebe’s upper arm and drag her to her tiptoes so I can get right in her face. “That’s fuckin’ impossible.”
“Let. Her. Go.” Slash shoves my shoulder to make me unhand his woman. “She doesn’t know?—”
“What don’t I know?”
I stammer as I answer her question. “She can’t—Lily can’t… it’s not possible.”
“ Uh. ” Slash clears his throat then leads Bebe to the chair he was sitting in before the shouting started. “This isn’t the first time Cherub was—” He waves his hand in the general direction of his groin. “The last time caused damage that means she can’t conceive.”
“Can’t conceive, or would have trouble doing so?”
Slash glances my way. It’s a silent request for me to take over this discussion, since he doesn’t know the exact answer to Bebe’s question. “The doctor didn’t say she couldn’t. He said she wouldn’t be able to without intervention.”
“I see miracles like this happen all the time,” Bebe tells me. When she realises what she said, all colour drops from her face, and she all but trips over her tongue to backtrack in a rush. “I’m sorry. That was flippant. What I’m trying to say is that I’m a hundred percent sure that Anna is in the midst of a miscarriage… I take it neither of you was aware she might be pregnant?”
“We needa take her to the hospital,” Slash interjects in a ragged tone before I can answer. He steps toward the bedroom. “She’s passed out… beaten to hell. She’s bleedin’ .”
“No hospital,” I snarl, ignoring the way my gut twists at his description of Lily’s suffering.
“Slash.” Quickly, Bebe slides off the chair to stop him when he doesn’t heed my command. “You can’t. She said…”
“I don’t give a shit what she said.”
Drawing up to her full height, the tiny redhead glares up at my best friend with blazing eyes. “It’s not your call. Anna is my patient, and I’m going to respect her wishes. Right now, her body is doing what it needs to do to get through this. She passed out because everything caught up with her. Shock is a beast to cope with at the best of times, let alone when you’ve been beaten to the point of…” My mind fills in the word she didn’t say when Bebe trails off to drag in a deep breath. “Listen, I’ll monitor her all night… help her clean up when she’s capable, keep her comfortable. Any hint that she needs more attention than I can give her—well, I know a women’s health specialist who will treat her off the books, no questions asked.” On her tiptoes, Bebe places her hand on Slash’s cheek. He captures her wrist, his fingers almost doubling around her birdlike limb, and leans into her palm. “I promise she’s safe in my hands. I’m still a registrar, so my God complex hasn’t fully matured yet… asking for help won’t shatter my precious ego.”
“You’re goin’ above and beyond, doll.”
“Anyone with a heart would do the same thing—what she’s been through is every woman’s worst nightmare.”
I swallow down the lump in my throat. It returns in the next breath. Choking on my new reality, my voice is shaky as I seek the confirmation I need. “Did—did he cause it?”
“The pregnancy?” Bebe frowns at me, seemingly offended by my bluntness. “I don’t know… I hope not. Without the right equipment to be completely sure, I’d guess that she’s maybe six, seven weeks along. You can’t take my word for it, though… Anna would know better than me. When did he… you know … the first time?”
“Until two weeks ago, he hasn’t gotten close to her in years,” I state in a deadly voice. When I try to explain, the words seem impossible to pronounce. “I wanna know if he killed our b-baby—caused the mis-c-carriage?”
The pity in Bebe’s expression tells me more than the words she reluctantly utters. “I would imagine so. She was severely beaten, mainly to the face and her abdomen… that kind of cruelty, that type of savagery, the bloody-minded viciousness used on her, well, it can be devastating this early in a pregnancy.”
Slash barely glances my way before he’s ushering Bebe back into the room where Lily is sleeping. “Might wanna close the door behind you, doll.”
“I’ll keep a close eye on her.” Bebe slants a look at me. Sympathy clouds her usually bright eyes. The corners of her mouth droop. “I’m sorry, Venom. It’s just horrible.”
The click of the door latch is loud in the eerie quiet Bebe leaves in her wake. Hands balled into fists. Body vibrating with a combination of fury and desolation. My head is a maelstrom of sorrow, vengeance, and guilt. Eyes locked on Slash’s as he slowly closes the distance between us, I clench my jaw and breathe through my nose as my right leg bounces.
My lungs burn.
My teeth ache.
My eyes water.
My pulse pounds.
“This is my fuckin’ fault.”
“No!” My best friend snaps at me. He curls his fingers around my shoulders and pulls me into him. I fight his embrace when he tries to hold me. Slash lets me struggle, but he doesn’t release me. “You don’t get to make this about you right now. Any misplaced guilt you may feel comes second to Cherub’s needs… you get her through this, then you’re allowed to break.”
“I can’t do this.”
“You don’t have a choice.” He shakes me. “Like I didn’t. Like little Cherub doesn’t.”
A moment of dead silence falls on the heels of his proclamation. I slump against him. Slash holds me upright and allows me time to get myself under control. With my eyes screwed shut, I replay everything that happened tonight over in my head. The party. The stupid plan to ingratiate ourselves with a bunch of rats. The phone call from Cub. Hunter’s desperation. Lily’s injuries. Bebe’s face as she told me about a diagnosis I never wanted to hear.
“I failed her,” I tell him. My voice sounds empty to my own ears. My best friend must register it, too, because he digs his fingers into my biceps as he holds me away from him. The concern in his expression unravels me. The truth tumbles from my mouth, unbidden. “She’s never gonna forgive me.”
“Don’t do this,” he warns, seeing where I’m going before I can say it.
“I have to.”
As if cued to wreak maximum havoc on my shattered soul, Lily wails from the other side of the door. In her tone, the same sorrow that’s riding me rings clear. My legs shake as I suppress the urge to run into the bedroom and gather her into my arms. To soothe her. To promise her everything will be okay, even though we both know that’s impossible.
Instead of following my instincts, I force a mask of indifference over my face to conceal my emotions and knock Slash’s arms away from mine. “I love her, but I’m no good for her. She needs someone who can keep her safe.”
“If you walk out that fuckin’ door, it’s over.” Slash follows me into the foyer of his house. He pushes in front of me to block the exit. “Cherub’ll forgive you for anythin’, except leavin’ . She won’t understand where you’re comin’ from… abandonin’ her like this.”
“Good.” I load up and swing when he refuses to budge after I take another step forward. Slash takes the punch to the mouth without flinching or trying to hit me back, simply licks the blood from his lip, and continues glaring at me like I’m a stranger. “I don’t deserve her understandin’ anyway.”
Although he continues to stand in my way, the disappointment in his tone when he speaks tells me he’s not going to stop me from leaving if I try again. “She’ll hate you.”
“Need her to—h-hate me.” My voice cracks. I pull in a lungful of air that feels like it’s full of rocks. It settles like a boulder in my chest. Heavy as fuck. Immovable. It hurts, but it has nothing on the vise grip that’s squeezing my heart or the emptiness in the pit of my gut. “Make her hate me, please .”
“I don’t needa make her do anythin’… you’re gonna do that all on your own.”
We stare at each other. His icy gaze is filled with censure. Mine is pleading.
It could be seconds, maybe minutes. However long it takes for him to concede to my will feels like an eternity to me as I stand, frozen to the spot, while Lily’s cries grind what’s left of my grip on sanity to dust.
Eventually, Slash sighs and steps aside.
“Thank you.”
He grunts. “Don’t fuckin’ thank me. Just get the hell outta my face. Outta the city. I see your cowardly arse anywhere near her, I’ll be at the head of the line to kill you.”
“Expect nothin’ less.”
“Yeah,” he spits after me as I pull open the front door and step outside. “Well, I expected better. More fool me, I suppose.”
He slams the front door shut behind me.
I don’t have a destination in mind as I squeal out of Slash’s street.
Intent on riding until I fall over or find a cliff to launch myself off, I’m shocked to find myself pulling to a stop outside Doc’s clinic half an hour later. With robotic movements, I kick down the stand, then abandon my Harley on the footpath. The side door is guarded by a prospect who lets me inside without question.
“Venom,” Doc greets me. He wipes his hands down the front of his blood-streaked coat. “Good to see you’re in one piece, at least.”
I don’t bother to tell him that I’m the most broken of us all.
“I wanna see Brutus.” I cock an eyebrow when he hesitates. “Where is he?”
Doc scrubs his hands down his thighs. A small tic erupts in his right eyelid. “Look, he told me he didn’t want to see anyone.”
“Don’t give a fuck.”
Whatever Doc spies in my face makes him blanch. “Rest of ’em have been taken back to the compound… he decided to stay. You’ll find him in the back room.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
I storm off. My strides eat up the length of the dimly lit hallway. I pass by two rooms filled with the caged animals that have been kept overnight for observation in the veterinary practice the Shamrocks own. It acts as a front for Doc’s less legitimate operation, allowing him the fa?ade needed to act as our chief physician without leaving a paper trail.
Just before I reach my destination, Doc pops his head around the corner. “Tread carefully. He’s upset. A little fragile if I dare use that word to describe him. I had to give him a mild sedative.”
“Guilt will do that,” I snap. “Can only hope the drugs will loosen his lyin’ tongue.”
“Should I call a referee?” Doc shouts after me as I drop out of sight. Hidden around the corner, I take hold of my phone, open up the app I’ll need, and push the device into the front pocket of my cut. “’Cause I’m not gettin’ between you two if you tee off.”
“Do as you please.” I boot open the door and grin at Brutus’ shocked expression. “I’ll be gone before they get here.”
“The fuck you doin’ here?” Brutus demands.
Lily’s father looks like shit. Diminished. Propped up in a hospital bed with his back against the wall. He’s got a leg cast, the limb elevated by three pillows. Gravel rash peeks out either side of the bandage wrapped around his upper arm. There’s a drip in the back of his hand. His reading glasses slip down his nose as he scans my expression. The book he’s holding drops to the floor when he twists to face me.
“Told Doc I wanna be left alone. Now, fuck off. Anythin’ you need can wait ’til tomorrow.”
After bending down to retrieve the knife I keep strapped to my shin, I pounce on him before he can inhale another breath. Arm jammed over his throat, my full weight on him, I pin him to the wall. Brutus struggles, but can’t find enough purchase to push me away.
I press the point of the blade to his heart. “Alex got his hands on Lily tonight.”
“No,” he chokes out. Genuine shock washes over his face. “He told me he’d back off her.”
With a steady hand, I slit the front of the spotted gown he’s wearing to expose his torso. He stiffens at the blatant threat in my actions. “ Who told you Alex would leave her alone… Joseph fuckin’ Kingsley? Did he promise his little psycho would stay away from Lily if you remained on board with his plan to use the Shamrocks to sell a new drug and unwillin’ women for his father-in-law’s mob? Did you sell out your daughter to climb into bed with the Maddison clan?”
Although Hunter and Cub could never confirm this was the direction Brutus wanted to take the club, in spite of the long-standing constitution that forbade us from dealing hard drugs or pursuing the skin trade, all signs point in that direction. One look at Brutus’s face provides all the confirmation I need to recognise that we’ve been on the right track the entire time. He was prepared to join forces with the corrupt politician and his evil father-in-law, the boss of the Maddison Clan.
At any cost.
“It’s not like that. The club needs money. Got more patches than ever… more chapters than we can handle. I needed to find a way to keep the cash flowin’,” he babbles, hardly pausing for a breath as he confesses his sins.
With glazed eyes and a slur in his voice, it’s clear he’s telling the truth. There’s enough guilt radiating from him to sink the entire Australian navy. What I don’t understand is why he thinks we need more money. The guns make us bank. We grow, cultivate, and harvest the weed we sell, so the up-front costs there are minimal. Cub and Hunter launder the dirty money through our legitimate businesses, then Slash quadruples it on the stock market.
The Shamrocks are loaded.
We, individually, have more money than any of us could spend in one lifetime.
Brutus rambles some more. “Joseph’s idea made sense. Just needed the votes… needed you outta the way.”
“And Lily? You were fine with her becomin’ collateral? Alex brutalised her… Fuck! He almost killed her again tonight.”
“I thought she’d be happy with him.” In the face of his bullshit excuse, I tip my weight forward, and the blade digs into his sternum. Blood runs free, and a tiny ray of satisfaction heats the empty cavern in my chest where my heart used to beat. “He said Alex was out of the clan. That Cherub wouldn’t be touched again.”
“Yeah, well, he lied. Your daughter’s current state is livin’ proof of that. Face battered. Body broken. Bleeding. Losin’ a baby in Slash’s guest room because you sold her out to make a deal with the devil for some extra cash.”
“A baby.” Brutus seems to move forward to drive the tip of the knife a little deeper into his flesh. Keen interest pushes some of the cloudiness the sedation has caused out of his eyes. “I have a grandchild?”
“No more. Your bullshit killed it.”
His gaze suddenly takes on a sheen of sorrow. Most people wouldn’t see the calculation teetering at the edges, but I do. He’s setting me up. Playing to my emotions. Readying himself to stab me in the heart with a well-placed verbal counterpunch.
I’ve watched him do it a million times.
Never expected to be on the receiving end of his sociopathic ways.
As I predicted, Brutus drops the fa?ade a moment later when he asks, “It was yours?”
“Of course.”
Lily’s father smiles. “Then it’s a blessin’. Over my dead body will any grandchild of mine carry a drop of your blood.”
“Come near the club or Lily again, and I’ll make that a reality.” My hand shakes as I battle not to drive the blade into his black heart. Killing him has to wait until we’ve extracted every piece of information from him. “Your time at the top is over. I’ve got Joker and Honey. We know Bear’s been workin’ with you… the rest of the rats will be easy to flush out. I hold the winnin’ hand?—”
“You hold nothin’,” Brutus sneers. His blue eyes, so like Lily’s, light up. Except where hers are warm and loving, her father’s gaze is filled with evil. “If you’re here and Cherub is at Slash’s instead of the compound, that means Alex is dead. Also means I’m all that stands between you and life in prison.”
“Prison doesn’t scare me… so you can stick your empty threat up your arse.”
He chuckles. “It mightn’t scare you, but we know you’d sacrifice yourself to save my little Cherub if the need arose… and, since she’s already confessed to shootin’ Alex before, I imagine it won’t be all that hard to link her to his death. Fuck knows, she probably had to do it herself—we both know you’re incapable of protectin’ her.” I recoil at the certainty in his voice. With perverse joy, Brutus tells me, “Guilty or not, jail won’t be a picnic for a pretty girl like my daughter. Not with the enemies we have on the inside.”
“You’re worse than the devil.” I remove my arm from his throat and replace it with the knife. “I should kill you and be done with it.”
“Do it,” he crows. Surging forward, he grabs hold of my arm and pulls the blade across his neck. A thin, shallow line blooms with blood. “There’ll be a bullet in the head of every motherfucker you love within twenty-four hours… I have contingencies?—”
This time I’m the one who laughs. I pull my phone free of my cut and wave it in his face. The screen lights up. The timer showing that I’ve been recording everything he said ticks over steadily. As understanding dawns, Brutus growls. I step out of his reach when he tries to swipe the device from my hand.
“Looks like we’ve reached a stalemate and my contingency voids yours.”
With a derisive snort, Brutus flops back on the bed. “No, what we’ve reached is a deal. I’ll keep my seat at the head of the table. You’ll stay away from little Cherub. In exchange, Alex’s untimely demise will remain a secret, and your position at my six will go unchallenged.”
“No deal.”
The expression he hits me with is filled with glee. “Then I look forward to goin’ to war with you. Seeing you choke on the defeat your daddy avoided twenty-five years ago will bring me a little peace in the afterlife.”
His threat makes little sense.
Not that it matters.
I have something more pressing on my mind.
Advancing with intent, I lean down over him. Brutus’ eyes widen. He gurgles when I seize hold of his throat, fingers on either side of his windpipe, and squeeze. My traitorous president flops like a fish out of water against the mattress, but I’m relentless. When he sees he’s not getting free of me, he falls still.
I loosen my grip and leer over him.
Confusion clouds his gaze.
My lips curl into a grin. It’s filled with menace. Hot with hatred.
The knife I’m holding is heavy in my grip as I place the blade between his lips and slice from the corner of his mouth in an arch toward his ear. With a second swipe, I butcher the other side of his face.
“I had one more item to add to our agreement,” I tell him as blood runs over his neck and a single tear makes its way down his whiskered cheek. “Figured since you wanted to smile over the death of my kid, I’d make it a permanent feature. Now you’ll be able to remember this moment forever.”
Lily’s father makes a sound that could either be disbelief or rage as he brings his fingertips gingerly to the Glasgow grin he’s now sporting. He jerks away from me when I wipe the blade clean on his gown.
I pat his shoulder. Too hard.
“Now we have a deal.”
Brutus is sobbing quietly as I leave him alone to wallow in self-pity. I find Doc at the front counter. He swings around to face me, his inquisitive gaze lightening as he scans my face. “That wasn’t as rowdy as I expected.”
“ Nah ,” I tell him. “Brutus wasn’t up to talkin’ much.” After securing my knife back in its holder, I clap Doc on the shoulder and squeeze. Sa a plan forms in my head, I tell him, “I’m headin’ to the Blackards for a while. Will see you around when I get back.”
“Sure thing, Venom. Ride safe.”
Holding the glass door open with one hand, I toss my final statements over my shoulder. “ Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention… our president might need your steady hand with a needle back there. Seems he had a little slip up with a knife while I wasn’t lookin’.”
The curse that spills from Doc’s lips as he hightails it toward the back of his clinic keeps me entertained as I mount my Harley and peel off into the dark. It’s only once I’ve reached the highway that reality punches me in the face, and the temporary buoyancy I felt from one-upping Brutus disappears.
I might’ve won that battle.
But deal aside, this is the start of a war between me and my president.
So far, all it’s cost me is the woman I love.