24. Venom
24
VENOM
Two weeks later
“ A t least pretend you’re enjoyin’ this,” Slash advises, passing me another bottle of beer. “You don’t lock down that restin’ arsehole face, we’re gonna get nowhere with these fuckers.”
“Like you can talk. You’ve been ignorin’ everyone to smile at your phone all night… Bebe must be sendin’ you bulk nudes to get you grinnin’ like that.”
“Have only fucked her once,” he admits. “We’re taking our time, gettin’ to know each other.”
“Good luck with that… hope the blue balls are worth it.”
“They will be.”
When I lean back in my seat to scan the front bar of the clubhouse, I try hard to relax my mouth into some semblance of a smile. With lockdown cancelled without a vote or any real notice after Brutus returned from hiding Lily away from me, the bar is empty of old ladies and kids.
Tonight, it’s party central.
Strippers, cut sluts, drunk bikers… and Brutus.
He’s in his element.
Happy as a pig in mud.
Revelling in his victory.
However, short-lived I intend to make it.
In truth, the sight of Brutus makes me sick. I want to rip his heart out and feed it to the dogs that run the perimeter of our yard. The desire to kill him is topped only by the war I’m waging with the empty space that’s taken up residence in my chest since Lily was bundled out of the compound by her suddenly doting father and deposited at some secret safe house Brutus owns in the hills. If Toker wasn’t acting as a double agent and hadn’t already provided the address to us, I’d be out of my mind with worry.
As it is, I’m still barely holding on.
Hence Slash’s warning to put my game face into play.
I groan when Honey staggers over to us on her plastic, stacked heels.
Slash chuckles. “Careful, I’ve heard she’s lookin’ to take a bite outta you.”
“Venom.” Honey twirls her fingers in my general direction. “Wanna dance?”
“Fuck no.”
Realising that she’s off her head, pupils reduced to pinpricks while the muscle in her jaw works overtime, I lean closer to scrutinise her. Since I wasn’t a choirboy back in the day, I can tell she’s had a lick of meth… or something similar.
Her open use sits wrong.
Hard drugs are banned within the compound.
Why would she be high at a club party when nothing’s been taken to a vote yet?
“You can just sit there and let me ride you. I’m happy either way.”
“Is she talkin’ to me?” I pose my question to Slash.
“’Fraid so, brother.”
Despite being an old lady, Honey hasn’t been exactly subtle about wanting me. Up until now, she’s refrained from coming on to me this blatantly. No doubt that’s because she knew Lily would kick her arse if she crossed that line. Probably also helped that I’ve avoided these kinds of parties like the plague for the past nine years.
I had my fill of easy pussy years ago, and it doesn’t hold a candle to burying myself deep inside the woman I love. Making love is on a whole different level to fucking any available warm hole because you’re too lazy to wank yourself.
Of course, thinking about Lily has me moving on my seat to hide the semi I’m sporting. Unfortunately, Honey takes my squirming as her cue to drop into my lap and wrap her arms around my neck. I’m facedown in her artificial cleavage a second later.
I guess my “breakup” put an end to Honey’s instinct for self-preservation.
“What the fuck?” I jerk to my feet, and she tumbles to the floor. “I didn’t say you could touch me.”
When I stalk off, Slash chases me down. He catches me by the arm to stop me from slamming my bedroom door shut in his face. Tense as fuck, and not completely turned off by the idea of a good punch up, I pull him inside my room and get up in his face.
“Back the fuck off.”
“Sure.”
He pushes me away from him like I smell, and I trip on a broken lamp I haven’t bothered to pick up since I trashed the bedroom. Tidying up seemed pointless without Lily around to curse me out for my messiness. I’ve slept on the floor every night since she left with her pillow pressed to my face. It’s rapidly losing her scent, yet I can’t bring myself to stop.
I miss her.
“Guess we’ll stay stuck in this no-man’s-land,” Slash drawls with more than a little snark. “Little Cherub can stay locked away, and we can keep holdin’ our dicks in our hands while every opportunity to save our club passes us by.”
“What are you tryna say?”
Slash backs away from me to lean against the opposite wall. “I’m tellin’ you that you’re fuckin’ this up—for all of us.” He sighs. “Look, I know it wasn’t supposed to be like this, but Joker and Bear were watchin’ you with Honey. So was Brutus. Think they’re testin’ you… tryin’ to see how serious you are about embracin’ the single life.”
“They want me to fuck Honey to prove I’m over Lily?”
“Think so.”
“I can’t do that.” Shaking my head, I start pacing. “No fuckin’ way.”
This time when Slash grabs my arm to halt me, I allow him to. “You don’t have to fuck her, just gotta make it look like you did.”
“And how am I supposed to do that?”
The smirk Slash gives me is full of mischief. “How many times did we tag team a cut slut back in the day?”
“I don’t know… twenty? Thirty?”
“Close enough,” he tells me as he awkwardly plops down on my broken bed. “It was seventy-four.”
“Okay, Rain Man. I get it… you’re good with numbers.”
As the sound of rumbling Harley pipes heralds the departure of some of our less party-inclined brothers, my best friend somehow flops onto his back on the tilted mattress and clasps his hands behind his head. “You know the other thing I’m good with?”
“What?”
“Cheap pussy.” If I didn’t know him as well as I do, I’d fall for the shit-eating grin he gives me. “I don’t mind taking one for the team if it gets us a step closer to endin’ this bullshit.”
“What about Bebe?”
“Like you said, blue balls aren’t fun.”
“Yeah, but I also know you… and I’m not buyin’ what you’re sellin’. This is the first time you’ve invested time in a woman since?—”
“If you say her fuckin’ name, I’ll stab you.”
“Fine,” I concede when he rolls back to his feet to tower over me with a penknife in his hand. “All I’m sayin’ is I don’t want you to wreck somethin’ that might be good for you over a hunch. Joker and Bear could’ve been lookin’ at anythin’. Maybe you just thought they were watchin’ me with Honey?”
“Maybe.” Slash gathers his long hair at his crown. He flicks the knife shut and uses it to secure his man bun. “Alls I know is this is the first time we’ve been let into the compound for anythin’ other than business since Cherub left… that feels like progress I don’t wanna lose ’cause your dick is monogamous.”
“When you put it like that, I hope she gives you crabs.”
“If she does, I know a hot doctor who can prescribe somethin’ to kill ’em.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” I tell him as I push him out of my bedroom. “Poor bitch can do so much better than you.”
“Probably, but I’m not tellin’ her that, and neither are you.”
When we emerge from the sleeping quarters into the bar, we find it almost deserted. Honey is on one of the pool tables using a cue as a stripper pole. Bear and Joker are sitting at the end of the bar closest to her, although they’re not watching the show she’s putting on.
Their attention is firmly fixed on me.
“Where’s everyone gone?” I ask.
“Sudden emergency at the Inadale chapter. Brutus took everyone but the prospects on the gate with him,” Bear replies. He flicks his gaze from me to Honey, then returns it to me. “He told me to tell you to have some fun while he’s gone. Said he won’t hold it against you.”
Behind me, Slash coughs, “Told you.”
After blowing out a ragged breath to hide how annoyed I am that the club has rolled out without Slash and me, I straighten my shoulders and plaster a leer on my face. “I guess it’s time to get back on the horse, then.” I hold my hand out to Honey. She wobbles over to me, her footsteps unsteady on the green felt. “Wanna have some fun, babe?”
My skin crawls with filth when she places her hands on my shoulders so I can lift her off the pool table. Honey wraps her legs around my waist and drags her fingernails over my scalp. My entire body ripples with disgust. I spin in a circle, shooting Slash a look that pleads for help before facing Bear and Joker again.
“You don’t mind?” I ask Joker.
He smirks. “She’s all yours for the night, brother . I’ll pick her up in the mornin’.”
“I’m gonna head home, too,” Bear tells me. “Nads’ll lose her shit if I stay out any later.”
Ignoring their blatant bullshit, especially Bear’s, since we all know he cheats on Nadia every chance he gets, I decide to focus on Honey. “Hear that, babe? I’m about to rock your world. All. Night. Long.”
The drug-fucked bitch pawing at me throws her head back and whoops. Honey rides me as I carry her out of the bar, swinging her arm over her head like an amateur bull rider. I keep my emotions under check until Slash closes the door to his bedroom behind us.
“Not a fan of your room choice,” he quips.
“She ain’t gettin’ her arse in my bed.” Honey acts like she can’t hear us when I deposit her on the mattress of the enormous four-poster my best friend had custom made to accommodate his above-average height and sexual proclivities ten years ago. We speak over the top of her while she concentrates on unstrapping her heels and wiggling her tight shorts down her thighs. “Even if the snapped legs didn’t mean it was sittin’ at a forty-five-degree angle.”
“I can’t wait for the day you figure out that breakin’ your own shit is a mug’s game.” After shedding his cut, Slash uses one hand to pull his T-shirt over his head. “Should be like me… break some fucker’s legs, cut off some deadbeat’s fingers, knock out some gangbanger’s teeth. Normal shit that doesn’t cost you a penny. Works better than the expensive temper tantrums you chuck.”
He toes off his boots, unbuttons his jeans, and strips them down his legs. I tilt my face toward the ceiling when he pulls his dick free of his boxer briefs and strokes it to get hard.
“Do you have to do that right in front of me?”
“ Oh , fuck off. You’ve seen worse,” he retorts. “Pretty sure you grabbed my arse by mistake one night and didn’t let go until you got a couple good squeezes in.”
“Bullshit!” I pull off my cut and shirt. He’s lying through his teeth. “I remember that night… you grabbed my arse. Had to throat punch you to get your hand off me.”
Slash pretends to think about it. “You might be right.”
Honey must be getting tired of not being the centre of attention because she spreads her legs and starts going to town on herself. No warm-up. No lube. Four fingers and her thumb. She comes close to fist fucking herself within seconds.
“Just as well I’m hung like a horse, or this would’ve been the sloppiest fuck ever.” Slash crawls on the bed, flopping onto his stomach so he can get a close-up view of Honey’s snatch. “So, how’re we gonna do this, Venom?”
“I don’t know. This was your fuckin’ idea.”
He rolls onto his side to look at me. “You needa be naked, at least. We both know they’re gonna come bustin’ through that door to verify this went down for Brutus.”
“Fine.” I shuck my boots and peel off my jeans. “Now what?”
“Get on your back. I’ll lay her on top of you… it’ll look like you’re fuckin’ her arse while I’m reamin’ her cunt. The second they’ve satisfied their curiosity, you can hop in the shower and wash away your sins.”
I remain silent as I follow his instructions. His bed smells much better than Honey—which isn’t saying much considering she could be mistaken for a rum distillery. When her arse makes contact with my bare cock, I shout, “Lift her up.”
“Why?” he asks, even as he does what I demanded.
I strip the pillowcase off one of his pillows and lay it over my junk. “Now, put her down.”
“I’d tell Cherub this story, but there’s no way she’d ever believe me.”
“If you say a thing to my woman about this, I’ll tell everyone about the time you drunkenly begged to kiss me. I’ll even mention how you got down on your knees for me.”
“That’s hardly a secret.” Slash laughs his arse off as he positions himself between Honey’s flailing legs. So far, she’s proven superfluous to our plan. Drugged out of her mind, it’s almost like she’s on a different planet than us. “Half the club was there. Pretty sure even little Cherub was there.”
I close my eyes and try to picture that night. The vision of Lily, only fourteen if a day, cringing at our antics fills my mind’s eye. “We’re fucked up, aren’t we?”
“Depends on the scale you measure us by, I guess.” He pauses to watch Honey climax, then continues as if nothing happened. “On a scale of one to Spencer Reid, we’re off the charts. Now, if we were ratin’ ourselves on a scale of one to David Rossi, we’re probably mid-range at best. Everyone knows that silver fox has some seriously deviant kinks hidden under all that anal retentiveness.”
Aware that Slash is only bantering like this to take my mind off Honey writhing on top of me, I play along. “I take it back… you’re fucked up. I’m just taggin’ along for the ride.”
“Says the arsehole with my pillowcase coverin’ his dick.”
“That’s rich comin’ from the idiot who volunteered to fuck this sloppy bitch to save this arsehole.”
“I’m doing it for little Cherub, not you.”
“Keep tellin’ yourself that.”
“You’re so sexy, Venom,” Honey slurs, suddenly present on the same realm as us.
Her eyes clear some, and she focuses in on me beneath her. With more speed than I would’ve credited her with, she twists to kiss me, and the hand she was using on her cunt brushes my face. Gut churning, I take hold of her wrist to stop her from touching me again.
Her tone is spiteful as she gleefully tells me, “I told that skank ex of yours you’d be mine once you chucked her to the curb. I’m the type of woman who can please you, not her.”
“Don’t,” Slash commands, every ounce of humour drying up when he sees I’m about to throw this bitch out of his room. “The sooner this is over, the sooner we can forget it ever bloody happened.”
As soon as Honey appears to drift off into her head again, I lock eyes with my best friend. He shudders, revulsion flickering across his face when she runs her hand down his abs. “How much longer do you think they’ll be? If we were one-pump-chumps, they’d have missed the fuckin’ show already.”
“Any second now,” Slash replies. He cocks his head to the side like he’s listening for something. “I’m soft as fuck here, so we’re both gonna need to put on the show of a lifetime. Just wait for my nod, then do your best to pretend this is the best pussy you’ve ever had.”
Considering we both hear their footsteps at the same time, the way Slash inclines his head over and over while he whispers, “and action”, is pointless.
Like a well-oiled machine that would embarrass the fuck out of most men, we grind on Honey.
This isn’t our first threesome.
Back in the day, we strung up plenty of women from the leather cuffs attached to the frame of Slash’s bed so we could go to town on them in tandem.
It is the first time we’ve faked it.
When the bedroom door is eased open, I slip my hand beneath Honey’s shirt and palm her plastic tit while Slash buries his face in the crook of her neck and groans. “Fuck, Honey… you’re blowin’ my mind, babe.”
I roll my eyes at Slash’s bullshit, then try to one-up him by saying, “She’s tight, isn’t she?”
“So. Fuckin’. Tight.”
Even with the friction of Slash rubbing against Honey in the same rhythm as I move beneath her, my dick isn’t responding. Still, it manages to soften further when I hear Bear chuckle. “Didn’t think you had it in you, Venom. Guess that’s a bet I’m happy to lose.”
“Think I’ve got enough photos to prove you lost that grand, fair and square,” Joker quips. He strolls over to the side of the bed, and I freeze. He shoves his phone in my face. On the screen is a photo of the scene Slash and I have created. It’s realistic as fuck… good enough to fool most people. “This’s only collateral. The pics won’t go any further as long as you vote with us when Brutus takes his plan to church.”
“Why the fuck would I do that?”
Slash stops whatever the fuck he was doing to Honey to listen in on my conversation, and she makes a needy, whining sound that makes me want to snap her neck to shut her up.
“You’ll do it to save little Cherub from the embarrassment of knowin’ you couldn’t last longer than two weeks before you fell back into your old ways. A girl like that, carryin’ the damage she does, won’t cope with feelin’ like her pussy is interchangeable. Fuck, man, she might even start slicin’ herself up again.”
The moment Joker brings Lily into this, all pretence of civility is over. Slash reads my mind and is on his feet a second before me. Honey ends up sprawled like a drunken crab on her back on top of the comforter. My nakedness is forgotten as I shove her old man backward with both hands to his chest until his back slams into the wall. He drops his phone, and I smash it with my bare heel.
It hurts like a motherfucker.
Makes me bleed.
Still worth it, as long as Cub can get into Joker’s cloud before he manages to forward the images to anyone.
“How do you know about Lily’s cuttin’?”
Joker’s eyes widen as he takes in the scene on the bed, the pillow case hanging off the end of the mattress, and the truth sets in. He answers my question with one of his own. “You faked fuckin’ her?”
“Of course… I’m not the kinda man who enjoys being forced to fuck a bitch to prove a point.”
Slash taps me on the shoulder. “I hate to interrupt this little tête-à-tête, but Bear’s disappeared.” I swing around, ready to make chase, but the rumble of his engine as he peels out of the compound tells me it’s already too late. “Guess he’s decided to skip the drama.” Humming to himself, Slash pulls on his jeans, slings a passed-out Honey over his shoulder, and carries her out of his bedroom. “Try not to put a bullet in him before I get back. We need answers, and he’s the only one we’re gonna get ’em outta tonight.”
“Look, Venom.” Joker tries to reason with me once we’re alone. “This doesn’t have to get bloody. This ain’t my fight. I’m a conscript like you. I was just followin’ orders… that means we can come to an agreement that protects both our interests.”
Sick to death of his whining excuses, I cock my fist back then drive it into his jaw. It lands on the button, snapping his head back to turn his lights out instantly. He hits the floor hard. Since knockout blows aren’t anything like the movies, I re-dress in my jeans, t-shirt, and cut as fast as I can, so I have time to secure him in the basement before he regains consciousness.
As I’m sliding my right foot into my boot, Slash returns. “Tied the bitch up in the freezer. She’ll get a little cold, might even sober her up, but it won’t kill her before we get to talk to her.” Walking over to Joker, he uses his foot to flip him onto his back. “He’s still breathin’. I’m impressed. No doubt you want me to lug his hefty arse downstairs for you.”
“Well, one of us is the brains, and the other is the brawn.” I lean down to tie up my laces as I work hard to maintain my flippant tone while the voice in my head screams at me to go to Lily. “I’ll leave you to work out which one is which.”
Once I’ve retrieved Joker’s smashed phone from the floor, I head back into my bedroom. After grabbing my cell from the bedside table, I perch on the sloping edge of my bed and thumb through my contacts. My finger hovers over Lily’s number, then the listing for her burner phone, until I decide against ambushing my woman with news of this disaster and press call on Cub’s name.
“Can’t come to the phone right now, leave a message and I’ll call you back when hell freezes over and the rapture begins. Since the glaciers are meltin’ faster than ever, that’s probably sooner than you’d expect.”
“Hey,” I begin after his rambling greeting ends, and his message bank clicks into action. “Can you get into Joker’s cloud and remove some images for me? You’ll know the ones when you see them. Also, need you to see if he’s forwarded that shit onto anyone.” I sigh before launching into the next part. “It’s not what it looks like, so I need you to avoid jumpin’ to any conclusions before you ring me back. Call me when you can… shit’s gone down.”
As soon as I end the call, the walls of the room I destroyed start to close in on me. I push back to my feet and pace from one side to the other and back again. Step after step, I walk a line into the carpet as I formulate my next move.
“Joker’s hangin’ from the roof,” Slash announces as he swaggers his way into my space ten minutes later. “No thanks to you, of course. You owe me… motherfucker’s heavier than he looks. Had to use the pulleys to get him up there. When he started cryin’ about his arms hurtin’, I left him to it…”
When he trails off, I jam my hands in my hair and turn to face him. “I needa call Lily. Needa explain this shit. Get in front of it.”
“You needa sit the fuck down and think this through.”
“That’s all I’ve been doin’.”
Slash snorts. “Yet the best you’ve come up with is tossin’ our miscalculation onto Cherub’s shoulders to make yourself feel better? Think harder for fuck’s sake.”
“I’ve left a message with Cub. The problem is solved if he can delete the photos in time.”
“Therefore, callin’ Cherub would only cause another problem. One that’ll be avoided if you listen to me.”
“Keep bein’ a smartarse, and my fist’ll be causin’ a problem for your face,” I threaten as I advance on him. “I’m not in the mood for your warped version of support.”
“How dare you?” Slash plants a hand dramatically on his chest and pretends to swoon. “I let you into my bed, and this is how you treat me afterward. I have feelings, you know.”
“I don’t know where you keep them, ’cause it’s definitely not in your fuckin’ thick head.”
“Jesus, hit a man when he’s down, brother…” He trails off when my phone rings as I’m about to swing on him. Slash laughs. “Saved by the bell.”
Seeing Cub’s number on the screen, I dive to snatch it out of Slash’s hands when he tries to answer my phone. I smack him away with one hand while I accept the call and wedge the phone under my ear. “Did you get ’em?”
“Get what?”
“The photos. Of Slash and?—”
Cub’s tone is clipped when he cuts me off. “I don’t have the time to retrieve dick pics Slash sent to some random bitch. I’m callin’ because I can’t reach Toker. He was supposed to check in with me almost twenty minutes ago. Weston’s wife says he hasn’t made it home after his shift either. I can’t get through to Cherub’s normal phone or the burner. The lines must be jammed with a blocker or somethin’ ’cause I’ve checked the surroundin’ cell towers, and they’re functionin’ like normal. Every layer of protection we have in place has gone MIA at once… that can’t be a coincidence.”
“It’s gotta be Alex or the Bishops.”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m thinkin’ too.”
My phone beeps in my ear. “Stay on the line. Hunter’s ringin’ me. He might have answers, so I’m gonna add him to our call.”
“Righto.”
“Hunt,” I say after I’ve activated the conference call option. “You’re on with Cub and me. I’m gonna put you on speakerphone so Slash can hear as well.”
“Be quick,” Hunter’s voice echoes down the line as I hit the speaker icon. “I don’t have much battery left… This emergency in Inadale that Brutus dragged us out in the middle of the night to deal with was a setup. We were ambushed from a side road about forty clicks outta the city. Got broken bodies everywhere. Brutus is okay. Missin’ some skin and nursin’ a smashed leg. Angelis and Duke are bleedin’ bad, but they’ll live... Cass’ fucked-up. I’m alone, tryna help him because Isaiah and the brothers still capable of ridin’ have made chase… Venom, I’m on my own, dealin’ with a dislocated shoulder and road rash. Need you to haul arse to me… I’m outta my depth right now.”
“Can’t,” I tell him bluntly. My pulse is skittering at a staccato pace. My head is screaming that everything that’s happened has been a setup. My body is frozen as implications I don’t want to acknowledge do their best to invade my brain. Shaking myself free of the dread that wants to render me useless, I explain, “Toker hasn’t checked in, and Weston’s missin’… Lily’s my priority.”
“Me, Sander, and Nads are on that side of the city…” Cub’s voice cuts out for a few seconds, then he’s back. “We were about to head to some basketball gala dinner thing but can be with Hunt in twenty minutes if I push it.”
“You do that. Scan the cop channels… make sure they’re not on their way. I’ll send any of the prospects and hangabouts still here to help ya. We’ll come to you once it’s confirmed Lily is all right.”
“Isaiah’s back… I’ve gotta go.” Hunter ends the call before I can issue any further directions.
“I’m trustin’ you to deal with this like I would,” I inform Cub when it’s just the two of us left on the line. My leg starts bouncing as the seconds tick by. I’m bursting with the need to get to Lily, yet I know I have to balance protecting my woman with my obligation to my fallen brothers. “With the rest of the hierarchy down, you’re my proxy. Fuck this up, and I’ll have your patch.”
“Just concentrate on Cherub…” Cub trails off with a loud exhale. “Not sayin’ it’ll be perfect, but I know I can keep everythin’ from spirallin’ until you can get to us to take over.”
“Don’t let me down.” I press the end call icon without waiting for his reply.
While I’ve been dealing with Hunter and Cub, Slash has managed to leave the room and return. Shoulder holsters full, another gun at the small of his back, and his favourite knives strapped to his midsection. He’s dressed for war.
“Here.” He holds out a semiautomatic to me. I sling it across my body, uncaring if I’m seen with the weapon while I’m racing across the city. “You go. I’ll deal with the prospects and catch you up.” I push past him, ready to do exactly as he stated, but he stops me with a firm grip on my arm. “If this is as bad as it’s startin’ to appear, you’ve gotta keep your fuckin’ head on straight. Zeke has to be in control, not Venom. Cherub deserves your cool calculation rather than your rage… anythin’ less than that will break her.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“Nah, you’re fuckin’ filled with pain and regret, and will shortly be determined to punish yourself for tempting fate with whatever the fuck’s happened.” He lets me wrench my arm free. “Both pain and punishment make men dumb. Be smart.”
“I’m startin’ to think I’ve tempted fuckin’ fate one too many times.” A lump of emotion wedges in my throat. After swallowing hard, I ask, “If this is as bad as either of us think it is, will you, at least, consider askin’ Crystal to reach out to the Trinity?”
“I’ll try my best,” Slash replies. The fine lines around his eyes deepen as he noisily exhales. “Not sure how willin’ they’ll be to get in the middle of somethin’ that doesn’t directly affect ’em.”
My best friend’s promise, and the parameters he’s set around it, bounce around in my skull as I run through the clubhouse to my Harley. As I peel out of the compound and head for Brutus’ safe house, I can’t shake the feeling that the unknown situation I’m rushing headlong into is going to be worse than anything we’ve faced before.
What if the time to ask for help has already passed?