“I’ll take that. If you can wrap it up without them seeing,” she said quietly. The lady gave Korrie and Kira a glance before she smiled conspiratorially toward Jasmine.
“I’ll be right back. You want to pay for it now or meet me at the register?” she whispered. Jasmine handed her a card.
The saleslady nodded and went to the back. I knew she thought Jasmine must be buying it for one of the girls, but if she didn’t want them knowing, I knew it wasn’t for herself. Which led to the question. Who was it for? A mystery I’d have to figure out.
The saleslady returned and discreetly gave Jasmine her box and card. She signed the receipt, then slipped the small wrapped package in her purse with a shy smile as I paid for my purchase. We left the jewelry store with the men following behind at a safe distance. Christmas music filled the halls of the mall, and we sang along like kids as we laughed.
After a stop at the coffee shop by the food court, we left the mall with smiles and steaming cups to head back to the clubhouse. Jigsaw was around the side of the vehicle, I assumed opening the doors.
Roscoe opened the back of the SUV for us to stash our packages and purses. He was about to close the door when a guy bolted past him, throwing his left arm back and burying a knife in his chest.
I started to scream when the guy dove at me, holding a second knife to my throat. The tip dug into my flesh, causing me to silence myself really damn quick. The other women were standing there silent and still as they waited to see what the man was going to do.
A beard streaked with gray covered his face, and his eyes were wild. It was the eyes that gave him away. “Kelvin?” I asked, moving as little as possible.
“You thought you could hide out in Bumfuck, Iowa, from me? I told you that you were going to pay. Did you think I was kidding? I knew it was a matter of time before you left that fucking compound. And I’ve been patiently waiting for this day for over eight years,” he hissed as he sneered.
“Your beef is with me, Kelvin. Let the girls go,” I bargained.
“I don’t think so. Where’s the other guy?” he asked as his eyes darted around.
Jigsaw casually walked around the vehicle holding his hands out in a show of surrender. I gave him a what the fuck look, unbelieving that he would just saunter around and give up.
“You,” Kelvin pointed to Jigsaw, “get behind the wheel.”
“Where we goin’?” he asked as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Then he motioned to Roscoe. “You just gonna leave him there? That’s messy. Gonna raise a lotta flags before we even get out of the parkin’ lot.”
Where the hell was a bystander when you needed one? I couldn’t believe no one had come upon us or noticed what was going on.
There was indecision on Kelvin’s face. Then he grabbed me by the hair and spun me around to stand with my back to him. The blade was cold against my throat. “You,” he said as he motioned toward Jasmine, “and you, can load him up in the back,” he said to Jigsaw.
Jasmine stood there wide-eyed and dazed but refused to move. A fine tremor seemed to vibrate her entire body. Korrie’s worried gaze darted from her back to Kelvin.
“She’s scared,” Korrie tried to argue.
“Shut up! I wasn’t talking to you!” Kelvin spat. Then he turned his vitriol on Jasmine. “Bitch, if you don’t move, I’m gonna slice this dumb cunt up and then I’m coming for you.”
Jasmine’s tremors grew more violent as a tear trailed down her cheek, yet she still didn’t move.
“Please, we’ll do it,” offered Kira in a soft pleading tone.
“Jesus fucking Christ! Is the bitch stupid? Fine. Hurry up!”
Korrie and Kira each grabbed one of Roscoe’s feet and Jigsaw grabbed under his arms as he kept an eye on Kelvin. Not once did Roscoe flinch, telling me there likely wasn’t anything we could do for him.
The back doors were closed and we were ordered into the SUV.
Korrie and Kira climbed in the very back. Jigsaw had to literally pick Jasmine up and put her in the front seat, then buckle her in. Kelvin gave me a shove and forced me in the middle seat.
Once we were inside the vehicle with the doors closed, Jigsaw turned around and gave Kelvin a sinister grin. Then he cocked his head in an odd manner and asked, “Where we going?”
Kelvin was taken aback by Jigsaw’s demeanor for a second. Except he didn’t utter a word. There was an odd, wet slapping sound that didn’t fit with anything in the vehicle. I looked over at Kelvin. He looked stunned. Then he slowly looked down and opened his mouth.
Blood trickled from the corner of his lips, and I gazed in horror at what I was seeing.
Kelvin’s abdomen was sliced wide open, and his entrails were lying on the floor.
“Tsk, tsk, Venom is not going to like that mess in his vehicle,” Jigsaw said as he faced front and calmly backed out of the spot.
“Getting Away With Murder”—Papa Roach
I thought the panic I’d experienced when I was afraid of being run off the road and having something happen to Loralei was the worst.
No.
The worst was finding out that it had almost happened again and I wasn’t there. It was the worst kind of helpless.
“Coming up on your compound,” Jigsaw said through the speaker as we anxiously waited at the gate. He’d called and told us to have Angel at the ready, and my stomach had bottomed out. What he’d said was brief and that Roscoe was in a bad way.
“Open the gate!” I shouted, and two prospects rolled the gate open wide. The SUV came flying up and careened through the opening before it screeched to a halt and the doors flew open.
“Sorry about the mess, bossman,” said Jigsaw with a smirk as Loralei came barreling out of the SUV and into my arms. I looked over her shoulder at the man slumped in the seat. Confusion was followed by relief when I realized it wasn’t my prospect.
“Who the fuck is that, and where is Roscoe?” I asked, dread in my guts. He was a good kid with a lot of promise.
“In the back. It’s not good though, Venom. I’m sorry,” Jigsaw said with true remorse in his insanely blue eyes. He ran a tatted hand over his mouth as Phoenix, Blade, and Kicker opened the back doors.
Out the corner of my eyes, I noticed Chains had Jasmine wrapped in his arms around the front of the SUV where he likely thought he was out of sight. I’d deal with that shit after we got Roscoe squared away.
The loyal prospect was folded up in the back like Jigsaw said. It didn’t look good. Loralei buried her face in my cut as a sob escaped her. The guys lifted him out, and a knife clattered to the ground.
“What the hell?” Phoenix asked as he set Roscoe’s leg down and picked the blade up. There was blood, still sticky, all over it.
Loralei peeked and her jaw fell open. “That was in his chest!”
“Get him inside,” I ordered. They rushed him in, and I set Loralei back. “Will you be okay with the girls?”
She nodded, and we all followed the procession indoors. Someone had turned the lights on for the twelve-foot Christmas tree, adding a ridiculously festive air to what was a room full of solemn faces.
Loralei didn’t seem to pay it any attention as I brought her into the common area with the other ol’ ladies. With a quick kiss to her head, I rushed to the infirmary.
Angel was already opening Roscoe’s cut and ripping his shirt open where the knife had obviously penetrated. The disbelief on his face had me stepping forward to get a better look.
“What the fuck? No one touched him before he was loaded up?” I muttered in question.
Jigsaw shook his head.
We all stared at Roscoe as he lay unmoving on the table. With no chest wound. Angel placed two fingers to his neck, then looked up at me.
“No pulse,” he said in astonishment. “Are they sure he was stabbed?”
“Well, look at his shirt,” Phoenix argued. “You can see the blood all around where it has a damn hole in it!”
“And there’s blood all over his chest
and down his sides where it ran,” Chains added from back by the door.
Raptor came busting in the room. “Holy shit,” he gasped when he saw Roscoe lying limp and pale on the gurney.
“Where’s Grams?” I asked him.
“Out with the ol’ ladies” was his distracted response. I nodded and returned my attention to Roscoe.
Rolling him to his side, we pulled the cut and his shirt off his arm. Then we checked out his back.
Nothing.
No wounds. No bruising. Nothing but dried or drying blood.
“Maybe it wasn’t his blood?” Facet offered, but I shook my head.
“No way.” Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tried to remember if he’d told me he had a gift I’d forgotten about. To my knowledge, he’d been without any specific gift. He’d simply been a dedicated kid.
“And there’s no pulse,” Angel reminded us as he rolled Roscoe to his back again.
“Fucking hell. Does anyone know if he had any family?” I finally asked.
“No clue,” Kicker said with a shrug.
“He had a younger brother,” said Chains quietly. Voodoo looked over at him.
“You saw that?” Voodoo asked Chains, who nodded.
“Thought you didn’t touch people?” Voodoo asked with a raised brow. Chains glowered back at him.
“Well, I sure as fuck didn’t mean to. I did some ink on him, he tripped getting out of the chair, and I had already taken my gloves off. It was instinct and only for a second. But I saw him with a younger kid that I just knew was his brother. Nothing else.” He dropped his gaze.
“I’ll go to my temple and see what I can find out,” Voodoo murmured, and I gave him a nod of approval.
“Chains? You want to see if there’s anything else you can get from him before it’s too late?” I asked him. By his expression, I could tell it wasn’t tops on his list of things to do.
“Fuck,” he muttered. Pushing off the doorframe, he stepped closer to the body of our prospect. After taking a deep breath that he let out on a huff, he peeled off the leather gloves he’d had on since being outside.
Stepping up next to the gurney, he gripped the railing tightly, then reached out ink-covered fingers to Roscoe’s chest. He’d barley made contact when he flew back and crashed into Phoenix and Angel. They caught him before he fell on his ass, but he quickly shrugged them off.
Chest heaving, he looked at me with wild eyes. “He’s not dead.”
Turned out Roscoe had a gift we didn’t know about.
Also, Roscoe wasn’t his real name. And the kid wasn’t a kid. Well, not by our standards. It would seem he was, uh, well, a little less than human.
“Decker, I swear to God Kelvin stabbed him in the heart,” Loralei said for at least the fifteenth time since “Roscoe” had essentially resurrected himself.
“I know, babe,” I said, then tucked her into me as we prepared to go to sleep. It had been a really long fucking day, and I just wanted to crash.
“I still can’t believe it.”
“Believe it,” I said as my eyes got heavier. I was dozing off when she quickly rolled over to face me.
“Decker!”
I was suddenly wide awake and looking around for whatever threat she’d seen. We’d decided to sleep at my house for the night since her piece of shit ex was out of the picture. She had me worried I’d been presumptuous.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“It’s after midnight!”
“Um, okay?”
“Merry Christmas!” Her smile was suddenly radiant, and I was amazed again at not only her beauty, but at how quickly she moved from one emotion to another. As my hand stroked her cheek, I gave a huff of laughter.
“Merry Christmas, babe.” I hadn’t celebrated Christmas in a long damn time. Grams was making a fancy dinner tomorrow, well, today. She’d been thrilled to learn that I’d knocked up Loralei and insisted on a big fancy meal at the clubhouse to celebrate.
“I have a question,” she said, going from jubilant to nervous.
Figuring I wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon, I sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Yeah?”
For a moment she chewed on her bottom lip indecisively while she traced the tattoos on my chest. Then she lifted her gaze to mine. “Is it too early to tell you I love you?”
“I—” Hell, I was stunned. Maybe because I’d never considered putting words to how she made me feel. The way she meant everything to me and I was possessive as fuck over her. The way she lit up a room with her smile. The way she made me want to grin for no damn good reason. The way she made my heart leap in my chest.
All the ways she affected me like no other woman had before.
“It’s too soon, isn’t it?” she whispered, her expression crestfallen.
“Babe,” I began before I hooked the back of her neck and pulled her close to me. Lips brushing, the corner of mine quirked. “No. It’s not. And as soon as you pop this kid out, you’re getting my brand, but I’m not doing it while you’re knocked up.”
“Um, okay,” she seemed hesitant, and I realized she didn’t understand the significance of wearing my brand.
“Come ’ere,” I growled and lifted her to straddle my hips. She happily complied and wrapped her arms around my neck, one hand playing with my hair.
She was quiet, waiting to see if I’d say more.
I licked my lower lip and tugged on my piercings with my teeth. “You wearing my brand says that you’re mine. No one fucks with what’s mine. And I don’t put my brand on someone randomly. No one has ever worn my brand. There are certain feelings that go along with that. I’m not great with words, and for that I apologize. You won’t often get wine and roses with me, babe. I’ve never been known as a romantic because I never thought I’d have the chance at a real relationship. So bear with me when I suck at this shit.”
She snickered softly.
“You getting inked with my brand means I love the fuck out of you. That you’ll be my one and only until I take my last breath. Any other questions?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “Can we have Christmas morning sex, then go to sleep?”
“Now you’re speaking my language,” I growled as I flipped her over and gave her the Christmas wish she asked for.
Merry fucking Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
No. Wait.
A very Venom Christmas to all, and to all a good bite.
I cracked myself up.
Almost two years later…
“I don’t want a fucking birthday party,” I grumbled.
“Too bad; you only turn forty once.” Loralei smugly replied as she zipped the blue sleeper on our infant son. Two seconds later, I heard a crash in the bathroom and ran to see Kristin with her momma’s makeup all over the floor. Lipstick was smeared all across her face. She gave me that grin that proved I was wrapped around her tiny little finger.
“Baby girl, you made a mess,” I said as I scooped her up and tried to clean her face. Each time I tried to wipe, she turned her head the opposite direction. Then Kyle started crying from behind me, and I looked over to see Loralei holding him and trying not to laugh.
“I have got to make an appointment to get the boys snipped, babe. These two are gonna be the death of me. Fuck turning forty, I’ll be lucky to see forty-one,” I said with a groan. Because whatever sorcery their mother had that prevented me from manipulating her emotions had been passed on to them. I couldn’t soothe them or calm them for shit. Voodoo and his grandmother hypothesized it was because I had true love for them, but also that Loralei was my “fated mate.” The same had happened to Hawk with Voodoo’s mom.
“Fuck!” Kristin shouted joyously, and I cringed.
“Well, you keep teaching our daughter such colorful language, and that might be more accurate than you think,” Loralei said with a big, sassy smile. “Your grams is gonna lynch you. And speaking of, she’s already called twice to see where we are and to say Raptor is keeping her ente
rtained.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Daddy!” my little girl said as she slapped her two hands on my cheeks. With a sigh, I closed my lids, then blinked and gave her my attention.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I patiently said as I stared at the beautiful girl we had created in a freak October snowstorm. Her blue-gray eyes exactly like mine stared up at me before she leaned forward to give me a sloppy open-mouthed kiss.
And that’s when my heart melted and I knew I’d happily walk through raging fires for her, her brother, and her mother. After finally getting her somewhat straight, I carried my daughter in her frilly-as-hell party dress out to the truck. As I buckled her into her car seat, I ignored the smear of red lipstick on the cuff of her little bitty white sweater.
Then I grabbed the infant seat from my wife, staring at the snake tattoo that wound around her arm. A goofy grin spread over my face at my incredibly mushy feelings for my woman. Her brand had been a tattooed snake bite on her wrist. In the month and a half between Kristin being born and conceiving Kyle, she had not only gotten it, she’d added to it with a snake that was crawling down her arm toward the “bite” on her wrist.
After I got Kyle’s seat clipped in place, I grabbed my wife and pulled her flush against me. I took her arm and pressed a kiss to the “bite” with “Property of Venom” around it. She’d made me wait until after Kristin was born to get married. Said she wanted to make sure we weren’t rushing and only getting married because we were having a kid.
I was pretty sure it was because I made her wait to get my brand that she made me wait to put a ring on it. Either way, those months of her pregnancy had proven that our love could only get stronger and our bond was tough as hell.
“I love you,” I whispered right before I kissed her full lips.
“Mmm,” she replied into the kiss.
When I reluctantly broke the kiss and deeply inhaled, she sighed. “Wow.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I said with a wicked grin, then helped her up into her seat.
A Very Venom Christmas: RBMC: Ankeny IA Page 12
