Sweet Venom (Crazy in Love #1)

by Kirsty-Anne Still

“I don’t want her sheltered from anything,” my father states, his eyes suddenly watching Ashley intently. “She’s clearly well-versed already it seems. You know how to deal with obligations, Lawson. Deal with this one no differently.”

  I look at Ashley, and her gaze has sunk lower than ever. We’re standing here, discussing her like she is some transactional offer.

  “You know that’s not always possible,” I argue, hating myself for doubting Ashley and her place in my life – to me, there isn’t room for her.

  “Then you make it possible.” Leo looks from me to Ashley then, smiling brighter. “I reckon you’ve not had it easy since this started, Ashley?”

  “No,” Ashley replies, clearing her throat. “It’s not been the easiest thing to deal with.”

  “I’m sure it’s not,” he sympathizes. “Well, all the time you’re in my son’s hands you’re not to be harmed. You’re also not to be touched in any way.” He gives me a head nod before returning his attention to Ashley just to make sure I get my newest role. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a meetin’ to prepare for.”

  I say nothing, just backing Ashley toward the door. I guide her for the most part, a hand on her shoulder to show willing, but I do release it telling her to meet me out in the courtyard. As she continues to leave, I turn to face my father, going over to him.

  “I want a full debrief,” I say to my father, not yet leaving. “You can’t keep me out of this.”

  “I think you have your hands full,” he replies, stating the fact.

  “You can’t keep me out of this,” I reiterate. “I expect a full debrief on what was happenin’ right under all of our noses.”

  “And you’ll get one,” my father says, brandishing his killer smile. “But not until I’m aware who’s on my side and who’s against it.”

  “You don’t get to close me out of this,” I tell him, not backing down. “This involves me too.”

  “Not really,” my father states dryly. “It involves the higher bosses. Our workers don’t need any involvement.”

  “There once was a time you used to count me an equal. I’m not sure when that changed, but I don’t care anymore.” I start to leave too, but not before dropping one last comment. “I expect a call before midnight. Make sure I don’t have to chase you up for it, old man.”

  I hear him mutter obscenities, but the only one I can notably hear is when he calls me a belligerently disobedient bastard of a son.

  As I enter the courtyard, I see Ashley and Liam together and march toward them. Now, is the time for business and Ashley needs to see that for what it is.

  “You know what this means, right?” I ask as I close the gap. “You follow me, but you stay out of my way. I don’t want you getting under my feet.”

  “Okay,” she replies, clearly unable to comprehend with how I’ve changed. “Why won’t he let me just stay hidden away?”

  “My father doesn’t like anything hidden away,” I admit clearly as I start to lead the way out of the compound. I keep myself neutral over the matter, not shedding any emotional insight over this. “He hates secrets as much as he does liars.”

  “Why?” she asks, struggling to match my speed.

  “Because it makes a man weak. If you have skeletons in your closet, they will eventually be found out.” I give her a look, giving her a hard smile as if to try and defuse tension preparing to suffocate us all. “Don’t allow anyone to find out your weaknesses. Allow that, and you are just askin’ for complete destruction.”

  “Right …” she says, but trails off. “I need to know something …” she starts, still keeping up with my stride.

  “What?” I ask, biting the question without slowing.

  “What was that about back there?” she asks, grabbing my hand to force me to stop. “You didn’t need to get all protective, but you did.”

  I don’t try to go again, this time I stop and look at her. I rub my jaw, sniggering as if the fact is obvious and she’s arguing a moot point.

  “You need to learn things quickly,” I start, dropping my hand to place in the pocket of my pants “While in my protection, Princess, I’ll go as protective as I damn well please. Don’t take it too seriously.”

  “How am I not meant to?”

  “Because you said so yourself,” I say, looking down at her. “You’re mine.”

  “What does that mean?” she asks, her brow furrowing to create a beautiful crease between her eyes.

  “It means that no one else gets to touch you,” I tell her, keeping my tone even.

  “But you?” she questions so innocently.

  I find myself enjoying this. I draw her in, place her in a place she feels safe and then rip it away from her. The father’s blatant lack of involvement and the fact he’s abundantly sure I’ll never get rid of Ashley has me reeling, and if I’m to play the game, I’m going to play it better than anyone can ever suspect.

  “Especially not me,” I state, watching her flinch. “I’ve had enough distractions in my life; I won’t open myself to new ones.”

  “Might want to go and clean yourself up, Sunshine.”

  I’m shocked at the way the waitress speaks to Lawson and how relaxed he looks when she does.

  “Thanks, Sally,” Lawson tells her, giving her a sideways grin.

  “Don’t thank me,” she replies, giving Lawson a wink. “Can’t have you sitting around looking like a mess in my diner.”

  I watch the lady for a moment. She’s aged beyond her years, stands wearily on her feet but she has such kindness in her eyes it’s overwhelming. She wears an apron with the diner’s name written across the front of it over the top of her own clothes, her gray hair drawn back and into a tight bun.

  “You have company, Lawson. Go and clean up and then I’ll take your order,” she speaks, bringing me out of my reverie as her eyes meet mine and she gives me a gentle smile.

  “Get us some cherry coke floats, please, Sally,” Lawson orders, getting up from his side of the booth. He leans over, planting a kiss on her cheek. “You’re a real dawlin’; you know that?”

  “Someone’s got to keep you guys in line,” she jokes, motioning for Lawson to go and clean up the last of the blood marking his skin. When he’s gone, she turns herself back to facing us. “Honey are you okay with a cherry coke float or is there anything else you’d rather have?”

  “No, that’s good, thank you,” I reply, willing to drink anything right now.

  Sally gives me a smile, jotting down on her notepad. “And what about you, honey?” she asks Liam.

  “Nah, that’s good for me too, Sally,” Liam remarks giving her a bright smile.

  She nods and writes again on the pad. “It’s good to see you’ve cleaned your act up, Liam,” she says, turning her attention away from the paper and to Liam. “Learning how to control that anger?”

  “Yeah,” Liam says, chuckling with ease. “Just about … anyway.”

  “Well, you keep him out of trouble, okay?” she asks, cocking a brow. “You youngsters think you’re invincible.”

  “It’s because we are,” Liam states.

  I splutter, trying not to laugh out loud.

  “She’s got you marked,” Sally comments, putting a hand on her hip as she looks my way. “What’s the name, Love?” she asks, throwing a pet name in for good measure. “I’ve not seen you around.”

  “Ashley,” I say, looking to Liam as I feel nerves wash through me. I don’t know what to say, but she’s curious enough to ask questions, and I don’t know what the right answer would be.

  “We helped her out tonight,” Liam quickly jumps in. He sits up in his seat, putting his entire body toward Sally, showing he’s open to the conversation. “She was dealin’ with some prick downtown. Didn’t treat her all too well and Lawson wanted to make sure she was okay before she goes her own way.”

  “That man has a heart too big for his duties some days,” Sally comments, shaking her head in dismay. “Breaks my heart to see what The Firm does to men l
ike your Lawson.”

  “You know he’s only all too willing to remain loyal to his father,” Liam states.

  “Shame really,” Sally says, clutching her pad to her chest. “The size of his heart scares me as much as his ability to remain faithful to The Firm. Devil and angel rolled into one that man.”

  “Lucifer was once an angel,” Liam states, adding his own observation. “Some just have a bad streak they can’t ignore.”

  “Maybe one day he’ll find a reason to walk away,” Sally muses, but I can tell she’s more than hopeful on the matter.

  “Maybe,” Liam agrees but doesn’t add to it.

  The door opens, three men and two women come in, and a gust of wind follows them. Immediately Goosebumps race up my legs, causing me to wrap the coat around me. Sally notices the customers and puts on her game face.

  “Right, coke floats coming your way and then we’ll get you guys some food,” Sally says, waits for Liam to acknowledge and heads over to help seat the customers.

  “She seems well clued up,” I utter, ignoring the million and one questions that are whizzing around my head.

  “Sally used to be married to one of Leo’s right-hand men,” Liam comments, fiddling with a menu.

  “So, now she works at a diner?” I ask, almost shocked at the lifestyle difference.

  “She owns it,” Liam states, casting a look at me. “She wanted a bit of a safe place for us to all go. Somewhere we could get food and detox without the threat of exposure.”

  “Hence the name?” I ask, looking over the window where an illuminated sign flashes with the name ‘THE FIRM’. “She’s cutting it a bit close, isn’t she?”

  “Nah,” Liam admonishes, not in the slightest worried. “You have to be in The Firm to know about The Firm.”

  “Unless you’re me,” I mutter nonchalantly.

  “There are a fair few exceptions to that,” Liam announces, giving me a small smile. “And we know you aren’t going to last long.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because we all know what girls like you are,” he mentions, giving me a weird look.

  “And what are girls like me like?” I ask, cocking a brow, waiting for the insult.

  “An unwelcome distraction.”

  And there is it again – that familiar hole being blown right through the middle of me.

  Everywhere I have gone in the last six years of my life I have been unwelcome, unwanted and seen as an issue. Yet every time I get passed on I always wondered if this will be the time I’ll miraculously find my ending – like I had thought I had with Bryce.

  No one has proven me any different lately, and I’m still left reeling from a life in constant purgatory.

  So, I decide I need to know what I’m dealing with. I need to know who it is that killed Bryce and what sort of man I’m finding myself incredibly attracted to without even knowing much about him.

  “How dangerous is Lawson?” I ask, daring myself to keep my bravado.

  Liam doesn’t say a word at first.

  “What have I walked into?”

  The smile that tugs on Liam’s lips worries me. He twists in his spot to face me fully, his arm going to the back of the seat behind me. He leans in, watching me more carefully than he has all evening.

  “Well?” I ask, pressing the matter further.

  “You really want to know?” he asks, I nod. “He’s learned to control them.”

  “Control what?” I ask, barking the question with audible shock.

  “He has like blackouts. He gets so angry that sometimes there’s no stoppin’ him. He’s inhuman,” Liam tells me, leaning in closer. “He’s one of the good guys, though, Ashley. I can’t stress that enough. His heart is almost in the right place the majority of the time, but he can’t control the man his father forced him to be, and he can’t stop himself being a loyal son.”

  “What has he done?” I ask, my mouth becoming parched.

  “He’s a killer,” Liam replies seriously. “But you knew that already, huh?” he asks and I nod wordlessly all over again. “There was a time he went rogue. Fell from the beaten track his father laid for him. He got lost in a lot of things durin’ that time.”

  “Like what?”

  The way Liam’s smile keeps growing tells me he’s enjoying himself too much.

  “Drugs, alcohol, love, murder,” he rattles, but the third one shocks me most. “The king does know how to love, you know? He did it quite well … on about four separate occasions.”

  A lump forms in my throat and I don’t even attempt to swallow around it. The thought of Lawson unlike the man who’s helped me tonight threatens to destroy the idea that’s in my head. He’s a hero with bloodied hands, sure, but he’s a hero.

  He’s my hero.

  “And I see the way you look at him,” Liam mentions, fingers coming to twirl my hair up. “You’re besotted with a killer because your stupid little heart skipped a beat when it smelt blood. Bloodlust is a dangerous thing to crave.”

  “I don’t have bloodlust.”

  My statement is bitten hard, and I push myself backward in the booth.

  “I told you I'd seen your type before. I’ve dealt with girls like you, Ash. I know girls like you.”

  “You don’t know me,” I argue with a defensive tone. “You think you do, but you don’t.”

  “He fell for a girl like you once,” Liam muses, he uses the back of the booth to lean on, placing a closed fist to his cheek. “On four separate occasions.” He gauges my reaction before continuing. “You can thank her for making Lawson the man he is as well as his father.”

  “Who is she?”

  “No one,” he tells me, a deadpan reaction. “She disappeared over a year ago.”

  I go to say something, but Liam’s eyes are facing toward the other side of the diner.

  “Lawson’s coming back,” he says, ending the conversation.

  About the same time, I look over in the direction he disappeared in no more than ten minutes ago, Sally comes back with our drinks. While I thank her, I don’t tear my attention away from Lawson as he stops by a woman sitting at the bar.

  He stops dead in his tracks. His eyes go wide, and he’s quickly wrapping his arms around her body, pulling her from the chair she was perched on. He latches onto her with pure greed, pulling her in close and dropping a kiss to her cheek.

  She’s a petite blond, but when she leans her head back with laughter, I notice the tips are dyed pink, the coloring disappearing into the blond. She looks more than a little happy to be in his arms right now, and I can’t stand the sight before me.

  My heart starts to race as I watch them pay together. He’s enthralled by her, mesmerized by the sight of her. He pulls away only to pull her close again and hug her tighter than ever. I feel nauseous when he points to us and starts to drag her with him.

  “Look who I found,” Lawson says, the greatest grin on his lips. “She’s goin’ to join us. Not sure how she knew I was here …”

  “I might have dropped her a text,” Liam admits with a playfully sheepish tone.

  “Yeah, he might have,” she comments grinning like a fool.

  The look of gratitude on Lawson’s face tells me there is a bigger story behind this. My stomach fills with dread, rolling over on itself horribly. I feel the bile threaten to come up as Liam’s chat from no more than two minutes ago fills my head.

  Is this her?

  “Well, move your butt,” she says to Liam, tapping him on the shoulder. “I want to sit next to the new girl.”

  Liam clambers out of the booth while Lawson sits, and waits for the girl to sit down and shuffling her way around the circular booth until she’s next to me. “Tess,” she says the moment she’s beside me. She puts her hand out to me, waiting for me to shake it. I go to take her hand, but she moves away and throws her hands in the air. “Oh, fuck it!” she says and wraps her arms around my neck. “Any friend of my brother is a friend of mine!”

  “She hasn�
��t even told you her name,” Liam grouses from behind us.

  “No, but my big brother has,” Tess mentions grinning like a fool as she relinquishes her hold on me and backs up. “Ashley, right?”

  “Right,” I say, nodding a little. I’m still suffering from shock, unable to comprehend what’s happening.

  “Goodie!” Tess exclaims, clapping her hands together. “About time there was some more female blood around here. It gets boring hangin’ out with a bunch of testosterone riddled men.”

  “It’s not that bad,” Lawson argues quickly.

  “It’s like a constant pissin’ contest,” Tess muses, her sarcasm making her accent thikcer. “There’s just piss everywhere.” She looks back at me. “Sometimes literally,” she whispers, and I laugh. “They need a woman or two to show them it’s not all about that.”

  “Well, you’re both here now,” Liam starts leaning in over the table. “I think we’re off to a good start.”

  “That’s true,” Tess says and looks at me with an excitable smile. “So, it’s settled,” she says reaching for the glass bottle of coca cola she brought with her from the bar. “You guys are gonna loosen up a little.”

  Everyone laughs, and it feels so natural like I was always here, but the sinking feeling in me reminds me to not get too comfortable. As the laughter dies, silence settles over the table, and I go for my drink, but I catch sight of Lawson. He’s looking down at his knuckles. I follow the direction of his gentle gaze and notice how his fingers roam over the cuts splitting the skin on his knuckles. He’s calculating the repercussions of what he did to Randall, and although the physical scares are minimal, the ones tricking his mind are weighing heavily.

  “Who this time?” Tess asks, noticing Lawson’s sudden silence as well.

  “No one,” Lawson grumbles, looking up from his hands.

  Tess’s face sobers, her lips tighten and her eyes narrow upon Lawson.

  “No one, huh?” she asks, that same sarcastic tone poisoning her words as her head tilts, eyes drifting to her brother’s split knuckles. “Did he hit back?”

  “Leave it,” Lawson grumbles, hiding his hands under the table.

  “You’re going to find out sooner or later,” Liam starts, rolling his eyes. “Randall.”