Page 62 of Making Choices

Although it’s clear that she’s an active participant in all of this, we have bigger fish to fry tonight.

Starting with her husband.

Joker is slumped on the floor when I enter my bedroom.

“Tied the bitch up in the freezer,” I tell Venom. “She’ll get a little cold, might even sober her up, but it won’t kill her before we get to talk to her.” Rather than stress my best friend out further, I keep the knowledge that Honey wasn’t as high as she pretended to myself. With my foot, I flip Joker 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.” Venom’s clearly battling a giant serve of panic and guilt, so I allow his insult to pass without comment. “I’ll leave you to work out which one is which.”

After making quick work of securing Joker’s hefty arse at the other end of the bunker, I retrace my footsteps. Finding my bedroom empty, I venture across the hall and discover Venom hiding out in his room. The carnage he wrought when he smashed everything after Cherub was driven away from the clubhouse by Brutus two weeks ago still litters the floor.

“Joker’s hangin’ from the roof.” I infect my voice with humour that I’m not feeling in the wake of everything we’ve done tonight as I quip, “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 hurting, I left him to it…”

Seeing that my best friend is on the verge of breaking, I leave the rest of my sentence unsaid. He barely acknowledges me as he jams his hands in his hair and pulls. Leg bouncing, he declares, “I needa call Lily. Explain. Get in front of this shit.”

My reaction is instant. “You need to sit the fuck down and think this through.”

“That’s all I’ve been doing!”

I won’t let him assuage his guilt by hurting her. It’s the coward’s way… and he’s better than that. Better than me and my weak ways. “Yet the best you’ve come up with is tossin’ our fuckup onto Cherub’s shoulders to make yourself feel better?” I emphasise my irritation with his short-sightedness by snorting. “Think harder.”

“I’ve left a message with Cub. The problem is solved if he can delete them in time.”

The photos Bear took are the least of our problems since we have Joker and Honey chilling in the bunker. My tone is unnecessarily sour as I tell Venom, “Therefore callin’ Cherub would only cause another problem. One that’ll be avoided if you listen to me.”

My snarky take on the matter pushes him another step closer to the edge. I’d try to shut down his snarling side if my ability to sympathise with him wasn’t compromised by the fact I still smell like Honey’s snatch. If Cub doesn’t get to the photos in time, I’m the one who’s going to end up on Cherub’s bad side. Faking a threesome with Honey was my idea. As soon as Cherub knows the circumstances behind it, she’s coming for my head, not Venom’s. As far as she knows, I’m supposed to be in a relationship with Bebe, not encouraging Cherub’s man to get naked with me and another woman.

In the face of my sarcasm, Venom spits at me. “Keep bein’ a smartarse, and my fist will be causin’ a problem for your face. I’m not in the mood for your warped version of support.”

It’s dumb.

I know it is.

Still, I push at his defences a little harder by hamming it up when humour is obviously the last thing he needs.

“How dare you?” I pretend 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.” His phone rings and I add. “Saved by the bell.”

I’m only fucking with him when I pretend to snatch the device away from him, but he takes it seriously, and smacks me in the chest with the back of his hand. My perverse need to poke the monster dies when the annoyance coating his expression morphs into worry, and he snaps at the person on the other end, “It’s gotta be Alex.”

There’s only one Alex who’d bring that look to his face.

Alexander fucking Kingsley.

Rapist.

Abuser.

Murderer.

Cub has uncovered the disappearance of more than one trafficked woman connected to the Maddison Clan, Alex, and his best friend, Hugh St. James. We don’t have the evidence to pin it on him, however, Hunter has been helping him build a dossier to use against Joseph one day soon. Because Alex won’t be alive to take the fall for his crimes once Venom manages to get his hands on him—the blame will fall on his corrupt as fuck father.

Venom’s curt tone snaps me out of my thoughts. “Stay on the line. Hunter’s ringin’ me. He might have answers, so I’m gonna add him to our call.”

At his mention of my brother, foreboding floods me.

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