Page 50 of Deception
Brushing off their banter, Venom glares at his mother. “What are you doing here, Raena?”
She storms towards him, the air swishing and blowing her hair to reveal the bald spot she can’t cover from a fight with one of her exes. “The real question is why the fuck didn’t I get a call two nights ago? You owe me—”
“No, he fucking doesn’t,” Marnie snaps.
His mother lifts her eyebrows and looks Marnie up and down. “Oh, hunny, you think you can change him? I hate to break it to you, but he’s trash. And evil. He’s evil trash.”
“Oh, really?” Lex asks, her own eyebrows raised to mirror his mother’s actions. “Raena, is it? Why don’t you share with the rest of the class why you feel Venom owes you?”
“Venom?”
“You walked into your son’s clubhouse with no invitation without knowing his club name?”
Laughing, she points a bony finger at Lex, her fake press-on nails gone. “You’ve got sass. I can respect that. To a point. But I guess Venom’s as good a name as any, considering he’s nothing but poison.”
“That sounds like you’re talking more about yourself than him,” Heidi says with a chuckle.
The comment from her surprises Venom. He’s never really talked to the woman, and he assumed she hated him for bringing Cinder into the fold once Shep’s history with her came to light.
“Coming from a woman who tried to guilt her son into killing husband number… what? Twenty-seven? All for insurance money. That’s pretty rich to call him poison,” Marnie says.
“You don’t want to get in the middle of this, baby girl,” Raena says. “I can promise you that.”
“No, I can promise you that I am and will continue to stay in the middle of this,” she says and releases Venom. Stepping closer to his mother, his girl locks eyes with her. “He doesn’t owe you for being born.”
She laughs and pats Marnie’s cheek. “He should have been aborted, but I didn’t do that. In fact, I thinkyoushould owe me for him being here now.”
“Unless he does something bad to her, right? Then it’s not your fault. You did everything you could,” Lex mocks. “Yeah, that’s such a tired story, and no one here gives a damn.”
“Is he fucking both of you?”
“Does that bother you? Do you have an unnatural jealousy at that idea?” she asks before Venom can speak. “Do you hate the fact that he’s with one or more women who are better than you could ever have dreamed to be? Is that why you’re so angry all the time?”
Venom shivers and prays his mother’s as disgusted by the idea as he is when her eyes widen. “You’re sick,” Raena says.
“Hey, you look like a trashy kind of demented, so it was worth the ask,” Lex says before looking at Marnie who nods in agreement. “He’s not on this planet to do your bidding. If you think you have a leg to stand on in this room, you really are as stupid as you look.”
“Which is rather impressive,” Marnie says, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You don’t know him, so I’ll let that slide,” Raena says.
Stepping forward, Marnie forces his mom to step backwards. “I know him better than anyone, and I know that as his mother, your job was to protect him. You failed at the only job I suspect you’ve ever had, so now I’m stepping in. Stay the hell away from him!”
“Or what?”
Lex laughs and sets her beer down on the table. “It’s probably best if you just leave and don’t find out. We’re more of a show than tell type of group.”
“Is that right?”
The smile drops, and Venom feels a chill flow through him. Lex looks scarier than she’s ever looked before, and his mother gasps, stepping back two steps. “Bitch, if you don’t leave now, you never fucking will.”
“Is that a threat?”
“She doesn’t make threats,” Melanie says to join the three-person barrier that’s formed between Venom and his mother. “Lex makes promises, so unless your goal is to die today, I’d suggest you do something other than stand there looking stupid.”
Looking up at Venom, Raena expects him to do something. To step in, but the truth is, he’s completely frozen. Of everything heexpected to happen when he saw his mother again, this doesn’t even hit the top one hundred scenarios.
“Don’t look at him. You’re dealing with us now,” Marnie says.
