Page 17 of Venomous King
“I will not fight you, Diego. If you release all of them without injury, I will come with you, and promise never to leave you again. Please, if you have ever loved me, let them all go, and I will be yours.Only yours.“ Why is she giving in so easily? Unease slithers down my back. Issy has always been weak, but even for her, it seems she’s too quickly agreeing to my demands. Especially since her sister, and cunt of a grandmother, are ready to wage war right here in this church to prevent me from having her.
“MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY, NO!” A shrill scream sounds in the air, and then a tiny, dark-haired elf races in front of me, in a pretty dress with green ribbons in her hair. She stops right before me, between her mother’s trembling body and mine, and raises her fists, ready to pummel me. “I won’t let you hurt my mommy!”
Mommy?My eyes dart to Issy’s, and I see the terror in their depths, as she tries to grab onto the defiant little girl.She had a child? What the fuck?I search the little girl’s features, and my stomach drops, and the floor feels like it’s about to open up beneath my feet. My world feels like it’s instantly crumbling around me. This kid has to be between three and four, even though she’s so small. If that wasn’t the most disturbing part, the eyes that stare back with defiance at me are distinctly the color of the ones I see every day in the mirror.What. The. Fuck.
She’s mine; those are my green eyes and dark features. Isabella Stratford not only escaped me, she took my unborn child with her. She took my daughter away from me, one that I would have never known existed if I hadn’t found her. “She’s mine?” The words feel like shards of glass as they leave my lips, and a part of my soul feels scorched and devastated. How could she have kept my child from me all these years?
“No, she’s my daughter, regardless of whose DNA she has, and you will not take either of them from me!” The blond giant rushes at me, ready to take me down to the ground. A shot sounds loud in the air, followed by screams, and I watch as my daughter rushes toward him and farther away from me.
“No!” I reach out to grab her, and that’s when Stella strikes, swinging a hidden blade towards my abdomen, and manages to catch me in the side.
Fuck.
Chapter twelve
Kai
“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does.Love is a battle, love is a war; love is growing up.”
James Baldwin
My heart pounds loudly, as I watch the love of my life tremble with fear, at the presence of the monster that once held her trapped and captive in a jungle. She’s even paler than usual, and her pretty lips have gone completely bloodless. I have to save her from him, I have to keep both her and Julia safe. I promised her she would never have to face him alone again, and I’ve failed miserably. Fuck, how could I have allowed this to happen? I was too passive with all the arrangements, complacent in thinking we were safe after all these years. I trusted that Stella had it all handled, and look at where we are now, at the mercy of a madman who wants to steal my rose.
Julia. Shit, my little girl darts forward, fury on her little angel face, and her little fists raised and ready to cause damage, as she meets the asshole who once kept her mother a prisoner head-on, with no sense of the danger he presents. Even as cold terror races through my blood, I take them both in, facing off against each other and, observing them together, there is no denying that they are biological father and daughter. I see the moment he realizes it too, as Julia calls Isabella,‘Mommy’.
Diego’s eyes widen, and the shock he can’t disguise splashes across his scarred face, as he takes in Julia’s angry, tiny presence. He stumbles back a step, and his body goes rigid, his skin paling under its olive-toned complexion. My little girl is ready to face off with this monster, like her great-grandmother, Stella. She’s utterly fearless, and that causes me further horror. Would Diego hurt a little girl to get back at her mother and Stella?
“She’s mine?” Diego utters, with disbelief evident in his tone. His eyes, the ones my daughter has inherited, never leave her little face, as if he can’t reconcile himself with what he is seeing before him. It’s as if the little dark-haired girl before him was an apparition or a mythical creature.
Furious hot rage races through my body and soul, as this despicable piece of shit tries to claim my child.She’s mine, mine, and Isabella’s, regardless of who provided the fucking sperm. “No, she’s my daughter, regardless of whose DNA she has, and you will not take either of them from me!”
I rush forward, ready to tackle him to the ground, and use my fists to crush his damn skull. If I die defending my family, so fucking be it, but I won’t allow him to take Isabella, and make her a prisoner once again. I make it a mere few pathetic steps before a shot rings out, and a searing pain hits my shoulder and forces me down to my knees. My daughter’s high-pitched, hysterical screams fill my ears, as she rushes toward me and tightly wraps her little arms around my neck. “Daddy! Daddy... you’re bleeding! Daddy’s hurt, Mommy!”
“No!” The shout is desperate and loud, as Diego tries to grab Julia and pull her towards him. In the next moment, Stella is a blur of dark fabric as she darts forward, and the glint of a metal blade dances out of the corner of my eye, before her scream fills the air.
“You will not have them! I will not allow you to harm my family again, you demon!”
Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell has she done? Stella staggers back from Diego, her hands soaked in crimson, and a splash of blood visible on her pale face. Her eyes glow with an inhuman madness, as she takes in what she has done, and Diego clutches at his side, the gun in his grip crashing to the ground. All sounds seem to cease, as we all bear witness to a nightmare. The pain in my shoulder is momentarily forgotten, as I wrap my good arm around my daughter and yank her right off the ground, crushing her little body to mine, and scrambling to my feet to try to get to Isabella.
“If you take one more step,cabrón (bastard), I will put a bullet in the back of your skull, and send you to thedemonio’s(devil’s)door. Put theniña(girl)down.“ The muzzle of a gun presses firmly against the back of my head, as a deeply accented voice fills my ears. I place Julia before me slowly, not willing to risk her life, as my heart races in my chest and feels like it will explode.
“Grandmother! Oh my god! What have you done?” Isabella’s devastated and frightened voice echoes above all the other voices of our fleeing guests.
“Save my sister, idiots!” Mia’s voice is hysterical, as Carter and Theo close ranks around her, and more of Diego’s heavily armed men pour into the space. Mateo and Finn grab their sons and cradle them in their arms, as one of Diego’s men heads in their direction with guns drawn.Jesus fuck, the kids are in the line of danger.I watch as Carter raises a gun and fires at the guy, and he falls to the ground dead. “Get your sons out of here now!” I yell, and Finn locks eyes with me. I witness the terror in their dark brown depths, as he and Mateo back up towards the side entrance of the church. “We can’t take them, Mia, there are too many. We have to get Alex and Caesar to safety!” Carter shouts.
“NO! NO, don’t leave Issy! Carter, I’ll fucking murder you if you do!” Mia screams as Theo grabs her and throws her violently over his shoulder, and rushes out the door Mateo and Finn carried their children through. “You’re dead, Diego, ya hear me, fucking dead!” Carter growls before rushing out after Mia and Theo.
My terrified eyes circle the room. Most of the guests have managed to flee, but a few are lying dead in the pews. Their lives were snuffed out by this psycho, and his need to possess my Isabella.
An enormous dark-haired man heads for Stella with a gun, and my throat closes with panic, unable to shout a warning. She sees him at the last minute and falls to her knees, grabbing Diego’s discarded gun and firing at his legs, until he drops to theground. I can hear Clark issuing orders to get Stella out of here, as he fights off numerous attackers to get to her.FUCK!
“Save my granddaughters, you fools!” Stella demands, as she gets to her feet and sways, and that’s when I see the blood dripping from her side. A bullet must have hit her at some point, and she’s bleeding out.Oh my God, this is a fucking nightmare.“NO! Save Isabella and Julia!” Stella screams as Clark and another guard step forward, seize a furious and unhinged Stella between them, and forcefully remove her from the space, even though the psycho keeps demanding they release her, and save Isabella and Julia. “Kai, I will send reinforcements!” Clark shouts.
“Isabella!” The word leaves my lips, my head spins, and the world threatens to go black on me. “Daddy, you’re hurt!” Julia’s fearful cries fill my ears, and I hear the struggling hitch in her voice.No, baby girl, no!
In the next moment, Julia is ripped, screaming, out of my arms, as a man grabs hold of her and takes her over to where Diego is clutching his side. He raises his hand, reaching for Julia, and his fingers make contact with her hair, with a gentleness I wouldn’t have thought the psycho capable of. She tries to swat at his touch, tears racing down her little face as her breathing becomes labored, and her face starts going a shade of puce.
It’s my worst nightmare that has come to life. “Julia! Calm down, Lovebug. You need to calm down and slow your heart rate.Please,baby!“ I shout with desperation, as I watch my daughter struggle for every breath, and I try to crawl forward on my hands and knees, panic filling me and causing my own breaths to become labored.