Page 45 of Venomous King
“Excuse us,Princesa.“ He moves around Isabella, his eyes desperately trying to meet hers but failing, and ensuring he leaves a wide space between them, so as not to trigger her.
I take a step away, my heart demanding that I wrap her in my arms and hold her, but knowing that to do so would make matters so much worse. With a final look back at her slumped shoulders and bowed head, I go to follow Diego from the room. Not because I want to watch him torture someone who’s part of the family that tried to destroy mine, but because being this close to Isabella, and not being able to touch her, is tearing me apart.
“Wait. I want to come too,” her voice calls out, shrill and high-pitched.
Diego and I come to a halt and stare back at her, watching as she pulls herself together. Her shoulders go rigid, her posture straightens, her head rises tall, and her eyes become dark chips of ice. A queen, transformed right before us, into a gladiator, ready to vanquish her enemies. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Isabella.” I voice the words even as my heart is pounding harshly in my chest. She’s agreeing to be in our presence of her own will. As much as I want to be with her, I know that this could further traumatize her, and make things so much worse.
“It’s a good thing I don’t give a shit what you think, Kai.” She walks past us and out the balcony doors, and both Diego and I keep staring after her.
“Fuck,” I groan.
“Yup,” he replies, and then follows our queen right out the door.
Chapter thirty-one
Diego
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.”
Brené Brown
We walk across the pool area in silence, each of us lost in our thoughts. My eyes trail over Issy’s slim frame, and Kai’s fucking right, she’s not eating, and she’s not sleeping. I drag my tattooed hand through my hair in aggravation. I have no idea how to help her through this, other than to try to kill every single person who is part of that cartel, whether they were innocent of the deeds Sonja and Joaquín committed or not. Maybe that fucker Kai is right, and she needs to go somewhere away from us to heal. The minute I think the words, everything within me rages to reject them. I can’t let her go, and I refuse to be apart from her. Even with this frigid distance between us, I still get to see her, and hear her laughing with Julia. Even if I am not welcome in their space, at least I get to know that she’s still breathing.
I look over at Kai, and his eyes are firmly on her back. He looks like complete shit, too. The guy barely sleeps anymore, staying up and watching, as Issy breaks down every single night. I may not be in the hallway with her, like he is at a distance, but it’s because I can’t trust myself enough not to grab her and shake her. I want her to break free from this prison she’s putting herself in. Instead, I sit with my back against the door, listening to her screams, while tearing out my hair, and holding myself back by a razor edge, from going on a destructive killing spree.
Now, he says that she’s hurting herself. All of her belongs to me, she doesn’t have the right to hurt herself. FUCK! I can’t allow that to continue, I broke her of one self-destructive behavior long ago, and I’m not afraid to break her of another. Do I need to throw her in a fucking hole in the ground? Would thatdo more damage than good? Maybe I should take her back to the jungle? Come back to me,Princesa, please. I’m dying inside without you. I feel like I can’t take a deep breath, knowing that your body is here with us, but your heart and mind are far away, locked in a cage and out of my reach.
I rush forward and block the entrance to the pool house, before she can open the door. She stops suddenly, and immediately puts distance between my body and hers, as she trembles at the thought of any contact. Another crack opens within my heart, watching how wide her eyes become, and the fear she tries desperately to wipe off her face. “Move, Diego,” she demands, but there’s no strength behind her words.Fight, baby, fight for us, fight for yourself. Come back to me.
“Make me,Princesa,“ I snarl and take a step closer, eating up the space she put between us.
“Diego!” Kai’s warning bark breaks the silence between us. Fuck him, he’s going to sit by and watch her continue to fall apart, while giving her the space to do it. He calls it compassion,fuck that shit.Not me, I’ll fucking push her and keep pushing her, until she snaps out of this shit. I want my Issy back. No, fuck, I demand my Issy back. This woman who returned from that compound is an imitation of her, and I am not satisfied with the knock-off version. If I have to frighten her, and make her fear me once again to get her back, then I will.She’s fucking mine.
I take another step, and she backs up again, her eyes becoming so large that I fear they will pop right out of her skull. I was told what she did to the fucker that raped her. She took justice into her own hands, and I was elated and proud of her. The mere thought of her vengeance gives me a hard-on. Where is that fighting spirit now? Where is my Issy, who ran from me and left me in my fucking jungle alone to die? “Do it,Princesa,make me.”
“Diego, fuck! What are you doing?” Kai reaches forward and grabs my shoulder, but I shrug his hold away and bare my teeth at him. “If she wants to go in, she has to prove she can handle it. If she wants to step through that door, she’ll have to make me fucking move to do it.”
“Don’t... do this.” Her voice is shaky, her breathing picking up as her chest rises and falls rapidly. Come on, baby, where’s that steel will? Fight me, please.
“Don’t do what,Princesa? Remind you that you’re alive, or how about that you’re fucking mine, and you don’t get to die inside?“ I take another step. “Did you forget that I own you, that you belong to me, and you don’t have the right to take yourself away from me?”
Kai’s thick arms wrap around me from behind, and the big fucker lifts me off my feet, and yanks me backward with him. My arm automatically rises, and I elbow him in the throat until he starts choking on air, and releases his hold on me. He’s panting, bent forward, and grasping at his throat, and I can see the fear in his eyes. I’m sorry for what I am about to do, I honestly don’t hate the guy anymore, even though he took Issy from me. I know he’s suffering, but I need a way to push Issy back to the land of the living, and he will do. I slam my elbow into his back, and he goes down to his knees, striking out his hand, to stop me from pushing him further to the ground. I kick him in the upper thigh, and he crashes into the cement pavers with a groan. I raise my foot, and with an apology ready on my lips that I know I will never utter, I kick him in the chest. He grunts, taking the hit, before attempting to make it back to his feet, but I can’t allow that to happen.
I drive my foot again into his body, this time getting him in the leg at the same time my hand thrusts out, and I punch him in the face. The crush of my knuckles hitting flesh makes me feel alive, and I can finally fucking breathe. The sting of my flesh breakingopen, and seeing my blood and his awakens something inside of me, something primal and destructive. I lose control of myself, no longer trying to hold the force of my punches as he hits me back. “You piece of shit, I’m going to kill you!” Kai yells and rushes me, taking me to the ground like a linebacker. We wrestle with each other, exchanging more punches. My lip splits open with one of his hits, and I land one on the side of his head that has it wrenching to the side.
“Come on,pretty boy, show me what you’ve got.“ The words are grunted as I try to wrap my arms around his thick frame, so I can body slam him. Before I can lift his heavy weight off the ground, Issy throws herself on top of me and starts punching and hitting me, as hard as she can, as she screams like a banshee. “You fucking assholes! I fucking hate both of you!” She hits me, but also tries to strike Kai, and the two of us stop fighting each other, to try to deflect her blows.
“Jesus, woman, why are you hitting me?” Kai shouts as he dodges a punch to his face.
“I’m sick of both of you always thinking I’m a piece of fucking property! I’m revolted by both of your constant need to one-up each other. I’ll end the both of you!” Her face lunges forward, and she bites down hard on the side of my neck, and Jesus fuck, does it hurt. I release my hold on Kai, but our limbs are still entwined, and I can’t get off of him unless I shove Issy off of me. She releases my neck like a savage, and spits my blood at Kai, before raking her nails down the side of his cheek.
“Issy, fucking stop attacking us!” I try to grab hold of her, but I’m scared to hurt her, so I keep letting her kick and beat on us. She’ll exhaust herself soon enough, and then I can safely move her, or at least that’s what I bank on. What I don’t count on is her kneeing me hard in the balls from behind, and my stomach lurching. “Idiots, assholes, fuckers!” She keeps pounding her little hands down on us, and goes to knee me again, but I roll intoa tight ball right on top of Kai, so she gets him instead. “FUCK, ISABELLA, STOP!”
She jumps up and off of us, and I think that we are finally done taking our punishment, but shit am I wrong. She grabs a fistful of my hair and Kai’s, and pulls until we bang our heads together, and my vision dims for a moment.Holy fuck, I’m sure she has most of my strands ripped out between her delicate fingers. “I’m tired of you both being cavemen with me.”
“Baby,” I try to get words out, but it still feels like my balls want to crawl inside of my body, and hide from her. “Don’t you baby me, you big, scarred psychopath!” She lunges forward again, but I wriggle out of the way, and Kai ends up taking the kick in my stead. How does such a tiny body have so much power and rage inside of it? “And you, Mr. Fucking Perfect!” She kicks him again until his breath leaves him in a harsh whoosh. “Stop following me around like a demented fucking shadow. I don’t need your protection.”
She pushes back from us, her face blotchy and loaded with rage, her eyes filled with lightning. I’ve never seen Issy so fucking angry. She looks like a lioness, ready to rip us to shreds. I open my mouth to speak, but the glare she gives me has me swallowing my words.Shit.She paces back and forth, mumbling to herself as Kai rolls to sit up, and I do the same. Both of us are utterly entranced by the image before us. She looks over her shoulder at us and darts to the side, grabbing a potted plant, and throwing it at our heads. She nearly gets me, but I move out of the way in just the nick of time. Kai isn’t as lucky, and he gets a plant to the head.