Page 48 of Venomous King
“Let’s get in the car and go somewhere to regroup, Diego. We can’t fight them all, we don’t even have any fucking weapons. Have some sense, man,” Kai implores me, his light blue eyes filled with a mixture of fear, confusion, and anger. This can’t be fucking happening. He can’t be suggesting we leave Issy here, because I am not retreating. I refuse to give up ground; she belongs to me.
“Do what the boy scout says, Diego.Regroup, bitch. Lose the fight, but not the war,“ Carter shouts at me and then gets back in the vehicle, that cunt Theo doing the same. This is some sadistic level of fucking hell I’ve landed in, where two of the useless Kings of Casbury come to my rescue.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. With one last look back at the house that is hiding my Issy from me, I get into the car with a grunt. I’m not fucking running away, I tell myself. I’m just regrouping and getting weapons, so I can end Stella Stratford for good. I’ll be back shortly to reclaim what’s mine.
Three months later
“Hey, where the fuck have you been, Diego? I’ve been blowingup your phone for hours trying to reach you,” Kai demands, as I walk into the kitchen of the loft where we are currently cohabiting. The prick looks even worse than yesterday, if that’s even possible, and I can smell the bourbon on him from where I’m standing.Shit, is he bathing in the stuff?One look at him, and his ragged appearance, tells me he’s not even fucking bathing.Fucking gross, he’s a mess.
His face is covered in a thick, matted, blond beard, his hair unruly and tangled, and he’s got some fucked up attempt at a man bun happening. I’m pretty sure the fucker has been wearing the same ratty, stained clothes for the last week. They hang off his over six-foot frame, and he looks like he’s swimming in them, with as much weight as he’s lost. Jesus fuck, how did I end up responsible for this fucker? I should have used the last three months as a way to get rid of the fucker, but instead, here I am, living with him and making sure he doesn’t drink his pathetic ass to death.
“What did you need, cunt, and if you say more fuckin bourbon, I will consider fucking shooting you.” I reach into the fridge, pull out a bottle of water, and plop it down in front of him. “Drink that, your liver will thank me.” He rolls his eyes at me, but opens the cap and chugs the water down. When he’s done, the prick throws the empty water bottle at me, in an act of complete immaturity. I force myself to count to ten in my head, to stop me from wrapping my hands around his neck and throttling him.
“Isabella was on the news again. She was at some pricey charitable event with Stella. She looked so beautiful.” His lips tremble, and his face scrunches, and ah shit, here we go again, the fucker is going to start the water theatrics again. God, give me strength not to put a bullet in his brain, and end his suffering.
“I know, prick, I was there watching from the shadows.” A frustrated sigh leaves me. Am I really any better than he is atthe moment? Yeah, I get up and shower and leave this place, but what fuels me to do that is stalking Issy everywhere she goes, in an attempt to find an opening to speak with her or, even better, kidnap her and take her back to my jungle. So far, in the three months since we were forced to leave Stella’s mansion, there hasn’t been a single opportunity, thanks to Stella’s hypervigilance.
Even when we get time with Julia, it’s always in a public park, and we are surrounded by Stella’s army, and they ensure we are weaponless. Issy never joins us, it’s always Clark and Issy’s bitchy friend, Rachel, who brings her. The latter spends all her time imagining my death, as she fingers some Japanese fighting sword strapped to her chest, and glares at me.Unfucking real, the shit I have to put up with.
“Was she with anyone this time...a date?“ He looks like he would rather eat glass than ask me, but we both know it’s driving us insane. Fucking Stella, the dragon bitch has reintroduced the world to Issy, making it seem like she went away to have her daughter away from the spotlight, instead of spending years hiding from me, and changing her identity. Now, she has her out and about, so the whole world can see she’s back and one of her heirs. The bitch even has the audacity to have various well-to-do men escorting her to events.
“No, she was all alone this time, with just Stella for company,” I smirk. I’m sure my message got across with the last one that she had escort Issy to the ballet. I sent that fucker back to her, missing all of his fingers that I was forced to watch touch my Issy, and stabbed and beat him ’til he was almost unrecognizable. I’m sure the note I pinned to his shoulder with my blade, telling her to‘keep fucking trying me’made an impact on her decision on whether to continue pushing my buttons. There won’t be any rich bachelors left in the United States if I go on a killing spree.
“Good.” His hand trembles on the counter, and I avert my eyes. Fuck, if this continues much longer, I won’t have to worry about killing this fucker. He’ll have drunk himself to death. “What are we going to do, Diego? She’s not backing down. She really did leave us.”
I want to reject his words immediately. Issy didn’t leave me, no one fucking leaves me. But even my own bravado can’t hide the truth; she’s gone, and she’s making no attempt to change that. She’s hiding behind Stella, and we can’t reach her, so we can change her mind. My daughter is miserable, and asks me questions I can’t answer. When I try subtly to pry information about her mother, Rachel, the bitch, glares at me and pulls her blade out to clean it. It’s almost hopeless, not that I will ever utter those words out loud.Fuck that shit.
There has to be a way to reach Issy. A way we haven’t tried yet. “Did Carter get back to you about Mia?” I question. The one hope I’m holding onto is Issy’s sister, Mia. She’s made it abundantly clear she doesn’t care for me, but she does like Kai, and she let it slip that Issy seems miserable with her decision. If we could somehow manage to convince her to get Issy somewhere alone where we could get to her, I could grab her and run with her, and that way, I could talk some sense into her.
“Carter said, and I quote,‘Stay the fuck away from my girl, or I’ll end you, bitch’,as his reply to our demand to get Mia to help us.“ So there’s hope, then. If he really wanted me to stay away from Mia, he would have either shown up to beat my ass, or he would have put a bullet in my brain. He’s done neither and just threatened me like a weak bitch.
“Get in the fucking shower and get dressed, we leave in twenty.” I turn away from him, pulling out my phone, and rapidly making a list in my mind of everything that I am going to need. “Where are we going?” He demands as he pushes awayfrom the counter, and staggers unsteadily in the direction of the bathroom.
“To steal a different Stratford princess, and Kai, stop fucking drinking. I need you sober to help me with this shit.”
Chapter thirty-four
Kai
“It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”
Julius Caesar
Jesus, we are going to get ourselves killed. What was I thinking, coming with this asshole? Not only are we risking Stella’s monstrous wrath, but we are also going to start a war with Mia’s men. They won’t take it well when we kidnap their girl, and force her to help us get Isabella back. And to be honest, that fucker Theo scares the shit out of me, he’s almost as psychotic as Diego. Despite knowing all that, and that my death is probably imminent, here I am, secretly watching Mia Stratford shop for lingerie, in one of the priciest stores in Manhattan. Diego is turning me into some unhinged stalker creep.
I keep my eye on the woman who is just as terrifying as her grandmother, as she peruses through a rack of skimpy teddies, and I feel heat rise up the back of my neck in embarrassment. My hand drags down my face in aggravation, as Mia picks up a sheer black number, and I force myself to look at her feet instead of how she’s holding the bloody thing against herself, as she admires it in the mirror.Nope, naw, fuck that, I do not want to know what she wears for her men. This is a line I’m crossing, that is sure to get Isabella to kill me with her own hands, if she ever finds out. I tap the flask that is sitting in my back pocket, and think about taking a huge gulp for liquid courage. He would never know if I took a drink, one wouldn’t do any harm, and it would help my hands to stop trembling.
“Boy Scout, you still got eyes onGoldilocks?“ Diego’s voice startles me in my ear, and I almost release a scream that would for sure get me caught. Bastard, why does he have to scare me? He thinks it’s funny to give Mia that nickname. When I asked him why that particular one, he explained that Mia, like Goldilocks, had a penchant for trying out many of the same things until she was satisfied. In this case, the thing was dicks, and that’s how she ended up with four of them.
While I’m stuck here watching Mia shop for bras and undies, Diego is working on getting rid of her security detail, who are hovering just outside of the store, and her fiancé Mateo, who is in the bakery next door, getting treats for his queen. “Yeah, dick, can you try not to give me a fucking heart attack next time,” I whisper, and the background noises of the street outside echo back through my earbuds.
“Get it together, pretty boy, you have a job to do, and you better not be fucking drinking. I’ll slit your throat if you fuck this up.” His deep voice rumbles the threat back through my ear, and a shiver races down my back. What the fuck is wrong with me? Maybe Diego is right, and I need to stop drinking. I’m starting to lose my mind. I want to blame it solely on the stress of the last couple of months, of watching Issy self-destruct and then murder that man, and on the fact that she walked away from me, as if our time together was nothing. It’s as if I meant absolutely nothing to her, and that she never loved me. The problem is, I think I did this to myself, and am as much to blame for what has happened as she is.
How could I have allowed this world to invade ours? We were happy living our lives back in Oregon. There was peace and contentment between us, wasn’t there? All the thoughts that run in a vicious cycle in my mind, filling me with doubts that our world was as perfect as I keep believing, try to rise and attack me. Maybe I was never enough for her, despite trying my best. I’m weak, useless, and unwanted; no wonder she walked away from me, not once but twice now.
The pain and tightness in my chest are my constant companions. I rub at the spot, trying to alleviate some of the feeling of hopelessness that has wrapped itself around me, like a thick skin that I am incapable of shedding, without my beautiful rose being back in my arms. Please come back to me, baby. Ineed you so much. “Fuck you, Diego. I’m here, aren’t I? Like a creeper watching her shop for panties.”
“I’ve managed to get rid of one of her security gorillas, and I’m working on the second now. My cousin is going to be the problem. I don’t want to have to slit his throat, I kinda like the guy.” Jesus, is this guy admitting that he already murdered one of her security guards? Fuck, I did not sign up for this shit, I don’t want to murder anyone. Well, that’s not exactly true, I don’t think I would feel a lick of remorse over ending Stella for good.Fucking dragon bitch.“We said we wouldn’t kill anyone, Diego, what the hell are you doing?” I hiss.