Page 139 of Beautiful Venom
Not even regular Vencor members have access to this forest.
I reach into my waistband and retrieve my gun.
The trees close in tighter, the branches scraping against each other, and the owl calls again, but this time it’s closer.
The wind picks up, carrying a faint familiar scent.
A scream echoes in the silence, followed by athud, thud, thud.
The scream slowly fades until there’s only the loud sound of the thuds.
Jude’s stick.
He and Preston must’ve gotten the man and killed him.
But that doesn’t matter now. There’s an intruder who needs to be dealt with.
I push the low branches out of my way with the gun, my other hand holding the flashlight on top of my weapon.
A rustle comes from behind me and I spin around, my finger resting on the trigger.
A mouse scurries away, blinded by the light.
The sound of running reaches me, and I sprint ahead, then stop.
While I don’t find the outsider, I spot Jude standing by the bloodied corpse of his latest victim.
The man’s face is unrecognizable. Half of it has turned to mush as he slumps against a tree, his head lolled against his belly.
Jude’s stick is dripping with blood, and his raincoat is smeared with dark stains.
He tilts his head in my direction, his face splashed, his eyes blank. “Not enough. He died too soon. Give me another name, Kane.”
It’s a high.
An obsession.
The feeling of never having enough of something, no matter how much you consume it.
It’s why I steer clear of anything prone to muddying my logic.
I don’t do fixations or attachments.
Obsessions or addictions. Until Dahlia fucking Thorne.
She’s the addiction I can’t shake off.
Even during the hunt I only joined to forget her.
My right hand still grasping my gun, I squeeze Jude’s shoulder with the other. “Don’t spiral.”
“Fuck that.” He shakes my hand off and steps back, pointing his bloody stick at me. “What do I have to do for you to give me the entire list?”
“Not possible.”
“What if I kidnap your new little toy?”
“That would be both foolish and unproductive. You lay your hands on her and I’ll burn that list to the ground.”
