Page 140 of Beautiful Venom
He snarls.
I stare back.
Fuck.
I can’t believe I’m threatening my friends and throwing away my bargaining chips for that fucking woman.
She’s nothing.
Correction. Sheshouldbe nothing.
“Preston is right.” He slaps me across the face with the bloodied stick. “You’ve fucking lost it for pussy. That girl would betray you to get what she wants. She’d abandon you and not look back.”
“I’m abandoning her first, but that doesn’t mean any of you gets to touch her.” I push his stick, sending it flying to the ground. “Where’s Armstrong?”
“Fuck if I know. He stabbed the sorry fuck a few times, not enough to kill him, but then he disappeared altogether.”
“Right before you found the target?”
“Yeah.”
Preston would never—and I meannever—miss a ‘death ceremony,’ as he likes to call it. That’s his favorite part of the hunt, whether he gets to kill the prey himself or watch Jude do it.
He loathes my swift killing methods and rarely lingers around for that, but he knew Jude would get this one and still disappeared.
Jude grabs his stick. “You think the uninvited guest is behind his disappearance?”
“You felt it, too?”
“Yeah. We have an outsider.”
We share a look, Jude’s frown mirroring mine.
An outsider. And Preston vanished. This is not good.
I motion north. “I’ll cover you.”
He runs and I sprint behind him, going down the paths we learned through our childhood training. We know this forest inside out.
Preston does, too.
I’m usually concerned about that lunatic as is, but this is even worse.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Thwack.
The sound grows stronger as we get closer. Jude and I come to a halt at a small opening with intertwined branches.
A large figure is on top of Preston, punching him to smithereens.
And Preston is laughing like a fucking maniac.
Upon sensing our presence, the man shoves Preston against a tree trunk and scurries off. I catch a glimpse of a solid-white mask as he pulls his hoodie over his head and runs.
I aim my gun at him, but Preston, who was happy with being beat to a pulp not two seconds ago, jumps up and stands in my way.
