Page 206 of Craving Venom
Stop.
“He must’ve been terrified, staring down the barrel of a gun held to his head,” she whispers, and her words fucking gut me. “Did he cry? Did he ask you not to do it?”
Stop.
“Did he look at you with those big, scared eyes wondering why one of his own was pulling the fucking trigger?”
STOP.
“Faith,” I start, but she cuts me off before I can get another word out.
“I don’t care,” she snaps. “I don’t give a fuck if your mother was abusive. I don’t care what she did.”
My throat tightens.
“She never was,” I grind out.
“Then why?”
Her breath lowers, but it’s not softer. It’s more dangerous.
“Why the fuck did you do it, Zane?”
Words fail me, swallowed by the image of Alex, his face wet with tears, his small hands shaking as he desperately fights to push the gun from his head.
“Please, Zane…”
Fuck.
“You were supposed to protect me.”
Please don’t make me do this.
“Answer me!”
Her words cut into the memory, but they can’t reach me; I’m already gone, lost in the sound of Alex’s sobs pounding against my ears, louder than Faith’s voice, louder than anything else that dares to exist.
“Stop.”
My command is barely above a growl, but she doesn’t.
“Why, Zane?”
I said stop.
“Why did you do it?”
“STOP!”
The sound explodes out of me and rebounds off the walls, but she doesn’t stop or even hesitate because she’s just as far gone as me.
“Why?” she demands again. “So you could feel powerful? Is that why you did it? What’s next, Zane?” Her chest tightens and her eyes narrow while poison drips from her lips. “You going to bathe in my blood?”
That fucking breaks me.
“I want out.”
It’s barely a whisper, but it’s louder than a bomb going off.
