Page 30 of Venomous as a Snake

The rhino’s back stiffens as his eyes grow cold. “She didn’t leave?”

“Couldn’t,” I inform him. “Fangs is the leader of Snake Eyes, and thought she would be safer if she stayed closer to Clay or someone they trusted. The day I got out of the hospital, Clay came to me with a threat. Stay away from Kody or he’d kill us both. He might be a swan, but a trigger on a gun still pulls the same way.

“I lingered around town for a few weeks, and Clay continued to threaten her… Even sent me pictures holding a knife to her throat while she slept. So I left. His guys tried to kill me four times before then, but once I was gone, everything stopped.

“Drew stayed, because Clay didn’t know they were mates. But it wasn’t enough. I mean, it was for a year. Drew was with her on her twenty-third birthday. They were dancing in the kitchen when Clay walked in on them.”

Collin tosses a piece of popcorn into his mouth as he repeats, “Dancing?”

“Yeah,” I say, nodding at him. “Silly right?”

“What’s the importance of that?” Forrest inquires.

“Kody was a dancer, mostly ballet,” I tell them. “She could have been a professional ballerina if Fangs hadn’t forced her to be with Clay. We still don’t know what he threatened her with…”

“Maybe you?” Collin guesses.

I shake my head. “She would have told me that.”

“Keep going,” Forrest encourages.

“Clay broke her ankle.”

“How? Why?” he demands, though he doesn’t point his anger at me.

I shrug. “I don’t know. Drew told me Clay’s buddies held her down, and he broke it. He was going for the other when she shifted and started biting. That’s all I know, all I need to know. More details would only push me further over the edge, and he’s already shot me once this year.”

“When did she leave?” Collin inquires.

“And how?” Forrest adds.

“Like two months after that?” I rub at the back of my neck. “She just told me she has an agreement with Fangs, but I left before—”

“The details?” Collin finishes.

I frown at him. “Yeah.”

“Why did you leave town in the first place?” Forrest asks without judgment. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to take Clay out if you were closer?”

“Stay and she dies… I tried to call his bluff, but the pictures weren’t great. We didn’t know what she was going through inside the house, and I didn’t want to make it worse. The options weren’t black and white.

“It was: do I risk her life to go get her? And if I get her, then what are we going to do? Live on the run from this gang with untold numbers? Or do I wait for her to give me the sign that she needs me? Do I let her figure it out with her clever, calculating mind? I couldn’t just walk in and take her away without—”

“Without getting shot or worse,” Forrest retorts, nodding his head. “Yeah. We know that much. The question is, how is she staying away from him now?”

I blow out a frustrated breath. “She’s not. He’s been sending people to follow her around… Except she killed two of them yesterday.”

Collin leans forward, opening his mouth to speak, then leans back. “Repeat that?”

“She killed two of them,” I say with a grin. “I don’t know. That’s what Drew told me.”

“Is she okay?” Forrest queries, almost to himself as he glances out the sliding glass door into the backyard.

“She’s fine.”

“Did you ask?” Collin questions me too seriously.

No. But I don’t say that.