Page 75 of Venomous as a Snake

“Stay there,” I command. “We’ll check your house before we come home.”

Drew frowns. “Sorry, Blondie, but you can’t stay by yourself until he’s dead.”

“I know,” she murmurs. “It’s not like I have an issue with any of you spending the night—”

“But freedom is freeing when you haven’t had it in so long,” Forrest finishes for her.

“Yeah,” she agrees.

“How are you still so calm about this?” Collin inquires.

Her chuckle sounds tense. “Oh, I’m not. I’m livid right now, but I’m also grateful we got out when we did. Knowing when we’re outmatched is part of the calculations.”

“What’s next?” I look at the Lawless brothers, though we’re all well aware that Kody calls the shots.

“We wait,” Kody and Drew say at the same time.

“For what?” Forrest asks.

“For him to show his face again,” the honey badger says.

But Kody bursts our bubble. “We wait for him to take me.”

“Like fuck,” Forrest argues.

“I agree with him,” Collin tells her.

“So do we,” Walker adds. “So, don’t get any ideas about running off on your own.”

“There’s a tracker in my ass,” she snarks. “You won’t have an issue finding me.”

Drew scoffs. “Unless you really and truly put that tracker inside your ass, he’ll find it on you.”

She snorts. “We can put it in my shoe. Inside the tongue and stitch it back up. He won’t tear them apart to check, and even if I take them off, we won’t go far.”

“We’ll talk about it when we get home,” I say, stopping the Ayers-Lawless argument before it begins.

“Fine,” she grumbles. “Love you.”

“Love you too, Blondie,” Drew sings, instigating her with his cheerful tone.

“I’ll call you when we get to your house,” I promise, then hang up and scrub my face with both hands. “How bad is this going to get?”

Drew drums his fingers on the steering wheel. “Kody is going to kill him.”

“You’re so sure of that,” Walker says, shaking his head. “But you and Kody are both operating under the assumption that he won’t change his tactics.”

“Yeah, well,” Drew drawls, his gaze lingering on the driver’s side mirror for a moment too long. “Someone is following us now. And we knew this shit was going to happen. We’ve both called his movements from the beginning.”

“So, you know she’s hiding something?” Walker asks, choosing his words carefully.

“I know she’s hoping he takes her instead of one of us,” Drew confesses.

Walker leans up between us. “She’s hiding something else. Something to do with the agreement she and Fangs made.”

“I know nothing about that,” Drew admits.

I turn to the croc, shaking my head. “I haven’t heard her talk about it.”