Prologue
Venom
One Month Ago . . .
“I thought they’d never leave,” Nikki cackles against the booth, smiling deviously like the devil would if he were here in the flesh.
“It’s been too long since we’ve had a girls’ night, and we sure didn’t need those assholes coming over here, ruining our time,” Faith adds, handing shots of tequila off to Nikki and me.
We’re a few blocks away at a local bar and while the night started out great, shortly after getting here a group of guys came up and tried to flirt with us. The first thing they asked about were my tattoos and hair, then they asked Nikki about the leather get up she’s always wearing, and after a couple of minutes passed by, they asked if Faith was the innocent one of the bunch. I don’t think we could’ve rolled our eyes hard enough, but, this is the type of shit that happens when the three of us leave the club for a night out.
“To girls who back each other up, badass bitches, and friendships that never die,” I declare while grabbing my shot glass and the other two do the same.
“Shit, I’ll drink to that,” Nikki adds.
“Hell yeah,” Faith comments.
The three of us clink our glasses together and throw back our shots. I don’t know about them, but the tequila burns my throat and settles deep in my stomach. It’s been one of those weeks where I need the alcohol to make up for everything I’ve been feeling. Regret’s been plaguing my mind with its best friend, known as shame.
Demons from my past . . . they just can’t seem to leave me alone.
Every night I’ve gone to bed and I’ve seen the same thing flash before my eyes. The same horrors, the same fear, but most importantly the same mistakes.
Inhaling through my nose, I push those thoughts at bay and keep myself in the present moment, with two of my closest friends. Nikki, who’s a clubwhore at the Iron Vex MC, and Faith who’s one of our bartenders. My reality is, I’ll head to sleep tonight and I’ll end up seeing the same thing I’ve been seeing for the past few weeks. Back then I didn’t think I had any other options, but now I know I did. Now I see there could’ve been a multitude of ways for me to get out of that situation, but I was too blinded by fear to even see the other paths I could’ve ventured down.
For what I think is the next hour we have numerous drinks and end up on the dance floor shaking our asses to old school Britney Spears. The three of us end up getting back into the booth and guzzle down some water while Nikki checks the time. “Shit, it’s already been five hours since we got here,” I comment to myself, and Faith breaks out into laughter.
“I’m only laughing so hard because we were so desperate for a break that the time flew by,” Faith says, continuing laughing.
“We don’t really get out much,” Nikki speaks up and she’s right. We really stick to ourselves for the most part. With the cult still out and about, none of us really feel safe going out alone, especially as women. Hell, Faith was kidnapped a couple years ago by the cult and she barely made it out alive. If it weren’t for Rage, she probably would’ve been killed . . . and for him, God, I don’t know what we would’ve done without him.
“For good reason.” Faith nervously laughs, grabs her purse, and walks over to the bar.
“Guess she’s closing out her tab. We’d better do the same,” Nikki comments and I follow her, pulling my crossbody purse to the front of my body, I pull back the zipper and grab some cash. After a few minutes the three of us have paid our tabs and now we’re walking on the sidewalk, ready to go home. The first thing I plan on doing is face planting into my bed. Goodness, after all the liquor and the dancing we’ve been doing, the only thing I want to see is the back of my eyelids.
“You two heard when Ricochet’s coming back to town?” Faith asks Nikki and me.
Nikki looks over to me, knowing she doesn’t get a lot of information about what’s going on whenever a couple of us leave town. Ricochet was sent down to Virginia on club business to help Vex. She’s one of our full patch members, but she’s working undercover with the Devil’s Riot MC since they’ve seen some cultist activity down there. Vex is making it appear like she’s just a normal college kid and considering that’s the type of people the cult searches for, I’m sure she’ll be able to get a bite really soon. She’ll be too good of a follower for them to pass up, especially with the way she seems so innocent.
“Venom, do you know something?” Nikki asks while moving her long dreadlocks behind her back. She always keeps her hair natural, but recently she’s really been going for the braids or dreads. Iris keeps saying she’s talking about cutting it all off and shaving her head, saying how the trend on TikTok is making her curious to what it would be like.
“Yeah, but it’s club business. You know I can’t say more than that,” I tell her and then look over to Faith.
“I’m betting it’s something to do with Twister’s charter, I mean, isn’t he super close with Emerson?” Faith asks, but her tone insinuates something more, and it’s something I’m not a fan of.
“He’s like her adoptive older brother. Don’t go putting shit together that you don’t have any idea about. Do you even know who her ol’ man is?”
Faith shakes her head.
I scoff, figuring as much. “Let’s just say if Hades ever thought there was the slightest chance for something like that between them, he would’ve already hung Ricochet up by his balls and slit his throat.”
“God, he sounds . . . morbid.”
“You have no idea,” Nikki pipes up, causing me to look right back at her.
“How would you know anything about Hades?” Nikki’s never once met the man. Hell, she hasn’t even been to Virginia to even be in the same general vicinity as him.
Nikki fights back a smirk and gnaws on the corner of her lip. “Saber was up a couple days ago, you know, updating Boss on some business dealings she must have with the Devil’s Riot MC. He likes to talk just as much as he likes doing other things, if you catch my drift.”
“I think we do. We know what you do for the club,” Faith grumbles and rushes off about fifteen feet away from us.
“What the fuck?” I mutter, staring off at Faith, who I can only see from the illumination of the streetlights.
“Just leave it. Not worth the fight. I think something’s going on with her. She’s been a bit snappy the last couple days,” Nikki tells me and her dark eyes seem empathetic, like she doesn’t give a damn about how Faith just snapped at her. She’s more concerned about her friend and that’s admirable. I don’t know if I could be that selfless. Hell, I probably would’ve given her a piece of my mind.
“Alright,” I reply, not wanting to poke the bear. “Want to talk about something . . . else?”
“Mhm, like when you’re finally gonna fess up to Ricochet that you’re in love with him,” Nikki says out of nowhere, almost causing my eyes to fly out of their sockets.
While I do have a thing for Ricochet, I’ve never once said anything to him about it because I don’t want it to ruin our friendship. We all know that feelings can either make a relationship or break it, and I, for one, don’t want to lose him in my life. He’s one of the only people who made me start seeing the good again, even after I was stuck in the dark for far too long.