Page 179 of Lovely Venom

It takes me a minute to process the sight of Cristian and Romeo as my racing heart calms, and I draw in a shaky breath.

“Are you okay?” Cristian searches my face, his concern warring with something darker beneath the surface.

“You came back?” I sob.

He nods, his jaw tightening as he responds. “My men saw a boat anchored at a nearby island, but nobody was there. After some searching, they found a dinghy hidden at the cove. Then I saw your text.”

A raw note of betrayal edges his voice as he confirms what I suspected from the moment he gave me the phone. He’s been monitoring it, and now he knows that I left to meet who I thought was Ares.

“Cristian—”

“Not now.” He glances down at Elias as he starts to stir. “I need to deal with him.”

Part of me hopes he’ll just put a bullet in him and end it right now, but of course, I should know better. He won’t kill him without interrogating him first.

Elias groans as he tries to mumble something, but whatever it is, he doesn’t get a chance to say it. Romeo plunges a syringe into his neck, and Cristian kneels to help secure him with zip ties.

There’s a knot swelling on the back of Elias’s head where Cristian hit him. And while I’m hoping there’s a chance he won’t be able to talk, so I can explain everything myself, it doesn’t seem likely.

When Cristian looks at me again, his initial concern has shifted into something cold and distant as he meets my gaze.

“Can you walk?”

I force a nod, and he does a quick visual scan of my body before concluding that I’m not injured.

“Stay beside me.”

The lack of warmth in his voice makes it difficult to determine whether he’s saying that out of concern or because he no longer trusts me.

Silence falls over us as the two men tow Elias back to the house while I walk beside them.

When we reach the same door I exited from, Cristian pauses to look at me.

“Go inside,” he tells me. “We’ll talk when I’m done.”

Before I can even gather the courage to say anything, Cristian nods at Romeo and continues on—dragging Elias away from us.

I stare after him as Romeo opens the door.

“Come on,” he grunts. “You don’t need to see that.”

I glance at him, and there’s no question he knows about my communication with Ares too. Wariness flickers in his dark gaze as he watches me, as if I might try to bolt any second.

I can recall a time when he vouched for my character to his brothers, but now, that trust has evaporated.

We enter the house, and he escorts me to Cristian’s wing. When we arrive, he lingers in the doorway and doesn’t follow me in.

“You’re locking me in, aren’t you?”

“It’s just to keep you safe until Cristian comes back.”

“I won’t try to leave,” I assure him.

“You’ll have your phone, so you can call if you need anything.”

I’m not worried about that right now. I just want to explain myself.

“Romeo, I swear it isn’t how it looks.” My voice fractures.