Venomous King (Venom #2)

12. Kai

Chapter twelve

Kai

“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does.Love is a battle, love is a war; love is growing up.”

James Baldwin

M y heart pounds loudly, as I watch the love of my life tremble with fear, at the presence of the monster that once held her trapped and captive in a jungle. She’s even paler than usual, and her pretty lips have gone completely bloodless. I have to save her from him, I have to keep both her and Julia safe. I promised her she would never have to face him alone again, and I’ve failed miserably. Fuck, how could I have allowed this to happen? I was too passive with all the arrangements, complacent in thinking we were safe after all these years. I trusted that Stella had it all handled, and look at where we are now, at the mercy of a madman who wants to steal my rose.

Julia . Shit, my little girl darts forward, fury on her little angel face, and her little fists raised and ready to cause damage, as she meets the asshole who once kept her mother a prisoner head-on, with no sense of the danger he presents. Even as cold terror races through my blood, I take them both in, facing off against each other and, observing them together, there is no denying that they are biological father and daughter. I see the moment he realizes it too, as Julia calls Isabella, ‘Mommy’.

Diego’s eyes widen, and the shock he can’t disguise splashes across his scarred face, as he takes in Julia’s angry, tiny presence. He stumbles back a step, and his body goes rigid, his skin paling under its olive-toned complexion. My little girl is ready to face off with this monster, like her great-grandmother, Stella. She’s utterly fearless, and that causes me further horror. Would Diego hurt a little girl to get back at her mother and Stella?

“She’s mine?” Diego utters, with disbelief evident in his tone. His eyes, the ones my daughter has inherited, never leave her little face, as if he can’t reconcile himself with what he is seeing before him. It’s as if the little dark-haired girl before him was an apparition or a mythical creature.

Furious hot rage races through my body and soul, as this despicable piece of shit tries to claim my child. She’s mine , mine, and Isabella’s, regardless of who provided the fucking sperm. “No, she’s my daughter, regardless of whose DNA she has, and you will not take either of them from me!”

I rush forward, ready to tackle him to the ground, and use my fists to crush his damn skull. If I die defending my family, so fucking be it, but I won’t allow him to take Isabella, and make her a prisoner once again. I make it a mere few pathetic steps before a shot rings out, and a searing pain hits my shoulder and forces me down to my knees. My daughter’s high-pitched, hysterical screams fill my ears, as she rushes toward me and tightly wraps her little arms around my neck. “Daddy! Daddy... you’re bleeding! Daddy’s hurt, Mommy!”

“No!” The shout is desperate and loud, as Diego tries to grab Julia and pull her towards him. In the next moment, Stella is a blur of dark fabric as she darts forward, and the glint of a metal blade dances out of the corner of my eye, before her scream fills the air.

“You will not have them! I will not allow you to harm my family again, you demon!”

Jesus fucking Christ , what the hell has she done? Stella staggers back from Diego, her hands soaked in crimson, and a splash of blood visible on her pale face. Her eyes glow with an inhuman madness, as she takes in what she has done, and Diego clutches at his side, the gun in his grip crashing to the ground. All sounds seem to cease, as we all bear witness to a nightmare. The pain in my shoulder is momentarily forgotten, as I wrap my good arm around my daughter and yank her right off the ground, crushing her little body to mine, and scrambling to my feet to try to get to Isabella.

“If you take one more step, cabrón (bastard) , I will put a bullet in the back of your skull, and send you to the demonio’s (devil’s) door. Put the ni?a (girl) down.“ The muzzle of a gun presses firmly against the back of my head, as a deeply accented voice fills my ears. I place Julia before me slowly, not willing to risk her life, as my heart races in my chest and feels like it will explode.

“Grandmother! Oh my god! What have you done?” Isabella’s devastated and frightened voice echoes above all the other voices of our fleeing guests.

“Save my sister, idiots!” Mia’s voice is hysterical, as Carter and Theo close ranks around her, and more of Diego’s heavily armed men pour into the space. Mateo and Finn grab their sons and cradle them in their arms, as one of Diego’s men heads in their direction with guns drawn. Jesus fuck, the kids are in the line of danger. I watch as Carter raises a gun and fires at the guy, and he falls to the ground dead. “Get your sons out of here now!” I yell, and Finn locks eyes with me. I witness the terror in their dark brown depths, as he and Mateo back up towards the side entrance of the church. “We can’t take them, Mia, there are too many. We have to get Alex and Caesar to safety!” Carter shouts.

“NO! NO, don’t leave Issy! Carter, I’ll fucking murder you if you do!” Mia screams as Theo grabs her and throws her violently over his shoulder, and rushes out the door Mateo and Finn carried their children through. “You’re dead, Diego, ya hear me, fucking dead!” Carter growls before rushing out after Mia and Theo.

My terrified eyes circle the room. Most of the guests have managed to flee, but a few are lying dead in the pews. Their lives were snuffed out by this psycho, and his need to possess my Isabella.

An enormous dark-haired man heads for Stella with a gun, and my throat closes with panic, unable to shout a warning. She sees him at the last minute and falls to her knees, grabbing Diego’s discarded gun and firing at his legs, until he drops to the ground. I can hear Clark issuing orders to get Stella out of here, as he fights off numerous attackers to get to her. FUCK!

“Save my granddaughters, you fools!” Stella demands, as she gets to her feet and sways, and that’s when I see the blood dripping from her side. A bullet must have hit her at some point, and she’s bleeding out. Oh my God, this is a fucking nightmare. “NO! Save Isabella and Julia!” Stella screams as Clark and another guard step forward, seize a furious and unhinged Stella between them, and forcefully remove her from the space, even though the psycho keeps demanding they release her, and save Isabella and Julia. “Kai, I will send reinforcements!” Clark shouts.

“Isabella!” The word leaves my lips, my head spins, and the world threatens to go black on me. “Daddy, you’re hurt!” Julia’s fearful cries fill my ears, and I hear the struggling hitch in her voice. No, baby girl, no!

In the next moment, Julia is ripped, screaming, out of my arms, as a man grabs hold of her and takes her over to where Diego is clutching his side. He raises his hand, reaching for Julia, and his fingers make contact with her hair, with a gentleness I wouldn’t have thought the psycho capable of. She tries to swat at his touch, tears racing down her little face as her breathing becomes labored, and her face starts going a shade of puce.

It’s my worst nightmare that has come to life. “Julia! Calm down, Lovebug. You need to calm down and slow your heart rate. Please, baby!“ I shout with desperation, as I watch my daughter struggle for every breath, and I try to crawl forward on my hands and knees, panic filling me and causing my own breaths to become labored.

“Let her go, Diego! Please, she’s sick; she can’t breathe!” Isabella begs as she makes her way to our child. She falls to her knees, pulls Julia onto her lap, wraps her arms around Julia, and tries to get her to take timed breaths together. “Please, baby, breathe with Mommy. One, two, three, that’s it, in and out, one, two, three. That’s my good girl. Keep going, baby.”

“Diego, we have to go now! Stella will be sending reinforcements, and I can hear sirens blaring,” the loud, accented voice yells from behind me. “Let me put a bullet in this cabrón’s (bastard’s) head, and we can take Isabella and the child.”

Diego ignores his request, his eyes never leaving where Isabella is on the ground, trying to calm Julia’s breathing. He watches intently, fear and confusion clearly evident on his menacing face. Julia starts to sign words to her mother in rapid succession. As her breathing begins to calm down, and she takes ragged, labored breaths that hurt my heart to hear. My poor, sweet baby. I immediately pick up what she’s trying to tell her mother. “Scared, bad man. Daddy’s hurt. Gammy was scared.”

“What is she doing with her hands?” Diego questions quietly as he approaches the mother-daughter pair, his hand still gripping tightly to his bleeding wound, and Julia signs the word ‘monster’ at him. My brave little lovebug.

An aggravated, pained sigh leaves my mouth. I don’t want to explain anything about my child to this fucking heathen, and Isabella is utterly focused on Julia. I don’t want to risk Diego attempting to rip Julia from her arms, and causing her to get worse. I’m also cognizant of the asshole still pointing a gun at me, and waiting for the order to murder me in cold blood before my family.

Frustration fills me with the desire to slam my fist into this fucker’s face. “It’s sign language. She reverts to it when she can’t catch her breath or is stressed. She has a hearing aid, she was born with severe hearing loss, and a damaged heart. This shit you’re putting her through could kill her, asshole .”

Diego turns his vicious, frigid gaze toward me, and I feel a cold shiver race down my spine, despite the oppressive heat in this church. This man is not only dangerous, but also without mercy. Will he end my life here? Will he leave my daughter to die here because she is sick, and he now perceives her as weak? Isabella told me everything he put her through to try to make her strong, so that she could stand at his side. He wanted her to become his underworld queen, and for that, she could not be weak. What will he do to Isabella now that he has found her? What will happen to Julia?

“Take all three of them, Santiago. They will all be returning with us. Make sure that fucker doesn’t bleed to death,” he grunts his command to his men, clutches his side, and strides out of the church without a backward glance, confident that his orders will be obeyed without question.

“Come on, hombre muerto caminando ( dead man walking ), it’s time to go. For now, you get to keep breathing, but I don’t think it will be long before el jefe (the boss) allows me to kill you,“ the deep, accented voice growls, as I’m dragged to my feet by two brutes and shoved out the door, even though I try to fight against his men’s restraining hold, and keep my eyes on Julia and Isabella.

“I’m right here, Julia. Daddy’s right here, Lovebug. Everything will be alright, baby. Please, just stay calm.” I try to reassure my daughter, even though my heart is ready to leap out of my chest. My head begins to swim again, as lightheadedness and blood loss take over my senses.

Somewhere in my doctor’s brain, I realize that I am bleeding out, and if they don’t stop it soon, I will fucking die. One less obstacle to get to Isabella . I stumble, my feet giving way under me, and the only thing keeping me standing is the tight grip of the men on my arms. The last thing I hear, as my vision darkens, is Isabella screaming that she loves me.

I come to with a searing pain radiating down my arm and chest, and a moaned cry leaves my lips before I’m fully aware of my surroundings. Once I can pry my heavy eyelids open, I take a good look at where I am, and dread fills me. I’m in a darkened space, the walls are all painted a deep shade of burgundy, and thick floral curtains cover what seems like the only window in the small square space, blanking out any look at the sky, and giving me no indication of how long I was out. My eyes dart around, looking for a possible escape, even as I shift back and forth on the soft surface I’m lying on, and pain soars through my heavy limbs.

“I wouldn’t move too much, pedazo de mierda (piece of shit). The doctor was just here patching you up and doesn’t want to return.“ A tall, middle-aged, dark-haired man moves into the only light source in the space, and I’m faced with his angry expression. “Debería haberme dejado matarte. Se está debilitando, ( He s hould have let me kill you. He’s getting weak,)” he mumbles.

“I don’t understand Spanish, you psycho. Where is Isabella and my daughter?” I hiss out a breath, as I force myself to sit up and place my feet firmly on the floor, realizing I’m lying on a sofa. My head spins, but I refuse to show weakness before this man; the one who desires nothing more than my death.

An amused smirk traverses across his dark, tanned face as his bottomless dark eyes meet mine, and he crosses his tattooed arms across his barrel chest. “ La ni?a peque?a (little girl) is not yours. She looks just like her father. Her real father, and not some babeco (white guy ) pretending to play house with her madre (mother).”

“Fuck you! I am her father, I’ve taken care of her and raised her as my own, and I’ve done it all without kidnapping and terrorizing her mother. Your boss is insane, you have to know that. Were you there in that jungle? Did you witness his horrific treatment of Isabella, and do nothing, like a fucking coward?”

He takes a menacing step towards me, his hands fisted at his sides, and reaching for the long blade he has strapped to his upper leg. “Listen here, little chocha (cunt), Isabella is not innocent. She has demons too, and he wasn’t like this before her. She possessed him and made his mind corrupt. That bitch is dangerous to any man she’s with. If she were smart, she would have made sure he never found her, but now it’s too late. He will never let her go.”

I rise from the sofa, the effort making me clench my teeth, and face off with this asshole who thinks he can intimidate me. “Where is my family?” My eyes level with his, and we are evenly matched in height, but I have more defined muscles, and youth is on my side. Despite his age, I have no doubt that this man is still ruthless and could take me down, but I won’t cower, or go without a fight.

He gives me a dismissive look from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, and spits at my feet. “Rest up, pendejo (asshole), you won’t survive here long if you bleed to death.“ He turns his back on me as if I pose no threat to him, and strides out of the room, the door slamming in his wake. I take off after him, and as I open the door, I’m immediately confronted by two men holding rifles at the ready, with menacing scowls. One of the fuckers growls at me like a goddamn animal, as I back into the room and slam the door. Fuck, how am I going to get out of here? How am I going to get to Isabella and Julia, and protect them?

I drag my shaking hands down my face, as both rage and desperation fill me. I search the room for anything I can use as a weapon. I won’t sit here and wait to die, while Diego has my girl and my daughter in his psychotic clutches. I have to save them. I have to get us out of here, wherever here is.