Venomous King (Venom #2)

13. Issy

Chapter thirteen

Issy

“Know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.”

Sun Tzu

I cradle my exhausted daughter in my arms, humming softly as she sleeps, to calm the both of us down, and soothe my panicked heart. All the distressing events today have taken a toll and worn her right out. She finally passed out, after crying herself to sleep, and inconsolably calling out for Kai.

Kai , my love, the part of my soul that Diego has taken away from us, and I don’t know where he is, if he’s even safe or still breathing. He has to be alive, I refuse to believe that even Diego would be that malignant, and choose to hurt me and Julia by ending Kai’s life. He can’t be that much of a monster, can he?

I’ve never felt more helpless than in that moment, and this one. Not even when I was drugged and kidnapped by Diego, placed in the jungle, and then thrown into that hole in the ground, as a result of his wrath. A shiver races down my spine at the memory of that deep, dark, and hot hole, with the sensation of bugs crawling along my skin. The desire to scream and scratch at my flesh tries to overwhelm me, but I force myself to resist the temptation. I’m not still trapped there. I survived, and I will keep surviving.

The sound of the door opening, slowly and quietly, has my body tensing and going on alert. We were placed in this small bedroom after we were abducted from the church, blindfolded, and taken to this location. A safe house, I heard one of Diego’s men utter the word. Other than a terrified doctor who came to check on Julia, no one else has entered in hours. My body’s frightened reaction has Julia releasing a little whimper in my arms, and forcing me to loosen my tight hold on her tiny body.

My eyes meet a pair of green globes that seem to be filled with an emerald fire from within. My heartbeat accelerates rapidly, and I fear that he can hear it from where he’s standing, staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face. I’m not sure what is more frightening, Diego filled with anger and losing his shit, or this version of him that is silent, and like a coiled cobra waiting to strike.

My mouth goes dry, as beads of sweat slide down the back of my neck, and all the nerves in my arms and legs tense, ready for fight or flight. I must protect Julia from this man at all costs, he could hurt her. Even as the thought crosses my mind, I know it’s immediately false. Diego would hurt me, he would hurt Kai and anyone else that got in his way, but I don’t honestly believe that he would hurt an innocent child, and certainly not his child. He wouldn’t, would he? Even he has a limit to his cruelty.

“Is she alright now?” He questions, with a severe and hesitant expression across his tanned complexion, as he moves further into the room, closing the door firmly behind him. Fuck, there will be no way to get past him, and I’m positive that he has stationed guards outside of that door. He won’t take any chances now with me escaping him a second time. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Frustration fills me, and I feel my temper rising at the impossible position of being a captive once more, in the hands of this man who claims to love me. “You know perfectly well she is, at least for now. Cut the shit, Diego, you sent that doctor in here to confirm what Kai and I told you. Did you really think me capable of lying about my daughter being unwell, and how serious her condition is?”

“ Our daughter, Princesa . She’s our daughter, not just yours, and certainly not that blond fucker’s,“ he hisses at me, his voice rising and causing Julia to stir in my arms, and cry out in her sleep. An immediate look of regret fills his face, and it’s so bewildering and shocking that I stare at him with my mouth wide open. I watch, entranced, as he takes a few deep, calming breaths, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides, I’m guessing, in an attempt to control his rage and not thrash me within an inch of my life. I’d almost welcome the thrashing if it meant he would let me go, but I know that will never happen.

I don’t think Diego would kill me, not even for escaping him, leaving him behind in that jungle and running for my life. Even with all the years I’ve spent hiding from him, I don’t believe death is what he has in store for me, but I am guessing whatever it is he has planned, I’ll wish for death every single day of my wretched life.

“You named her Julia after my mother?” His question is uttered so low, and calmly, that it gives me a false sense of hope, and causes a memory of dark nights spent together under midnight skies to rise in my mind. A time long ago, spent naked and intimately intertwined, discussing our childhoods and our dead mothers. It fills me with longing for the peaceful and briefly happy times between us. It was a time when I honestly thought that we would be more, and where nothing, and no one, could have torn us apart. When he was the future I saw for myself, and I wanted to grasp it with both hands, and hold tightly to it.

It didn’t last. I quickly realized how dangerous Diego was, with his unhinged need to possess and own me, and how devastatingly toxic the two of us truly were together. We were fire and air, ready to cause an inferno between us, and destroy everything in our paths. We would have continued to hurt each other, until both of us bled out, or one of us stopped breathing. His actions were killing me slowly, and his need to have me at all costs was destroying him, and the empire he desired to build.

Toxic. Destructive. Deadly . We were all of those things then, and I don’t think much has changed, based on what happened today. Can there ever be peace between us? Probably not.

I watch as he takes quiet, careful steps forward, approaching us, and squats down, until his face is at the same level as Julia’s. My breath hitches in my throat as he reaches out, runs his forefinger down her small forehead, and traces her dark eyebrow.

His teeth bite down on his bottom lip, and all his concentration centers on the small child in my arms. My eyes take the opportunity to observe all of his sinful features; he’s still the most rugged and gorgeous man I have ever laid eyes on. Something about the dangerous vibes that ooze from his pores beckons to me, like the drugs I was once addicted to. Diego Cabano is his own addiction, and I wonder if I am strong enough to resist him or survive him.

“Julia Stella, that’s what I named her.” My voice falters as I watch him cataloging all of her features, and the intensity radiating off of him both frightens me and fills me with pride. We made this beautiful child; regardless of our shitty relationship, she was the product, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

A snort escapes his mouth as his lip curls in a smirk, and a glint of amusement rises in his eyes. “Of course you named her after that viper.”

“She’s a Stratford.”

All sense of amusement immediately vacates his face, as if it was never there, and merely a figment of my imagination. “She’s a Cabano too, Issy. Something you took great pains to try to hide.”

His eyes leave our sleeping child and meet mine as he shifts forward. He’s so close now that I can smell his intoxicating spicy scent, and can see the amber flecks deep inside of his irises, and how the rough skin of his scar pulls on the side of his whiskered face. Deep lines are bracketing his eyes and mouth, which weren’t there the last time I was with him. It’s as if he’s aged a decade, in the span of the almost five years we have been apart. Did I do that to him? Was it me, or his venom, that has destroyed him bit by bit?

My traitorous heart desperately wants to touch him. To reach out and smooth the lines that mar his rugged perfection. To comfort the rage that lives within him, always threatening to overtake and drown him. I want to be a balm to his tormented soul, but I can’t. I cannot allow myself to fall for him again, or I truly will end up in a dark hole forever, unable to escape him.

His tongue peeks out and moistens his bottom lip, and the desire to feel it trace my own lips almost has me leaning closer to him. “Do you love him, Issy? Did you leave me to return to him? Was he the man from before, the one that you have never allowed yourself to move past, even when you had me? Is he the reason you were never truly mine, Princesa ?“ His hand rises and cradles the side of my face gently, almost reverently, as if I was really one of the fragile porcelain dolls he always claimed I was. The feel of his skin against mine lights up all of my senses, and causes my chest to tighten painfully.

I want to deny the accusation I hear in his words. The implication that I deceived him all along and played with his emotions, making him fall in love with me while I held out for someone else. It’s not true, but I know he will never believe me.

The weak coward that I was before demands that I beg and cower. That I plead for mercy from a man I am not sure is capable of any. However, that Isabella Stratford is gone, and I won’t hide behind her inadequacies anymore. “Yes, it was always Kai. It was always both of you. I can’t and will never choose between the two of you, so if that is what you are here to ask me to do, leave now, Diego, because I won’t.”

“Oh, Princesa, you mistake me. I’m not here to give you a choice. He will be a forgotten memory shortly, and you will be all mine.“ His face leans forward, his lips meeting the skin of my jaw as his sharp teeth scrape against my heated flesh. He nips once, twice, before his mouth moves along my skin, and his harsh lips meet mine in a blistering kiss that threatens to set me aflame.

I should stop this immediately. I should fight back and be disgusted, but the truth is I have missed his touch, and the taste of his lips on mine. I part my lips, giving him access, and he instantly takes advantage, his tongue tangling with mine until little gasps of pleasure leave me. Somewhere in my muddled brain, alarm bells are going off, warning me that I am falling back into old patterns, where I instantly give in to my desire for him. I yank my mouth away from his, both of us panting harshly, as we attempt to catch our breaths.

“Lie to yourself all you want, Princesa , but your body will always speak the truth. It knows who and what it wants. It knows that it belongs to me, that you are mine .”

“Where is Kai, Diego? Is he even still alive?”

“For now.” He pulls away and stands, turning his profile away from me, so I can’t read his expression. “It doesn’t matter where he is, don’t you get it, Issy? You belong to ME , not to him. I will have him tortured and ripped apart, and perhaps I will force you to watch, so that you finally understand the consequences of your fucking actions.“ He darts back towards me, his hand raking into my short hair and pulling on the strands. A harsh gasp that stirs Julia in her sleep leaves my lips, and I tighten my hold on her. The pain is a reprieve from all the emotions racing in turmoil within me. I can deal with the physical pain, it’s the emotional and mental toll that will end up destroying me.

“You left me, Issy. You fucking ran like a thief in the night, and left me to die at the hands of your bitch grandmother, and her mercenaries, and then you fucking hid for years. Years! All those torturous, miserable years where I searched, and waged war in vengeance, for what I thought I had lost. For what was taken from me, and yet, you were out here living with him , having my child, and playing at being a fucking family.”

“Diego...” The lump in my throat won’t allow me to utter any more words. The deep hurt that I see in his expression is devastating, and causes my heart to want to fracture in on itself. He really did mourn my loss all these years.

“Put her down, Issy, and come with me. Do it quietly, and I won’t hurt you… much. Disobey me, and I will rip your precious lover to pieces, in front of you and our daughter.”

“I... I can’t, Diego. She will be frightened, something could happen to her.” Tears fill my eyes and threaten to cascade down my face. I know that his threat is not a mild one; he will do precisely what he says, and both Julia and I will be forced to watch Kai die. I can’t allow that to happen. I can’t allow Julia to witness the level of insanity and violence that Diego is capable of.

“She will be safe, I promise you. No harm will come to my child here. One of my people will stay with her in case she wakes, but you will come with me either willingly or by force, Issy.”

With one last look at my beautiful girl, I lay her on the bed beneath me, tucking the covers and pillows around her, to ensure she is comfortable and safe. The tears I’m trying desperately to contain spill from my eyes and down my cheeks. I wonder if it will be the last time I will ever lay eyes on her, and if Diego means to kill me now to punish me for what I have done.

Mommy loves you, Julia, forever.