Venomous King (Venom #2)

30. Kai

Chapter thirty

Kai

“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.”

Fred Roger

Five weeks later

I watch her from the window as she wanders around the back gardens of Stella’s vast Hamptons estate. She seems so lost, as her fingers reach out and touch different leaves on passing bushes, as she moves slowly, tentatively through the space. My heart aches at the way she now holds herself apart from us. She refuses to allow anyone other than Julia and her grandmother within her personal bubble. I’m at a loss for what to do. I know that what she experienced was horrifying; the extent of her injuries had me falling to my knees in thankful prayer that she even survived. Then Stella ensured that I saw the report, the one that confirmed my worst nightmare, and further proved to me how strong my Isabella truly is. She’s alive, she survived , but she is irrevocably changed.

“How is she today?” The deep voice questions from behind me, as he joins me at the window. I force my glance away from the woman we are both in love with, and give him my attention, the doctor in me cataloging how his color is better today, and he seems to be moving with less pain. Diego’s injuries could have been fatal. The amount of wattage that went through his body could, and should have, stopped his heart and cooked all his organs, but the tough son of a bitch survived, and I have never been more grateful. He saved my little girl. No, he saved our little girl. Because of him, Julia is alive, and while she, too, has changed from the giggling, carefree, mischievous, little spirit she was before being abducted, it isn’t as dramatic as Isabella.

“She barely ate anything this morning, and she slept outside of Julia’s door again on the floor, with a knife tucked in her hand.” I drag my hands down my face in exhaustion. I watched her all night from a spot further down the hall, as I sat on the hard floor, trying not to make any sudden moves that could provoke her. That’s the closest I have been able to be to her without frightening her since she returned from that hell. “I know we said we would give her time, Diego, but I think Stella’s right. She needs help, she’s not coping.”

“No, I refuse to consider putting her in that place.” He fists my shirt, pulling me forward until his furious face is in mine. “Do you know what that will do to her? To be taken away by force, away from Julia? Fuck that, I’ll kill you all first.”

I shove him hard, forcing him to release me, and all the pent-up fury and fear tries to unleash from within me. “What do you suggest we do? Huh? Continue to allow her to self-destruct? Let her be terrified of anyone with a fucking penis, Diego?” I force myself to take a deep, calming breath. “I can’t continue to watch the woman I love turn into a meager shadow of herself. She’s hurting herself, Diego. I saw the cuts on her thighs yesterday, when she was sitting by the pool with Julia. She’s trying to hide what she’s doing, but I saw them.”

“Fuck!” He growls and begins to pace, his eyes returning over and over to Isabella outside. “I can’t... please don’t ask me to send her to that place.” I understand his feelings intimately, and it’s why I refused and held my ground, when Stella insisted it was best. I even threatened the old bitch with bodily harm if she tried it. Did it get me punched in the face by Clark, and am I still sporting the bruise on my cheek? Yes, but it was fucking worth it to see Stella Stratford take a step back away from me. Diego is not the only one she should worry about, if she tries to shut us out of Isabella’s life.

“Daddy? Papi (Daddy), when can we go home? I miss my friends?“ Julia storms into the room, stomping her little Converse-covered feet, with her arms crossed against her chest. Diego and I both turn in her direction, a chuckle leaving Diego at her petulant behavior. The fucker likes to encourage her temper, whereas I try to be the voice of reason and responsibility. I squat down until I am at her level, and meet her intense green eyes, the ones she inherited, along with the attitude, from the fucker to my left. “Lovebug, are you not enjoying being with Gammy? Won’t you miss her and your cousins if we go home?”

Not that right now, there is a chance in hell that Stella will let any of us leave. We are all on forcible lockdown, as she and Manuel hunt down the last remaining members of the Sanchez cartel, and she wipes them from the earth. The psychopath is utterly ruthless in her dealings with her enemies, ensuring to wipe out complete bloodlines without any mercy.

Julia pouts and rolls her pretty eyes. “Not Alexander and Caesar, Daddy. They are so dumb.”

“Julia! We don’t talk like that about anyone, especially not family,” I admonish her, but catch Diego wagging his eyebrows at her, and she gives him a conspiratory grin. Fuck, I am entirely outmatched here without Isabella. Diego is uncivilized, and is teaching Julia all kinds of bad shit.

“Julia Stella Stratford, what did I say about you bludgeoning your cousins?” The she-devil from hell strides through the door, the sound of her heels clacking on the wooden floors causing my hackles to rise. Julia immediately hides behind Diego’s large frame, and peeks out from his side, and the fucker makes his body as large as possible as he crosses his arms, and faces off with Stella, a menacing look crossing his features. “I can still see you, Julia. Come out from there, this instant. Stratford princesses don’t hide behind anyone.”

“What is this about, Stella?” I question, but I also use my body to block her view from Julia. Stella narrows her eyes at me, her cold glare passing between Diego and me, with nothing but disapproval on her face. Diego, the fucker, gives her an open-mouthed grin, showing her his teeth. These two are too much, they’re always trying to out-alpha each other. That doesn’t mean I won’t stand with him against Stella, fuck, I do it just for the joy of seeing that vein in her forehead and her eye twitch.

“Caesar is sporting punctures from a fork being shoved into the top of his hand. Apparently, a little, willful Stratford princess put them there.” She tries to look around us, moving closer, but both Diego and I shift, continuing to block her view. I hear Julia’s little giggle behind me, and I lean back to stare at her. Her little face meets mine without the slightest hint of remorse. Fuck, I am doomed, she’s the spitting image of the fucker next to me, and her mother, and she knows she’s untouchable. Even our punishments don’t faze her. I shudder to think what will happen as she gets older. Good luck to the man who falls in love with my daughter; he’ll be sleeping with one eye open for the rest of his life. What am I saying? He’ll have to deal with Diego and, god forbid, Stella; the fucker is dead before he even exists.

“Come out this instant, Julia,” Stella demands, and I watch as Julia squares her little shoulders and fists her hands, coming out from behind us to face the dragon before us. “Yes, Gammy?” She tries for one of her angelic looks, looking up at Stella from below her dark lashes, but Stella rolls her eyes, having none of it.

“What is happening here?” Isabella’s voice questions from the balcony doors, and I notice how she catalogs how close Julia is to us. Her hands tighten into fists at her sides, before she laces them across her abdomen, and a shuttered look crosses her face. Does Isabella not trust us with our daughter? She knows we would never hurt her, doesn’t she? A sinking feeling begins in the pit of my stomach, at the thought that Isabella could, even for a moment, think we would do anything to her or Julia.

“Tell your parents what you have done, child.” Stella clasps her hands together, and I watch her out of the corner of my eye, as she attempts to fight a smirk. If my daughter is becoming a defiant little rebel, it’s Diego and Stella’s doing. Frustration fills me, knowing that I’m fighting a losing battle here; it won’t stop me from trying to balance out all their crazy, but fuck, is it tiring.

“Go ahead, Cherub, Papi’s (Daddy’s) got your back.“ Diego grins as I give him a threatening look. This right here is the problem, no matter what she does, the fucker never punishes her; in fact, quite the opposite. He praises her when she does shit she knows she shouldn’t, like maiming her cousins, even if they are little heathens.

“Caesar started it.” She taps her little foot impetuously and whines, “I was trying to be nice, Gammy.”

“Julia, what did Caesar do?” Isabella strides closer until she stands next to her grandmother, and my eyes peruse her slender frame. She’s lost so much weight since we came back from that hell. The bones along her collarbone are clearly visible, as are her ribs, through the tight-fitting shirt, and her face is gaunt and pale. At least all the bruises have healed, and most of her injuries have subsided, but it’s not enough. She barely eats anything, and the dark shadows that mar the space below her eyes tell of the nightmares that plague her, when she shuts her eyes. I’ve heard her panicked screams. They’re frightening, and leave a cold dread and a feeling of hopelessness in my soul, knowing there is nothing I can do to stop them, and I can’t fight the monsters inside of her mind.

“Momma, he was being so mean to me and Alexander. We just wanted to play swords together. We were going to fight dragons in the library, and he said that we couldn’t, because I was weak and a girl.” Oh shit , so the little minx stabbed him with a fucking fork. Lord, save me now, I am going to end up in jail for this kid. “I didn’t mean to put the fork in his hand, it just happened.” She bows her small, dark head and shuffles her little pink sneaker-covered feet in contrition, but I catch her glancing up below her lashes, to see if her little act is working on Isabella; little sneak.

“Serves the little prick right,” Diego mumbles quietly beside me, and I shake my head at his words. “He’s four, asswipe.” Julia immediately turns around, surprise and glee making their way across her angelic features. “You said a bad word, Daddy! You have to put a dollar in the swear jar!” She points her little finger in my direction. Of course, she didn’t hear Diego uttering the word, ‘prick ,’ just me.

Isabella grabs Julia’s arm and pulls her closer, as her hand tilts her chin up to meet her gaze. “You know you did something wrong, Julia. It is not okay to hurt your cousins. Please go and apologize to Caesar, or you will go into timeout for the rest of the afternoon, and I will take away screen time.”

“Momma! That’s not fair!” Julia cries, but after staring at Isabella and her not backing down, her little shoulders droop. “Fine, but if I do, can I have ice cream?” She looks pleadingly up at Stella. “Of course, my sweet. Come, Julia, let’s go find Caesar; I’m sure he’s crying to one of his many fathers by now.” See, that right there is what I’m talking about: rewarding bad behavior. I go to open my mouth and interject that, no, Julia should not be getting ice cream, but Diego elbows me hard in the gut, and I choke on my breath. “Shut it, asshole, or I’ll put your head through a wall.”

Julia skips happily from the room, Stella right behind, but she stops at the entrance and turns around. “I left a present for you in the pool house, demon. Enjoy, and don’t get blood on my drapes.”

My eyes automatically meet Diego’s, and I witness nothing but unhinged delight there. Fuck, they’ve captured the last of the Sanchez family, and Stella’s gifted them to Diego for vengeance. I haven’t seen him this excited, and happy, since he managed to sucker-punch Theo in the face, a couple of weeks ago.

“Excuse us, Princesa .“ He moves around Isabella, his eyes desperately trying to meet hers but failing, and ensuring he leaves a wide space between them, so as not to trigger her.

I take a step away, my heart demanding that I wrap her in my arms and hold her, but knowing that to do so would make matters so much worse. With a final look back at her slumped shoulders and bowed head, I go to follow Diego from the room. Not because I want to watch him torture someone who’s part of the family that tried to destroy mine, but because being this close to Isabella, and not being able to touch her, is tearing me apart.

“Wait. I want to come too,” her voice calls out, shrill and high-pitched.

Diego and I come to a halt and stare back at her, watching as she pulls herself together. Her shoulders go rigid, her posture straightens, her head rises tall, and her eyes become dark chips of ice. A queen, transformed right before us, into a gladiator, ready to vanquish her enemies. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Isabella.” I voice the words even as my heart is pounding harshly in my chest. She’s agreeing to be in our presence of her own will. As much as I want to be with her, I know that this could further traumatize her, and make things so much worse.

“It’s a good thing I don’t give a shit what you think, Kai.” She walks past us and out the balcony doors, and both Diego and I keep staring after her.

“Fuck,” I groan.

“Yup,” he replies, and then follows our queen right out the door.