Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) (19 page)

“Yes.” Dizzy noticed the brilliant-blue color of the other woman’s collar and the gorgeously stamped letters adorning it.

“I’m Naya.” She held out her hand. “I’m mated to Menace. He’s a friend of Venom.”

“Oh!” Dizzy couldn’t believe her luck. “He told me about you.”

“Good things, I hope,” she said with a laugh.

“Yes.”

“This is going to sound weird,” Naya began, “but we have a friend in common. She actually got a message to me through a man named Dankirk.”

“Ella?”

Naya grinned. “Yes! I hadn’t talked to her in years but I guess she was asking Danny if he knew any of the women aboard the
Valiant
. She’s worried about you. I promised her I would look after you until you get used to it here.” She hesitated. “If you plan to stay, I mean. If you’re not happy I can help you extricate yourself from the bond you’re in…”

“Thanks but I don’t have any plans to leave the ship or Venom.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Venom always struck me as a really nice guy.” Her mouth quirked with a playfully frustrated smile. “He seems much more open to compromise than the big lug who Grabbed me.”

“Big lug? Are we talking about Menace?” Hallie plopped down on the empty seat on the other side of Dizzy. “I’m Hallie.”

“Nice to meet you,” Dizzy said while shaking her hand.

“How are you feeling?” Hallie asked. “Vicious said you were sick and needed surgery. I thought about popping into the hospital to visit and welcome you onboard but they discharged you pretty quickly.”

“I feel great. Better than ever actually,” she admitted.

“That’s good.” Hallie smiled genuinely. “You’ll find that the medical teams here are amazing.” She glanced at Naya. “They brought her back from the brink of death.”

Dizzy’s eyes widened. “What happened to you?”

“It was a family thing that got a little messy. Thankfully there was a dart—one of their super-fast ships—to transport me to the
Mercy
. It’s basically a flying hospital. They’re really wonderful there.” Naya dismissively waved her hand. “So—I hear you’re a designer.”

“I am.” She hesitated. “Or, I guess, I was. I’m not really sure how it works up here.”

Hallie inhaled a noisy breath and stretched out her short legs. “It’s complicated. The men here are willing to make a lot of adjustments for us but the working thing is a sticking point for all of them.”

Dizzy frowned and glanced at Naya. “But I understood you own a business here.”

“I do but I’m what they consider a ‘special case’.” She made air quotes around the words. “Because I nearly died on a mission that saved a lot of lives, they gave me a sort of dispensation to do whatever the hell I want. Menace is easygoing when it comes to the working thing and doesn’t mind in the least—but he’s definitely in the minority around here. By and large, these men are
extremely
traditional.”

“Not Venom,” Dizzy said confidently. “I’m sure he’ll support my decision to continue designing dresses and other clothing.”

“I hope so,” Naya said carefully.

“He will.” Dizzy remembered his assertion that he hadn’t Grabbed her to be his house slave. Surely he understood that she loved her work as much as he loved his.

“If you do decide to keep designing, you come see me, okay? I’ve got plenty of space in my shop for your clothes. I can get any fabric you want.” Naya reached into her purse and withdrew her tablet. “Did Venom teach you how to share between tablets?”

“Um…yes.” Dizzy tapped her screen until she found the little icon for sharing. “This way, right?”

“Yeah.” Naya smiled and touched their tablets together to start a transfer. “Danny was able to get Ella to a spot where she could call in with a message for you. If you want to send her a message, you’ll have to go through official channels.”

“There are instructions for submitting messages in the handouts from today’s meeting,” Hallie reminded her. “Venom can walk you through the process.”

When the file finished transferring, Naya tucked her tablet back into her bag and stood. “I have to get going. Menace and I have an appointment in the medical bay.”

“Oh right!” Hallie grinned up at her friend. “Today is the big day, huh?”

Naya’s mouth curved in a bright smile. “Yep.”

Confused, Dizzy asked, “The big day?”

“Tattoos,” Naya clarified. Touching her chest, she explained, “Menace is having our new family crest applied today. I’m having his initial put on my wrists.”

“Women are encouraged to get tattoos too?” Venom hadn’t mentioned anything about that.

“It’s very common here,” Naya assured her. “Hallie had hers done after her wedding but I’m having mine done before we officially tie the knot Calyx style.”

What would it be like to have Venom’s mark on her body? Dizzy discovered the idea thrilled her more than she ever could have anticipated.

“You’re invited to the wedding tomorrow evening,” Naya added. “They don’t do pretty paper invitations up here. It’s just a message in your inbox.”

Hallie frowned. “They’re so romantic up here.”

“Right?” Naya laughed and patted Dizzy’s shoulder. “It was nice to meet you. Come see me sometime. Menace and I are right across the hall from you. Maybe we could get together for dinner or something?”

“Sure. Sounds great.”

“Fantastic.” Naya flicked Hallie’s arm. “I’ll drop by to show you the new tattoo later. I hope it meets your artistic standards.”

Dizzy wasn’t quite sure what that inside joke meant but Hallie explained it as Naya sashayed away, her slim-fitting skirt hugging her knockout curves to perfection. “I drew their crest.”

“Oh. You’re an artist?”

“I do small commissions for friends and colleagues of my husband.” Hallie studied her. “Would you let me draw you?”

“Sure. Why not? Sounds fun.” Dizzy had lived around artsy types for so many years. She had a sneaking suspicion she would bond with Hallie over art paper and charcoal.

“Kitten?” The gravelly, rumbling voice of the general interrupted their pleasant conversation. He stood off to the side, hands clasped behind his back as he waited for his wife to acknowledge him.

Hallie smiled at him, the warm brightness in her eyes reflecting her deep love for this man. “Vicious, have you met Dizzy yet?”

The general’s light-colored eyes landed on her. He let the tiniest hint of a smile crack his harsh face. “Ma’am.”

Hallie rolled her eyes and climbed to her feet. “He’s such a social butterfly.”

His lips settled into a thin line but Dizzy didn’t miss the little twitch of amusement that played upon them. Holding out his hand, he wiggled his fingers. “I massaged my schedule a bit to make room for lunch. Unless…?”

Dizzy caught his questioning gaze darting her way. “Oh don’t miss lunch on my account. I’m sure Venom will be here soon to pick me up.”

Hallie gave Dizzy a quick hug. “It was so nice to meet you. I’ll give you a call tomorrow, okay? We’ll figure out a time to get together.”

“I’d like that.” Dizzy stepped aside and watched Hallie and Vicious leave hand in hand. Alone, she gathered up the handouts and her tablet and started across the room.

When she neared the exit Venom stepped through the doorway. His alert gaze scanned the space and finally stopped upon her. He strode toward her, his powerful legs eating up the distance between them. She thought he might swing her up in his arms but he stopped himself from indulging what he truly wanted.

Sliding his hand to her nape, he dragged her tight to his chest and bent down to capture her mouth in a gentle, easy kiss. “I missed you.”

She laughed. “Venom, it was two hours.”

“It was the longest two hours of my life.”

“I doubt that very much.”

He tapped the point of her nose. “I’ve got a way we could kill another two hours.”

Her belly flip-flopped wildly. “I’m intrigued.”

He laughed and slipped his arm around her shoulders to steer her out of the room. “I bet you are.”

They made their way to an empty elevator and stepped inside. They chatted about the meeting and the two new friends she had made. Venom seemed genuinely happy that she had hit it off with Naya and Hallie.

“I know that no one can replace Ella but I hope you can find good friends here.”

“I think I’m off to a promising start with those two. Naya invited me to drop by her shop whenever I’d like. She even offered me some space in her shop.”

Venom shot her a strange look. “For what?”

“My dresses.”

He turned so he could peer down into her face. “What dresses?”

She couldn’t read his expression. Was he angry? “The ones I plan to design and sell.”

“I see.” His jaw tensed. “You didn’t think that I might want to be consulted before you made a decision like this?”

“Well…I thought you wouldn’t care. I mean—this is my job. It’s what I do. I design, sew and sell dresses. I’m a seamstress, Venom.”

“No,” he countered somewhat gruffly. “You
were
a seamstress. Now you’re my mate.”

Her hackles rose at his insinuation that she could only do one thing or the other. “I can be both, Venom. Lots of women juggle multiple roles. Besides, it would be nice to have the extra income.”

He stiffened. It was almost as if she had verbally slapped him. “I may not earn a salary as large as Vicious or Orion but I make damn good money sticking my neck on the line every day. It’s more than enough to support us.”

Dizzy frowned. “Did I say anything about your salary being too small? Hell—I don’t know how much money you earn. Don’t you think I need to know that?”

He avoided answering her pointed question. “We don’t need the extra income you would receive from selling a couple of dresses.”

“So what? I’m supposed to just sit at home and wait for you to get off work every day?”

“Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious. You know that’s ridiculous.”

“So now my culture is ridiculous?”

“Stop putting words in my mouth, Venom. I don’t know what your problem is but I’m not going to stop designing and sewing.”

“You can design and sew for yourself but that’s it. You will not sell your dresses for money.”

Her eyebrows arched to her hairline. “Are you forbidding me from working and earning a living?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth gaped at the harshness in his voice. This version of Venom was a man she hardly recognized. Had she been that badly fooled over the last five days with him? Was this the
real
Venom, this obstinate, uncompromising jerk?

“Naya has a shop.”

“You’re not Naya.” He pointed out the obvious. “She’s a war hero. She nearly died and saved thousands of lives.”

Dizzy couldn’t even find the words to reply to that. What he said was bad enough but what he
didn’t
say hurt even more. He had just made it perfectly clear that he considered her
less
than Naya. She wasn’t brave or heroic. She was just a woman who designed frilly dresses.

She backed away from him until the elevator wall stopped her retreat. “Is that really what you think of me?”

His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Before she could explain how he had hurt her feelings, Venom’s watch beeped loudly. He growled with irritation and studied the screen. “Shit.” He smacked the navigation screen of the elevator and changed their destination. “This discussion will have to wait.”

She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to hash this out now but something in his voice told her this wasn’t the time. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a hostage situation aboard the
Arctis
. My SRU team is deploying and they need me.” He rubbed his jaw. “You’ll have to wait in the office I share with Raze. There isn’t time to take you back to our quarters.”

“Okay.” She was taken aback by the fierce glint that had suddenly overtaken his blue eyes.

In a few short minutes, she had witnessed three different sides to Venom. There was the gentle, sweet lover she had come to know and crave. There was the harsh, traditional male who wanted her to live within the pretty little box his culture created for wives. And then there was this man—the brutal warrior who had survived so many horrific battles.

The elevator doors opened up into a noisy hallway. She heard a man shouting orders and the sounds of boots slamming against the floor. Venom gripped her hand and dragged her down the hall. One wall was see-through and gave her a clear view of a dozen men gearing up in frightening uniforms and loading up with weapons.

A great big bull of a man stepped into the hallway. “Ven, this isn’t a daycare.”

“Not in the mood, Raze.” Venom’s feet didn’t slow and she had to scurry to keep up with him.

Raze? She glanced back over her shoulder to stare at her husband’s best friend. The soldier had the broadest chest she had ever seen and was a good two or three inches taller than Venom. He didn’t seem happy to see her trespassing in this very male domain.

Venom unlocked a door and tugged her into a nicely appointed office. He carefully steered her into a chair. “Don’t move. I’m locking the door behind me. You stay here and you’ll be safe.” His fingertips traced the front of her collar. “Don’t forget what I told you about the men who snatch brides. This isn’t the time to go exploring the ship.”

“I understand.” The very idea of it terrified her.

Venom’s hard expressions softened some. “I know you’re mad at me about what I said in the elevator.” He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead. “We’ll figure it out.”

Not wanting him to run off into a crazy, dangerous situation with an argument between them, she grasped the front of his uniform shirt and jerked him down for a real kiss. He groaned softly against her mouth and deepened the kiss, flicking his tongue against hers before reluctantly breaking away. Dizzy stroked his cheek. “Please be careful.”

“I will, sugar.”

And then he was gone, rushing out of the room and locking her into the office to await his return.

She prayed he would come back to her in one piece.

“Is your head in the game or do I need to pull you off this mission?”

Venom glanced at Raze. His question bordered on insult as far as Venom was concerned. He had never, not once, allowed his personal issues to cloud his judgment. “I’m here. My head’s right.”

Raze’s pointed stare bored into him like a drill bit. “I realize I should be a good friend and ask you what the hell is going on between you and that blonde pixie you Grabbed—but we don’t have time. We’re hitting the deck of the
Arctis
in less than three minutes.”

“I’m fine. It’s under control.” Venom didn’t try to hide his irritation with Raze’s incessant prodding. “Let it go, boss.”

“All right.” Raze seemed reluctant but did as asked. He turned his attention to Cipher, the brilliant engineer who was as deadly with his algorithms as he was with a weapon. “Intel?”

“The subject is a twenty-seven-year-old male named Ben from Grogan’s Mill. He appears to be the ex-boyfriend or fiancé of Kate, the woman he’s currently holding hostage at gunpoint. He faked his papers to get onto the transport ship for family day and posed as the victim’s brother. He’s shot and killed one policeman and wounded three bystanders. The medics can’t reach one of the victims. He’s critical and needs immediate transport.”

Venom studied the intel screen strapped to his forearm. Cipher sent a live feed of the situation to their devices. He zeroed in on the injured man, another visitor from Calyx, sprawled facedown on the floor. Two small but growing blood pools framed his still body.

Ben, the hostage-taker, clamped a sobbing, nearly hysterical woman to his front. The subject had kicked over a couple of tables to form a fortified position so Venom quickly assessed the space for areas with higher vantage points. He had a sinking feeling this call was going to end badly and wanted to narrow down the possibilities for a perch.

“The subject is boxed in?” Venom noticed the policemen guarding the exit points and the perimeter of the
Arctis
food court.

“Yes,” Cipher confirmed.

“So let’s take some of the pressure off,” Raze ordered. “We need to give this guy some breathing room and see if we can get him to talk. Priorities are the hostage and the wounded bystander. Ven?”

He didn’t have to ask what Raze wanted. If talking the subject down failed, they would have few choices to end the situation. “I’m on tactical options.”

“Cipher, run intel on this guy and this woman. Find someone who knows them. I need to know the score between this couple.”

“Working on it already, boss.”

Venom gathered four team members and quickly laid out three tactical plans. Once they docked with the
Arctis
, they deployed to the food court with maximum speed. Venom quietly signaled his men to take up a perimeter around the victim and the subject, replacing the policeman who had kept the situation contained.

Smiling broadly and projecting friendliness, Raze cautiously approached and made himself visible. “Ben, my name is Raze. I’m a member of the Special Response Unit and I’m just here to talk.”

“Stay back!” Ben shouted as his wild-eyed gaze darted around the cavernous space. “You stay back or I swear to god I’ll put a bullet through her brain right now.”

“Okay.” Raze moved back a few steps and held his hands up in front of him. Still smiling, he said, “We’re hanging back and giving you some space but I need to get some medics in there to retrieve that wounded man.”

“Stay back!” Ben’s shout echoed in the evacuated food court.

“Ben,” Raze said calmly, “I hear you, man. Okay? I know that you’re feeling cornered but I need you to understand that I cannot help you out of this if more people die. Let me send three men out to grab this wounded man and then we can talk about what I can do for you.”

Venom’s adrenaline amped up as he prepared to move forward with extricating the wounded man. Fierce and Threat sidled up next to him with two of their heavy-duty shields. The mic attached to his uniform and tied in to the earbud he wore allowed the team to communicate. “We’re in position, boss.”

“Copy that.” Raze continued to negotiate with the hostage-taker. “Ben, this guy is badly wounded. He’s bleeding everywhere. Let me send my guys in to drag him out and then we can talk about what you want.”

“What I want?” Ben snarled furiously. “What I fucking want you took from me!”

Venom eyed the growing blood pool on the floor. The witness reports stated the injured man had been hit in the legs and arms. They weren’t immediately fatal wounds but that much blood loss presented a serious problem. He glanced at Fierce and Threat who nodded with understanding. This wasn’t going to be an easy extraction but it had to be done.

“Ben, I hear you. I understand you. But Ben, I need you to look at this man you shot. He’s not one of us. He didn’t take anything from you. He’s one of your people. He’s innocent. He has family. Please let us help him.”

Venom watched as Ben’s panicked gaze darted from Raze to the small team he headed and back again to the boss. “Yeah. Okay. They can take him.” He lifted his weapon menacingly and pressed it against the woman’s temple. “If they try anything stupid she’s dead. You understand?”

“Yes, Ben, I understand you.” Raze tried to build rapport with the hostage-taker. “My team is going to slowly walk out, grab the injured man and retreat. Then we can talk. Okay?”

Ben nodded jerkily. He swung the poor woman he held around, putting her body between his and Venom’s advancing team. The sight of a man using an unarmed woman as a shield sickened Venom but he pushed down his disgust to focus solely on the job at hand—rescuing the injured man.

Safe behind Fierce and Threat’s shields, Venom gripped the wounded man under the arms and dragged him out of the line of fire and beyond the perimeter to the medics who waited. Two bloody streaks marked the path they had taken.

After handing off the injured man, Venom silently delivered orders to his men with a series of hand signals. They fanned out to take their new tactical positions. As Venom moved to the spot he had picked, he caught sight of Terror. The Shadow Force operative wore a murderous expression. Venom was reminded of his friend’s quip about farmers and pitchforks. Clearly somewhere the security chain had been broken.

“Thank you, Ben. You’re a good guy. I can tell you don’t want anyone else to get hurt.” Raze thought nothing of the sort but he was damn good at telling gun-wielding subjects whatever they wanted to hear if it mean a peaceful resolution.

“Boss,” Cipher’s voice carried across the team’s earbuds, “we’ve got a problem. The female hostage is thirteen weeks pregnant. Her husband is a fighter pilot and he’s arrived at the perimeter. He says this Ben character was her childhood sweetheart but he was wrapped up in that League of Concerned Citizens group and she broke up with him right before she was Grabbed.”

“What’s this league?” Raze asked the question they were all thinking.

“Shadow Force suspects they’re a front for the Splinters.”

“Great.” Raze’s grumbled answer mirrored Venom’s feeling. An armed and highly agitated man with possible ties to a terrorist group holding hostage a woman pregnant by the Harcos male who had taken her away from him? This had shitstorm written all over it.

“Ben, let’s talk about what I can do to help you, okay? Because, man, you’re looking a little boxed in here. I have a feeling this day didn’t go quite the way you had anticipated but it’s all right. I can help you.”

“You can’t help me.” Ben glanced around nervously. “I’m on my own now.”

Now?
Venom wondered at Ben’s choice of words as he moved into position.
Is there an accomplice lurking in the crowd? Maybe an inside man?
It would explain how he had been able to board the transport ship with a fake ID and get his hands on a weapon once aboard the
Arctis
.

With the practice of so many years staring down a scope, Venom picked a spot beside a column and behind a fake potted tree. His rifle felt so natural in his hand. He treated it as an extension of his body. Painfully aware of its deadliness, he treated the rifle with the respect it deserved. This wasn’t a weapon to be used lightly. This was a weapon of last resort.

But the tactics Raze attempted with the crazed man weren’t working. The minutes ticked by as Raze tried to build rapport but Ben couldn’t be reached. He grew more agitated and panicked. This man, this Ben from Grogan’s Mill, had boarded that transport ship earlier in the morning with one sole purpose—he wanted to kill this woman and then take his own life.

“Boss, I have the solution.” Venom stared down the scope at the gun-wielding subject.

“Understood.” Raze continued to attempt to reach Ben through negotiation. “Ben, put the gun down and talk to me. Let me help you find a way out of this situation.”

Ben gripped the gun even tighter and brought it back up toward the female hostage’s face. “There’s no way out of this.”

Venom’s finger itched against the trigger. Ben had already killed one man and attempted to kill three others. Venom wasn’t going to give this bastard the chance to hurt that woman or her baby.

“There is, Ben,” Raze hurriedly assured him. “But you have to lower your weapon.”

The subject swallowed and scanned the room. He let his arm fall and pulled the gun away from the woman’s face.

“Thank you, Ben. I appreciate your cooperation. You need to remember that if that gun comes up again, you’re going to force our hands. Do you understand?”

Ben nodded. “Yeah. I get it.”

“Good. Ben, tell me what I can do to help you.”

The man perked up suddenly. “You can stop taking our women!”

Was this a politically motivated hostage situation? Venom couldn’t wrap his head around this guy. First, it seemed as though Ben had taken the woman and shot up the place because his love for her had been twisted into something cruel and dark.

Now Venom suspected someone in that stupid league of his or even a Splinter member had wound this poor jackass up, shoved a gun in his hand and pushed him onto that transport ship on a suicide mission. There was no end to the list of people who wanted to cause problems between the Harcos warriors and the people of Calyx.

“Ben, that’s a demand that goes above my pay grade. If I had the power to save Kate’s life by ending the Grabs, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

“Bullshit.”

Raze kept that smile of his plastered in place. “It’s not bullshit.”

“You expect me to believe an officer like you doesn’t have one of our women chained up in your bedroom?”

“I don’t have a mate anymore. The one I did have for a short while was from my home planet. She came to me of her own volition. I didn’t need to steal a woman to find a bride.”

“That’s because you’re a real man,” Ben remarked. “You’re not like these other cowardly dicks who come down and take our women.”

“I understand your frustration, Ben.”

“What happened to your wife?” The arm Ben had clamped around Kate slid down a little as his grip loosened.

Venom didn’t take his eye off the scope but he could imagine that vein in Raze’s temple jumping at the very mention of his first mate.

“She left me.” Raze spoke the words calmly and without any hint of the embarrassment and pain his old friend still felt. “For a man from the colonies. For one of you.”

“Because you beat on her?”

“No,” Raze said with a sigh. “No, she left me because I failed to understand her needs.”

“Yeah?” Ben flicked his wrist but kept the gun still pointed at the ground. His arm tightened against Kate’s throat and he curled his fingers in her hair. He pulled hard enough to make her cry out in pain. “Then you know what it feels like to have your damn heart ripped out of your chest and stomped on by the woman you loved.”

“Ben! You don’t need to do that. Kate isn’t the one you’re angry at, remember? It’s us.” Raze touched his chest. “It was men like me who forced her into a Grab and stole her away from you.”

Venom’s cheek twitched as he watched Raze deliberately drawing Ben’s anger—and his gunfire. Despite the bulletproof vest his friend wore, that hard head of his would make an easy target. He kept his weapon trained on the subject and his finger at the ready. Their rules of engagement required him to wait for Raze to give the final okay to take a kill shot—unless a member of the team or a victim was in immediate danger.

“Ben—this isn’t her fault.”

“It is! She
wanted
this. She traded her number with her sister. She
abandoned
me.” Ben let loose a guttural sob, the very sound so painfully raw that it made Venom flinch. With a rough shove, he pushed the woman to the ground. The gun remained pointed toward the floor as Kate managed to get up on her knees.

Weeping, she begged, “Ben,
please
.”

“You humiliated me, Kate. You ran out and left me. I loved you.”

Hugging her middle, Kate pleaded, “Ben, don’t.
Please.
I’m pregnant.”

The moment her condition registered, Ben’s eyes turned cold and dead. Venom recognized the signs that the subject was shutting down. He focused solely on the target, no longer thinking of Ben as a red-blooded man in the grips of a breakdown. He thought of him simply as violent, dangerous thing that needed to be neutralized.

Venom didn’t hear whatever Ben uttered so maliciously and nastily at Kate. Time seemed to slow as the gun lifted toward the woman’s belly. He didn’t hesitate or wait for Raze to make the call. Venom squeezed the trigger—and ended the standoff.

Fierce and Threat rushed in with Raze not far behind them to secure the gunman and sweep the hostage to safety. Venom inhaled deep cleansing breaths as the old feelings of dread crept along his spine and gripped his throat.

Even though he tried not to think about the growing tally of lives he had taken in the call of duty, Venom couldn’t stop the number that danced around in his head. In his early days of training to be a sniper, it was a count that would have inspired awe in him. Now? It made his stomach pitch violently.