Saved by Venom: 3 (Grabbed) (20 page)

Across the controlled chaos, Venom met Raze’s steady gaze. His best friend understood better than anyone the burden Venom carried. After a call like this, the team would debrief and then Venom would usually go spend some time with Raze to talk and decompress.

But Dizzy was anxiously awaiting his return—and he had no idea how the hell he was supposed to face her after taking another man’s life.

* * * * *

Dizzy fidgeted nervously as she waited for Venom to return. Terrible images rushed through her mind. Logically she understood he dealt with dangerous situations like these on a regular basis but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. She massaged her temples and wondered why the hell she couldn’t have been Grabbed by a damn clerk or something.

Was this how it would be once their honeymoon was over and Venom returned to his usual duty rotation? Would she be left to sit alone in their quarters and worry about him while he was out saving the world?

Their earlier argument in the elevator made her chest ache. She liked Venom so much but that nonsense about her not working was something she couldn’t accept. He had to realize that cultural differences went both ways. She was already making huge concessions for him to accommodate
his
culture. The least he could do was make one or two for her.

Annoyed with the constant throbbing under her collar, Dizzy gingerly touched the inflamed area where the leather strip rubbed against her scars. It was driving her completely batty. Venom and his people considered these collars to be as good as wedding bands but she couldn’t stand another minute of wearing it.

Locked inside the office, she figured it was safe to remove the collar marking her as Venom’s property. She sighed with relief as she peeled the collar away from her skin. In the last few days she had tried everything to cut down on the irritation but short of not wearing the collar, nothing had worked. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Venom’s feelings but this damn thing had to go.

Spinning in the desk chair, Dizzy scanned the large office Venom shared with Raze. It was an extremely manly space and so very bland. Everything in the room was a shade of gray. She found it oddly disorienting.

Her gaze dropped to her bag. She thought of her tablet and the message Naya had transferred to her device. Feeling homesick, Dizzy dug her tablet out of her bag and located the message from her friend. There was no video like the sample messages Venom had shown her when teaching her how to use the device but Ella’s voice came through loud and clear.

“Dizzy! I’m not sure how long I have so I’ll make it quick.” Ella’s voice turned serious. “Look, I ran into your dad. He looked like he was about to cut out of town and go underground. Something isn’t right about that debt he said he owed to Fat Pete. Yesterday, I ran into some of his knee-breakers. They were asking about you and I blew them off. I have a weird feeling about it. I’m heading out to Blue Shores until the smoke clears.”

After Dizzy’s run-in with Pierce and Torment, she didn’t know what to believe anymore. She suspected the two Shadow Force operatives knew much more about the deal that had forced her father to sell her lottery number but they weren’t going to share that information with her. Was her dad in serious trouble?

“Anyway, I realize that none of that helps you now—but I thought you needed to know. I’m not sure what’s going on here but I’m worried about you.” Her voice grew sad. “I miss you so much. I can’t wait to see you again. Naya said that there’s a visitation program and you better put my name at the top of that list!” With a smile in her voice, she added, “I hope you’re doing well and that his new guy of yours realizes how damn lucky he is to have Grabbed you.”

As Ella’s voice faded away, Dizzy experienced a crushing wave of sadness. The last five days with Venom suddenly seemed rather dreamlike and almost unreal. Hearing Ella and thinking about her father dragged her back to a reality that she had been avoiding. It was so easy to allow herself to be swept up in the romance and excitement of her new bond with Venom—but that didn’t mean her life on Calyx simply stopped existing.

What was the real story between her dad and Fat Pete? What in the world could the underworld player possibly need so badly from her father?

Dizzy didn’t want to think about the stupid blood test that said Jack Lane, the only father she had ever known, wasn’t her biological parent, but it was impossible to avoid now. How in the world was she going to bring up
that
topic with him? It would a painful conversation and one she would give anything to avoid.

Footsteps in the hallway outside the locked office door caught her attention. Dizzy glanced at the door. Was Venom back?

The door handle rattled as someone tested it to see if it was locked. Her heart leapt into her throat. Venom knew the door was locked so that definitely wasn’t him on the other side of the door. Standing perfectly still and holding her breath, Dizzy listened for any signs that the person on the other side of the door had left.

Beeping sounds terrified her. Someone was trying to unlock the door using the keypad out there. Visions of an oversexed sky warrior breaking into the office to steal her pushed Dizzy into a panicked state. She scanned the room for a place to hide and picked Raze’s big desk.

Grateful for her small size, Dizzy grabbed her bag, tablet and collar and scuttled around to the other desk. She slipped down underneath it, squeezing herself into the small alcove there and dragging Raze’s chair up tight against her shoulder to provide better camouflage.

Curled into a tight little ball, Dizzy sucked the smallest, quietest breaths into her lungs. The door opened with a long squeak. Boots tapped against the floor as a man entered the office. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this scared. Eyes closed, Dizzy prayed Venom would return soon.

The man walked to the desk closest to the door—Venom’s desk—and started to rifle though the drawers. He tapped at the computer screen for a few minutes and made annoyed sounds. He wasn’t finding what he needed, whatever that was. She heard him moving around the office, digging through cabinets and tapping at keypads.

When he neared Raze’s desk, she almost passed out from sheer terror. He was too close. There was no way he would miss her. If he sat down in that chair, she was dead meat.

Suddenly her stomach started to cramp. She couldn’t tell if it was a side effect of fear or the fact that she had missed lunch. She clenched her eyes shut and prayed her belly wouldn’t make any noise. In a space this small and with the room so quiet, the intruder would never miss it.

Her prayers weren’t going to be answered today. As the man walked away from Raze’s desk, a loud growl followed by a quick gurgle erupted from her tummy. Dizzy’s fingers curled into tight fists. She gulped nervously.
Did he hear that?

Heavy, quick footsteps pivoted back toward the desk. Before she could move the man roughly shoved the desk out of the way and forced her out into the open. Dropping her bag and tablet, she scrambled to her feet as the sky warrior leered lecherously.

“Well, well, well. Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

“Stay back!” She held up her hands but it was a futile move. This soldier wasn’t quite as tall or as solidly built as Venom but he still dwarfed her. “My husband—my mate—will hurt you if you try to touch me.”

“What mate? I don’t see a collar on that neck.”

She gulped and reached up to touch her naked skin. She frantically glanced around the room and spotted it on the floor. Before she could reach it, the soldier cornering her grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket. She noticed his name tag. Axis was his name. “Give me back my collar!”

Axis shrugged. “What collar? Besides, collar or not, I don’t see this mate of yours hanging around here. You’re alone—and that makes you fair game.”

“If you take one step closer, I’ll scream.”

A sickeningly triumphant grin stretched his mouth. “Go ahead. No one will hear you. All of the SRU teams are deployed. We’re all alone.”

Oh god.
“Please—just leave me alone. Venom will be back soon. He’s going to be furious.”

“He should be furious at himself for leaving such a tempting little morsel alone.”

The way Axis licked his lips disgusted her. She had no doubt that this brute wanted to get her naked and underneath him as quickly as possible. Well—screw him. She wasn’t going down without a fight.

Snatching the closest chair, Dizzy hefted it up with all her might and swung it right at the man who had broken into the office. She caught him off guard and slammed the chair into his shoulder. It knocked him off balance. He stumbled backward, tripped over a stack of ammo boxes and fell flat on his ass.

Dizzy booked it.

Out in the hallway she headed straight for the elevator that had brought her to the SRU offices but she couldn’t get it to activate. That was when she remembered her ID chip would only allow her to access certain areas. Cursing the stupid chip, she spun on her heel—and spotted an enraged Axis racing out of the office.

She darted across the hall into the gear room. Slamming the door behind her, she tried to get it to lock but it was activated by a code she didn’t have. Grabbing a broom, she fed it through the handles of the double door and raced deeper into the gear room.

There weren’t many places to hide—but there were more than enough weapons. She couldn’t fire a gun, of course, but there were plenty of heavy things for her to throw and sharp things for her to stab at him.

Axis gave the door three good kicks but couldn’t get the metal broom handle to give. He wasn’t about to let that stop him. She could see him through the glass wall. At first he looked as though he might try to break the see-through pane but then he ran down to the next entrance.

Shit.

Dizzy hadn’t counted on that. His boots hit the floor hard as he raced through the other door and closed the distance between them. Grabbing anything that wasn’t nailed down, she chucked things at his head. More often than not, she hit her target. It still wasn’t enough to stop him. Axis was a man on a mission and he wasn’t leaving empty-handed.

When she ran out of things to throw, the man snatched for her. She twisted away but he grabbed a handful of her skirt. With one good jerk, he tore the delicate fabric. She kicked out at him and screamed as she realized how very close she was to being assaulted. “Leave me alone!”

“Give it up!” Axis gripped her forearm hard enough to leave bruises and swung her around to face him. “You’re mine now.”

“Like hell!” She smacked him right in the face. “I belong to Venom.”

Axis laughed and pushed her down onto the floor. “Not anymore.”

“No!” She put up both hands and shoved at his chest as the man pinned her to the floor. “Get off me!”

“Leave her alone!” Another male voice, this one booming and angry, cut through her panic. She glanced at the doorway and saw a man in exercise clothes standing there. His gleaming silver leg got her attention. She had never seen anything like it.

Despite his injury, the man with the metal leg sprinted across the room with such speed and finesse. As if kicking a ball, he slammed the toe of his metal prosthesis right into the other man’s gut. Axis flew off her and hit the floor—but he didn’t stay down long.

The man with the missing leg snatched Dizzy up and tossed her onto the closest counter. Squaring off with Axis, he lifted his hands and made a come-and-take me motion. Like two wild street dogs, the men rushed each other and began to brawl.

Crouching on the steel counter, Dizzy decided she was
never
leaving their quarters again. These men were all crazy!

She could hardly stand to watch as the two men pummeled each other with their fists. Every now and then one of them would land a good punch. The sounds of knuckles smacking against flesh sickened her. She had never been able to stomach violence. Seeing it up this close was too much for her.

Over the constant growling and punching and cursing, Dizzy heard the faintest ding of the elevator. She crawled to the very end of the countertop and didn’t stop until her face was basically pressed against the transparent wall. The moment she spotted Venom and his team coming down the hall she started to pound on the glass.

“
Venom!
Venom!
Hurry!
”

Her mate’s blue eyes widened with shock. She could only imagine what she must have looked like, hiding up on that counter with her hair a mess and dress torn. His gaze flicked over her shoulder to the brawling men behind her. The cold glare that replaced his stunned expression chilled her to the very bone.

Oh, boy. It’s about to get ugly.

“Dizzy!”

The sight of his sweet mate’s terrified face and ripped dress enraged Venom. If it hadn’t been for Raze’s hand clamping down on his shoulder, Venom would have put his boot through the glass to get to her. Instead he managed to shove down the overwhelming urge to protect and defend her so he could think straight.

He sprinted into the room and edged around Mayhem and a sky corps soldier he didn’t recognize. Though he wanted so badly to join the brawl and beat on the man who had scared Dizzy, he recognized that she needed to be comforted and reassured more than he needed to satisfy his desire to hurt that bastard for scaring her.

“Come here, sugar.” He stepped up to the counter where Dizzy perched like a bird. The moment he was close enough she launched herself at him. He caught her easily and cradled her. Burying his nose in her sweetly scented hair, he whispered, “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

She sobbed against his neck. “He tried but I’m okay.”

Though her dress was shredded from the waist down, she didn’t seem to have been molested any further. It was a small comfort to him. Already her arms were purpling with fingertip-shaped bruises from being grabbed. He gingerly brushed his palm over the spots marking her soft skin. “Oh, honey…”

Guilt wracked Venom. He had promised to protect her but he had left her locked in a room where anyone could have gotten to her.

And someone had.

Still holding Dizzy, Venom glared at the man Mayhem had in a headlock. “Who the fuck is he?”

“Name tag says Axis,” Fierce answered in that slow, country-boy drawl of his. “He’s not a face I know.”

“He’s an engineer,” Cipher supplied. “From down in the coding department, I think. He works in IT for the ship.”

“Is that so?” Raze stood in front of the man and leveled an icy stare. “I suppose that’s how he busted the lock on our office.”

“I didn’t, sir. It was unlocked. She was out in the hall.”

Dizzy gasped. “I was not. I was hiding under the desk when he broke into the room!”

Raze used the toe of his boot to lift Axis’ bloody chin. “You want to try that again, skyboy?”

Axis swallowed nervously. “Okay. All right. Yes. I hacked the keypad.”

“Why?” Raze demanded.

The engineer hesitated. “I heard you were making the shortlist of invitations for the next round of SRU tryouts. I tried to access the list from my work console but your system is walled off from the rest of the ship.”

“For good reason, jackass,” Cipher retorted with frustration. “It’s to keep rubberneckers like you from digging through our highly sensitive files.”

Axis didn’t respond to Cipher’s cutting remark. He turned accusing eyes toward Dizzy. “
She
came on to
me
.”

“I did not!” Dizzy’s hold on Venom’s waist tightened.

“She’s not even wearing a collar.” Axis gestured toward her. “She practically begged me to take her away from you.”

“Enough of the lies,” Venom growled. “My mate is shaking with fear. Her dress is torn.”

He brushed his gloved fingertips along her bare neck. The sight of her without his collar was like a knife to the heart. It was obvious she had removed it after their argument. There had been no mistaking how upset she was with him back in the elevator. Was she angry enough to want to end their bond? After the wives’ meeting she would know that it was a relatively simple procedure to get rid of him.

The thought of losing her punched him in the gut. Sliding his arm across her chest, he pulled her back against him in a public sign of possession. “Collar or no collar, she belongs to me.”

Dizzy clasped his forearm in a display of agreement. His fear of her leaving lessened. Hopefully she had simply removed the collar in a fit of anger and not because she truly wanted to leave him for being such an asshole in the elevator.

“He has my collar in his pocket. He took it from me.”

Venom loosened his embrace of Dizzy and stalked across the room. He ripped the front pockets on Axis’ uniform shirt and Dizzy’s collar tumbled into his hand. “You haven’t earned the right to the responsibility that comes with one of these.”

Gripping the bridal collar, Venom returned to Dizzy. She clung to his side and he soothingly caressed her back.

“Mayhem, how did you get tangled up in this?” Raze turned his attention to the busted-up soldier hoping to make the next SRU team.

“I was on my way to the gym upstairs and thought I would drop in to talk to you about the upcoming trials. I heard a commotion and found him on top of her. I figured any woman hanging out here had to be the mate of one of the SRU men.” Mayhem narrowed his eyes and ran a hand along his swollen jaw. “Mated or not, she needed to be defended from that piece of trash.”

“I didn’t even hurt her!” Axis continued to dig his hole. “I just wanted to scare her a little.”

If Dizzy hadn’t been clinging to him Venom would have given in to the desire to slam his fist right into the man’s nose. “Get him out of here before I do something very stupid.”

Raze nodded. “Secure him in the weight room until the MPs come for him.”

Fierce jerked Axis to his feet and roughly shoved him toward the door. “Move.”

“Ma’am?” Cipher came forward with a clean shirt he’d grabbed from his locker. “Would you like this shirt?”

Dizzy smiled gratefully. “Thank you.”

Venom took the shirt and pulled it down over her head. Though Cipher wasn’t quite as tall as he the length of the shirt was more than enough to cover her ripped skirt. He cupped the back of Dizzy’s head and gazed down into her watery brown eyes. She still seemed a bit dazed by the terrible experience.

Her lower lip trembled. “I want to go home.”

Venom’s gut clenched painfully. Of course she did. After the way he had snapped at her in the elevator and then left her exposed to that brute Axis, he couldn’t blame her for wanting to bail on him. If their situations had been reversed he probably would have wanted to return to his planet too.

But he couldn’t let her go without a fight. “I can’t let you go now.”

Her brows knitted. “Please? Just get someone to escort me to our quarters. I don’t want to be here anymore.”

The painful ball in his belly stopped throbbing. She didn’t want to go home to Calyx. She wanted to return to
their
home. Maybe there was still time for him salvage this. “I would prefer for you to wait here while I debrief.”

“She can wait in my office,” Cipher offered. “It’s comfortable and quiet. We’ll take turns standing guard if that will make you feel more secure, ma’am.”

Dizzy hesitated but eventually nodded. “Okay.”

Raze led the way out of the gear room. Venom kept his arm around Dizzy’s shoulders while Cipher trailed them. Threat stayed behind with the rest of the team to put the room back together.

Venom’s stomach soured when they stopped at the office he shared with Raze to gather Dizzy’s things. Seeing the furniture moved haphazardly around the space told him the story of the altercation Dizzy had survived. Raze touched his desk that had been shoved about four feet out of the way and shot a questioning glance her way.

“I was hiding under there,” she explained quietly. “I had been listening to a message from Ella when I heard someone at the door. I thought maybe it was you,” she looked up at him, “but then he tried the handle and I knew it was someone trying to break in to the office. I couldn’t get out so I hid—but he found me. I threw that chair at him and ran.”

Listening to Dizzy recount her ordeal only added to his guilt. He pressed his lips to the crown of her head in a silent apology.

Raze picked up her bag and tablet and handed them over. “Get her situated in Cipher’s office and then meet me in the debriefing suite.”

When they were alone, Venom tried to wrap his collar back around Dizzy’s neck. Her hand flew up and blocked him. “No, Venom. I can’t stand it anymore.”

Taken aback, he reminded her, “Dizzy, this is the way we do things here.”

“But it hurts me.”

At first he thought she meant it was hurting her emotionally or mentally but then she gestured to her neck. The red, irritated skin surrounding her scars just added to his pile of guilt. How the hell had he missed that?

“I’m sorry.” He carefully brushed his fingertips over her chafed skin. “I didn’t realize—”

“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it,” she interjected. “I thought I could get used to it.”

“You never have to get used to pain, Dizzy. I should have recognized that your scars and the collar weren’t going to play nice but apparently I’m dense. Next time you have a problem like this you tell me.”

“I will.”

“Hold out your wrist.” When she followed his order, he wrapped the collar around it twice before securing the latch. “We’ll make do with this until I can figure out something else.”

“Maybe I could only wear it outside our home?”

He didn’t like the idea of her skin being irritated and chafed every time she left their quarters but it was the easiest solution. “We can try that.”

Her small hands moved across his tactical vest, tracing the ammo magazines and cuffs and other gear tucked into the myriad pockets. “You look really scary in this getup.”

His cheek twitched. “That’s sort of the point.”

Her lopsided smile melted some of his tension. “I figured.”

When her gaze moved to his shoulder he sensed she wanted to ask about the rifle strapped to his back but she didn’t. She rubbed his chest. “You should go to your debriefing. I’ll be fine in your friend’s office.”

He didn’t want to leave her but it had to be done. Holding her hand, he led her to Cipher’s office. He spotted a bottle of berry-flavored rehydrating water and a candy bar waiting for her on the desk there. That was just like Cipher to be so considerate and accommodating.

“I won’t be long. An hour tops,” he said while guiding her onto the small couch along the wall. He picked up the snack and presented it to her. “Eat this. I’m sure you’re hungry after missing lunch.”

“Thank you.” She set aside the bottled drink and bar and reached for his gloved hand. “Venom, are you mad at me?”

“What?” He crouched down in front of her and put both hands on her thighs. “No, of course not! What happened with Axis wasn’t your fault. Collar or no collar, he had no right to attack you like that.”

“It’s just that you seem very…cold. I thought maybe you were mad at me for embarrassing you with the collar thing or—”

“No.” He caressed her cheek with his thumb, all the while wishing the fabric of his glove wasn’t between his skin and hers. “The call we were on didn’t end well.”

“Oh.” Her eyes sparked with understand. “
Oh.
”

“After a call like this, it’s better for me to disengage myself from you until my head is back in the right space.”

“Okay. Whatever you need, just tell me, Venom. I can’t even begin to understand what you’re feeling but I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

Her sweet kindness made his heart swell. She didn’t seem horrified by the revelation that he had just ended a man’s life. Perhaps her experiences during the bombing had given her a glimpse of the awful choices that often had to be made to save innocent lives.

Even so, he didn’t want her exposed to any more harshness today. She had seen enough. The last thing she needed to hear were the details of the hostage situation he had ended with deadly force.

“I’ll be back as quickly as possible.”

She leaned forward and captured his mouth in a tender kiss. “I’ll be here waiting for you.”

As Venom backed away and left the office, he wondered if Dizzy would ever comprehend how much those six simple words meant to him.

* * * * *

Later that evening Dizzy reclined against a pillow and tried to focus on the book opened up on her tablet. She was reading a title Raze had recommended on understanding siege-shock and trauma bonds. Her worried gaze flitted from the screen to the open doorway of their bedroom. Venom still hadn’t come to bed and she was concerned about him.

During Venom’s debriefing, Raze had come into the office to chat with her. Even though he seemed uncomfortable alone with her, the great big beast of a man had taken the time to explain more about the hostage situation. He had given her a list of signs to watch for in Venom and made sure his private communications number was programmed into her tablet.

Since returning to their quarters she had watched Venom like a hawk. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be showing any of the troubling signs. Raze had assured her that Venom had his own ways of dealing with the emotional punch of taking a life in the line of duty but he had warned that Venom might be thrown off by having a new mate to contend with in the midst of it all.

Refusing to let Venom pull away from her, Dizzy flipped back the covers and set her tablet on the bedside table. She quietly exited the bedroom and found him sitting in the living area, watching the large entertainment screen fixed on the wall. The lights were totally dimmed and the sports show he was watching cast a strange bluish glow about him.

His alert gaze snapped toward her the moment she appeared in the doorway. He quickly twisted in his seat to face her and raised his voice high enough for the audio sensors in the entertainment console to hear him. “Mute.”

Dizzy stopped at the edge of the couch. “Are you coming to bed?”

“Not for a while, sugar. Go on back to sleep.”

“I wasn’t asleep.”

A flash of guilt crossed his face. “I’ll keep the volume down.”

She shook her head. “That’s not what kept me awake.”

“Is it because of Axis? Are you having nightmares?”

“No.” She shrugged. “Oddly enough I’m not nearly as upset about that whole mess as I expected to be. Maybe I’m finally toughening up some.”

“You don’t need to toughen up.” The rough edge to his voice surprised her. “You should be able to sit in an office and wait for your husband without having to worry about some asshole trying to steal or molest you.”

“In a perfect world,” she softly replied. Extending her hand, she wiggled her fingers. “Come to bed with me.”