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Alas, for pudgy and bald Marlin, it appeared the fish had taken the bait And gotten hungry when Marlin couldn’t produce the payoff “Okay,” Holly said, staring down at the bloody, hacked-apart pieces of the vampire con artist and all-around slimy individual, “whoever is after me isn’t only serious, they’re deadly serious”

Having crouched down to examine the butchered re area, atop an unexpectedly tasteful Persian rug, Venom nodded When strands of his hair slid forward, he pushed the with casual power She could see those forearms because he’d folded up his shirtsleeves to reveal skin she’d seen more than once already

Today, however, the sight of that skin was doing strange things to her stomach

“There’s little doubt now that the killings are connected” He got up “There hardly see the address of the third individual who tried to fool the buyer, but we should be thorough”

He called a Tower cleanup and forensics tea until the teae of the scene As for Janvier and Ash’s snitches, they knew to scatter quick smart when someone of Venom’s lethal power came in the vicinity Payment for their ould come directly from Ash or Janvier

The third address was in a slightly nicer part of town—the graffiti was classier and there were even potted plants in a fes, but the scene inside their target apartment was a repeat of Marlin’s The only difference was that this time, the killer had piled the butchered pieces on top of the coffee table, the wooden floor below a ulated pools of darker red

This scene was also the oldest, the smell so putrid that even Venom stepped outside into the shared hallway to wait for the Tower teaer—the cuts are too precise, the way the body parts are piled up too theatrical,” he said “This is a e”

“Try to swindleher arms, Holly tried to stand a little closer to Venom so she could draw the scent of him into her nostrils—she needed it to wipe out the noxious stink fro their time wasted”

“And is strong enough to have killed the va,use that would’ve slowed his responses”

Holly scuffed her shoe on the floor “I know I should focus on this psycho who’s put a bounty onabout Daisy” About what the other woman had suffered, the horror followed by abuse and cruelty “Don’t let me near Kenasha unless you want him dead”

Uram was out of her reach, but Kenasha was very much within it

Venoers “For a woman with unicorn hair, you’re very bloodthirsty I approve”

Holly s the value of Kenasha’s continued existence

• • •

Dlint in his eyes that ht that had draped the city in black while they discovered two dead bodies, examined the locations, then waited for the Tower tealass wall at Dh black clouds continued to obscure the stars

It looked

Dmitri stood with his hands braced on top of his desk, his are so you’d control her,” the leader of the Seven said to Venom

Words shoved at Holly’s throat, but she bit her lip Venoht then

“So you’d have patted Kenasha on the head and walked away after the piece of shit ad a half-drooth to stop him?” A raised eyebrow

Dht and folded his arerously quiet statement “I’d be tempted to tear off his head and then Raphael will have to deal with angels who think I’m too powerful”

“You are too powerful” Venom smiled “That’s why they’re all so scared of you”

Dave Holly—it was between friends, between equals Yet she didn’t feel left out Because her relationship with Dmitri was different When he held out an arm, she went around and tucked herself under it “I want to be in charge of finding out more about Daisy and what happened to her”