Page 67 of Venomous Desires

Strangely, every step felt like walking through quicksand; my body heavy with dread. I looked around, suddenly noticing the things I hadn’t seen in the past month.

The silent house. The out-of-place things—like the statue of the snake wrapped around the woman on the lawn, the tattoos on Judas’s back, and the strange amount of gold in his house.

His grip felt like iron, and I realized how little I knew about the surrounding people, about the place I was working in. My breath came in shallow gasps, my chest tight as panic threatened to overtake me.

My eyes landed on the portrait of Judas on the stair wall. Large, almost taking up most of the wall, it was hard not to notice. I had looked at it many times, but today—today it was different. My whole body stilled as my eyes moved from his piercing one, then to his wrist. There, on his wrist, was the same gold watch, unmistakable and hauntingly familiar.

My mind raced, piecing together fragmented memories and odd details.

A flash of memory hit me like a sudden storm, leaving me breathless and disoriented.

The lump in my throat swelled and the jagged stone lodged painfully, making each swallow a struggle against the torrent of emotions surging within.

My breath hitched; the sharp intake of air was like an icy blade slicing through my chest.

I tasted the metallic tang of fear on my tongue, a bitter reminder of the fear I felt at that moment.

My ears rang with the echoes of forgotten words.

Everything around me blurred, my vision clouded by the veil of tears threatening to spill.

The scent of snow and pine filled my nostrils, dragging me into the present yet heaving me back to that moment.

My fingertips tingled at the sensation of the cold air prickling my skin like a thousand tiny needles.

The stalker from that night, his silhouette tall and menacing under the streetlights, the gold watch catching the faint light when he reached out.

And my breath hitched.

I tried to pull away again, but Kyle’s hold only tightened.

I looked at him slowly. His cold eyes bore into me, and whatever suspicion I had, his eyes confirmed.

Ivan mentioned that there were two men.

I staggered my legs felt like jelly, barely able to support my weight, and my fingers tingled with the onset of numbness. Every nerve in my body screamed at me to run, but I couldn’t move. I was trapped; my mind and body betraying me.

“Are you alright, Ms. Rosewood?” Kyle’s voice dripped with false concern, his smile never reaching his eyes.

A heavily mocking realisation engulfed me.

I was in over my head, surrounded by darkness and danger.

Kyle’s grip tightened again, and without another word, he began leading me down the hall.

Why? Why would he do that to me?

‘Your mouth, around my cock.’

Was it because I refused to sleep with him? The stalking—God, the stalking—had started that very day. Panic tightened in my chest, each breath harder than the last.

Please, let this be in my head. A mistake. A paranoid thought I couldn’t let go of.

Let the shadow in my life be anyone but Judas.

Because if I were right… I wasn’t safe anymore.

We stepped outside, and the cool night air hit my face—but it did nothing to ease the panic building inside me.