Chapter 14
Cora
Ibrace a hand on the back of Breaker’s chair, trying to keep from collapsing. My head throbs with each heartbeat, no doubt from last night, lack of food, and sleep, but that’s not the reason I feel unsteady.
It’s him. Viper.
Or rather Vince. Vincent Campbell of the Snyder Group. Ben’s associate and close friend.
“Vincent. Vince,” I say the name, tasting it. It actually fits him. It’s slightly rugged, masculine, and strong. Unyielding, yet weirdly gentle. “The name suits you.”
He leans against the wall covered with the pictures and lists cataloging Delly and my life, arms crossed over his massive chest, boots locked at the ankle in a wholly arrogant way that is similar to Reaper but lined with a sensual edge.
His face betrays nothing, but also reveals so much.
I catch his smirk at my obvious staring, and I have to look away to gather my thoughts.
Breaker grasps my wrist and pulls me until I’m in front of him, then tugs me down onto his lap, tucking my ass against his belly.
In the chair across from us, Clyde studies Breaker’s every move as he positions me and wraps an arm around my waist. Like he’s taking in the way he’s touching me, examining how he grips my hips, adjusting me on his thick thigh.
Assessing his ability to care for me. Deciding if he’s worthy and capable of keeping me comfortable and safe.
Whatever he sees loosens his shoulders and I exhale, relaxing too. But it doesn’t last long. I feel Viper’s stare on the side of my face, as hot as flames.
I dare another look his way. He’s not looked away from me since we gathered around the table in the loft with all the tech devices. The second our eyes lock, my belly flutters, little winged birds taking flight in a flurry of excitement.
I’ve had this man inside me. Pleasured him. Tasted him. Had his mouth on me. That thought, along with his entire self, has left me unbalanced.
Viper wasn’t exaggerating.
He’s striking.
Not in the way Breaker is, but in a way that’s deceivingly gentle, almost boyish.
Viper’s handsome in a way that disarms. But there’s an air about him.
Like he’s seen too much of this world. All the good and every single trace of the bad.
Faint lines frame those vivid eyes, making his age impossible to pin down.
He could be anywhere from his mid-twenties to late-thirties.
Breaker is so obviously young, and Striker, you can tell he’s in his early thirties by the air around him that crackles with experience.
Reaper is, well, Reaper is on a whole different level of beauty, but he’s obviously the oldest. Each of them is so distinct, so maddeningly beautiful in their own ways, that I can’t say I’m mad that they’ve decided we belong to them.
Ripping my eyes off his thick thighs, I clear my throat, trying to refocus. “Is Vincent your real name?”
“No,” Viper says. “Vincent isn’t my real name, but should we cross paths—”
“Which she will,” Clyde adds in.
“—you must remember to call me Vince,” Viper finishes, tearing his eyes from me long enough to shoot Clyde a warning glare for the interruption.
Viper is a fitting name too.
Like Striker, there’s a sweetness to his face, but it vanishes the instant anger flares.
Then the soft yet masculine features become more prominent, almost like something dark and violent is trying to emerge.
It turns his high cheekbones sharp, his strong jaw severe, and the startling blue eyes that are already deep-set, darker, more intense, and menacing.
He’s fair-skinned like me, with a dusting of freckles on his hands and forearms, a few on his cheeks, along with some darker moles.
There’s a hint of auburn stubble, matching his wavy, dark auburn hair.
When the light hits it, each strand flashes with streaks of ember, making it look like it’s about to catch fire.
“I should have known you were a redhead,” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
One of his brows quirks, and Viper rubs at the thin bridge of his nose where it’s slightly crooked, which makes me realize I’m staring at him just as intently as he is me.
“Why is that, little Vixen?” Viper asks, his voice dropping, the question slipping out smooth like whiskey and dangerous as sin.
My pulse skitters. The air between us thickens, charged with something dangerous and electric that sets my veins on fire.
Does he even know? How highly sexual he is? Every quirk of a brow, every movement of his body oozes with a sensuality I noticed before, but somehow is more prominent now that I can see his full face.
He’s overwhelming.
They all are. This entire situation is too much.
The room seems to shrink in on me, my heart skipping and jumping. I brush Breaker’s arm away and stand, my skin suddenly too hot.
Inhaling a deep breath, I meet Viper’s eyes. “Because you’re a liar and you keep secrets.”
His lips curl into a grin that makes the air leave my lungs. “That makes two of us, pretty Vixen.”
Viper’s gaze drags up my body like he’s thinking of the promise he made in the bathroom.
Kissing me everywhere. Claiming me yet again, so I remember I’m his.
Theirs. When his eyes lock on mine again, my face heats, and I look away, deliberately looking at anything and everything but him. He’s too volatile.
Too knowing.
My jaw clenches against the shame trying to pierce my armor. The thought of Viper knowing what Rune did last night makes my chest tight, even though I know I did nothing wrong. Rune is the vile one. He should feel shame, not me. There is no shame in being a casualty of his rage.
It’s not my fault or theirs, even though a small part of me is furious they didn’t prepare me with the news about the marriage arrangement.
I flash on their father’s face. His silver-hair and those eyes like a frozen wasteland. The way he’d examined me like merchandise being returned. I know the men never would have sent me back, or put me in danger if they had a choice. Rune had made a deal. One that couldn’t be broken.
A deal I got myself out of at a hefty cost. Revealing what I know to Zane was a dangerous move. But showing my hand was my only option, and it worked.
For now.
Until he kills me to keep me quiet.
Like he can read my mind Viper says, “Is Zane going to be any more of a problem?”
My gaze darts to him. Yes. He’s talking to me.
I narrow my eyes, not liking how he seems to dissect me layer by layer. Like he’s seeing all my secrets. And just like him, I have many.
“No,” I say at the same moment Clyde says, “Yes.”
I shoot Clyde a look. “It’s taken care of.”
“Rune already knew about your mother’s parties,” Clyde snaps. “There wasn’t a person in their circle who didn’t know.”
“Oh,” I say, searching for anything else to use besides the truth, but come up empty. “I guess Zane didn’t know that.”
“He said he called it off,” Breaker says to Clyde. “Does it matter why?”
“The reason could affect the outcome.” Viper shifts again, drawing my eyes.
The long lists of time logs and various images tacked to the wall behind him shift with him, and a single image of Delly draws my attention.
It was taken from several yards away, zoomed in enough to see her face clearly.
She’s on the steps of the courthouse with the lawyer she used to file for divorce from Dave a few months ago, wearing the black pantsuit I convinced her to buy.
I move forward until I’m in front of it, barely registering I’m right next to Viper so I can examine the picture.
She’s so beautiful. He was such a prick. I guess the rumors about him were true. Too bad it took a year of marriage for her to find out he’s just a sleaze like the rest of the men in Rune’s circle.
Viper tugs on my hair, grabbing my attention. My focus shifts to him. His entire body seems to flicker like a flame that’s either going to burst with brightness, or snuff out and throw everything into darkness.
“You’re really intense,” I whisper. He always has been, and I’m not sure what’s changed in the last week, but he’s somehow bigger, more consuming of the air in the room. “Did you start taking steroids or something?”
That earns me a chuckle and a smile so wide that I blink in the brilliant flash of it, leaving me overexposed and too hot.
“And you, Cora Julian, are a force to reckon with,” he says quietly. “And maybe a little too curious for your own good.”
“How’s that?” I keep my voice low, aware that Breaker and Clyde are across the room having a discussion of their own.
“Foxes are smart. Sneaky. They know how to hide.” Viper runs the backs of his fingers along my jaw, sending sparks of light through my skin. “And they have keen senses that help them survive.” He leans in close so I feel his breath on my ear. “And they have exceptional hearing.”
I suck in a breath, images of the past flashing through my head like some fucked-up montage. My mother, Zane’s face, my father. Zane kissing my mother as he entered the house.
Zane sitting in my parent’s office, planning with my mother to wreck Rune’s life.
“Gotcha, madadh ruadh,” Viper says, watching my reaction. “Your secret may be deadlier than mine.”
My face flushes.
He knows I’m lying.
He knows exactly what I’m keeping a secret.
But that’s impossible. There is no way that Viper could know.
Only Zane knows what my mother did because he was the one who made the call. I didn’t hear the words, but I knew what he was saying. He was ordering a hit to end Delilah’s mother’s life.