Chapter 43
Cora
Numbness creeps along my cheeks. I focus on my hands fisting my green dress.
The sunlight flickering through the car windows casts streaks of sodium-colored light on the material, reminding me of the small garden back at the mansion.
Where the sun shone so vibrantly some days, it turned the shadows to a soft green.
The same garden where Viper confessed he had a name.
The same Viper who just murdered a man.
For touching me.
“Fucking nut job,” Clyde barks from the seat next to me. He grips the steering wheel and changes lanes so quickly my shoulder hits the passenger door. “Viper can’t keep flying off the handle like this.”
“He warned him not to touch me,” I say, that same numbness slipping out with my words.
“And you…” Clyde makes a sound in his throat, but leaves the words unspoken.
I caused a scene. But Viper nearly broke the deal.
We remain silent for the rest of the drive. It’s not until Clyde pulls the car through the gates and stops in front of the house that the cold numbness slips from me. Dread thickens in my stomach, slick and deep. My heart thrashes against my insides.
God knows how Rune is going to react. I was rude, defiant, and got a man killed.
The slam of the driver’s door rattles me so hard my body jerks. When my car door swings open and Clyde’s hand locks around my arm, I try to rip free of his grasp, but he tugs me from the car and drags me toward the front door.
“Come on, girl,” Clyde growls. “Rune wants to talk to you.”
“More like yell and threaten me,” I mumble as Clyde drags me toward Rune’s office.
He stands up from behind his desk as we enter. He’s not in his usual suit, but a pair of joggers and a t-shirt dotted with sweat, clings to his chest. Like he’d been working out and hadn’t showered yet.
Fear coils in my belly like razor-sharp vines when his gaze locks on me. “Zane contacted me. I hear you almost ruined the deal.”
My fear tangles with irritation, creating a toxic mix. Of course, he would blame me. Fucking Zane. He did set me up. I grind my teeth, reeling in my anger, only letting enough slip so Rune doesn’t get suspicious.
“You sent me to marry a murderer,” I snap.
Clyde clears his throat, then deposits me into the wingback chair. “As you can see, Cora is a little upset that she wasn’t made aware of the arrangement. But the deal is still on.”
“Good,” Rune says and rounds his desk. He stops in front of me, and hooks a finger under my chin and jerks it up, forcing my head back even farther.
His touch scalds my skin, wrong and unclean.
The faint scent of sweat burns the back of my throat.
His blue eyes find mine. “You assured me you would not be difficult.”
My blood turns to ice. “I did everything you told me to do.”
Rune grips my chin and tilts my head to the left, then to the right. Like he’s checking for evidence that I did what he wanted and fucked the man he whored me out to. Or maybe he wants to see if I’ve been roughed up.
Vincent Campbell is a violent man.
Jesus. Viper. Viper is a violent man.
He drops his hand, eyes tracing over my face. “I’ll take the fact the deal is still in place as a sign he was pleased?”
“Which one?” I don’t realize the meaning behind my question until Rune’s jaw hardens. “You said do what they wanted, so I did.”
His eye twitches, and Clyde makes a slight coughing sound as he sits in the wingback chair beside me.
“Zane informed me Campbell runs hot,” Rune says. “He advises not to do business with him, though he seems to trust Snyder.”
My heart skitters. Why would Zane be trying to ruin this deal? Why say he trusts Breaker and not Viper? Spite? Probably. I am, after all, blackmailing him. And he was eye-fucking Breaker.
“Runs hot indeed,” Clyde confirms.
“He killed Zane’s security detail,” I say as I cross my arms. “Runs a little hot is an understatement.”
Rune eyes Clyde. “What do you think of him?”
His nonchalant shrug and half-frown say more than any words could. Whatever. Seems okay. But he says, “Campbell has good connections.”
“Because that matters,” I mumble.
Rune puts his hand up to silence me, then returns his attention to Clyde. “Despite the setback, he still wants her?”
Wants her. Like I’m fucking livestock.
God, these men.
“Seems so.” Clyde shifts, propping his ankle on his knee, and flicks a piece of lint off his tie. Like they aren’t discussing me like a broodmare. “He seemed to like her.”
Rune nods, liking Clyde’s response. His focus moves to me, his thumb hooking in the waistband of his gray sweatpants. “What did he say to you?”
The outline of his dick catches my eye, and an oily darkness roils in my belly.
Rune has spent so many years hurting me I became sickness and fear.
It wasn’t until I felt Delly’s tender touch, her gentle love, until I heard their promises, saw the men’s actions, that I remembered I wasn’t dirty.
Last night, I was cherished by two men who are risking their lives to put an end to Rune’s power-hungry reign.
The thought sends warmth through my belly, and I meet Rune’s glare with one of my own. “They didn’t say much. Just things like, ‘Yes, please. Just like that. Do it again.’”
“Cora,” Clyde barks.
Rune’s jaw tightens as he crosses his arms, biceps flexing like he’s trying to keep his rage coiled tightly inside him. “Did he ask you anything? About me?”
“No, Papa,” I sneer. “I just did my family duty. Vince was impressed. I’m good with my hands… and mouth… and—”
“Cora,” Clyde snaps. “Answer the questions without being crass.”
“I don’t know how,” I snap back. “Crass men just negotiated a business deal with my cunt.”
Rune takes a step back, stabbing me with a deadly look. “If Campbell ends up refusing you after your rude outburst, then you’ll have to impress Snyder.”
A soft chuckle slips out of me. “Trust me. He’s impressed. They both are.”
“You can’t marry both,” Rune grinds out through clenched teeth.
“Campbell accepted your offer,” Clyde interjects. “He liked her.”
“He better,” Rune says, then points to the door and tells Clyde, “Leave us. I need to speak with her alone.”
My stomach tangles into a hard knot. I bite the inside of my cheek, fighting the tightness squeezing my lungs in a vise. Even knowing Clyde’s going to be right outside the door, being alone with Rune makes fear crawl down my spine.
Clyde glances at his watch. “We have a meeting at four-thirty. I need to get her back to my house to change before we go.”
“I’ll just be a minute,” Rune snaps.
Clyde drags himself from the chair, as if he’s annoyed to be kept waiting. He pats the top of my head before he leaves. Sometimes I forget how long they’ve been friends. How Clyde can get away with a bad attitude. How much weight Clyde’s words carry with Rune.
Maybe that’s what has protected Clyde all these years. Rune trusts him like family. Clyde is family.
More so than me.
When the door closes, Rune leans back on his desk, and everything I discovered in his top drawer the other morning flashes in my mind.
God, was it really just days ago that I found the hunting knife and USB drive? The list of dead lodge members and their families and the tally system? It’s all a few feet away, and the idea makes my stomach churn.
I kept questioning Clyde about the list of past members, but he just said, “People die,” and left it at that, refusing to go into details. So much has happened in the last forty-eight hours, I haven’t thought about it again until now.
Until I’m alone with the man who raped me, punched me, and forced his dick into my mouth all while a deadly knife and a list of dead lodge members sat feet away.
A thought tickles the back of my brain, like I’m missing something. Something vital.
The men want to kill Rune for a reason. Revenge for their brother, they say, but it has to be more than that. Why go to the extreme of selling a chain of hotels, selling weapons, and joining his lodge, just to kill him?
Breaker said they needed something from the lodge, but what could be so important that they are risking so much to get in there?
Why not take him out right now?
Rune is just a man.
Flesh and bone.
Killable.
They could remove him with a single bullet to the head in the middle of the street, and no one would even know who it was.
Yet they have waited. Planned.
Attacked and infiltrated his life and turned his daughter against him.
“Cora.” Rune’s voice cracks harsh as a whip. My eyes refocus on his fingers gripping the desk edge, looming over me like a vile monster. “Tell me everything that happened.”
My pulse stutters against my throat. “You want details?”
One of his eyebrows inches upward at my tone.
“Let’s see,” I say, leaning forward, knowing I’m going to pay for this, but I need to redirect him. “First, I got my pussy eaten by—”
The harsh slap snaps my head to the side.
A sharp sting radiates from my nose to my ear.
I grip the armrests, digging my fingers into the material to keep from launching myself at him and raking my nails across his cheeks.
Heat bursts beneath my skin. Not just where his palm connected with my cheek, but everywhere, like a match dropped in gasoline.
Even though I knew his hit was coming, the rage it invokes nearly steals my breath. I’m so sick of being slapped around and used.
Viper’s face flashes in my mind.
Breaker’s.
Striker’s.
Reaper’s.
Delly’s.
Slowly, I sit up straighter, looking back up at the man who’s done his best to reduce me to nothing.
“What did Campbell say?” he says calmly. As if he pressed a rewind button and he’s once again Rune, my guardian and second father, and not an abusive, twisted, fucking madman. “Did either man mention the third associate? Steele? When is he returning?”
Striker.
With a deep breath, my fingers uncurl from the armrest, one by one, knowing I need to keep on his good side if I want information. “No, they didn’t mention him,” I say, my voice sweet, lifting the corner of my mouth into a smirk. “We didn’t talk much.”
His chest rises as he takes a breath, his jaw grinding. He hasn’t shaved today, and the salt and pepper stubble on his cheeks makes him look older. When he narrows his eyes, there's an almost reptilian coldness to them. “They said nothing?”
“Like I said—”
He pushes off the desk, and I clamp my mouth shut as he crouches before me, so we’re eye level. That old fear bursts free, penetrating my anger and burning a path through my body, taking over until I’m once again consumed by it.
“Cora.” My name comes out quietly. Strained.
His patience is fraying, and one wrong word from me will ensure the meanness he stuffs away will hit me full force.
And it won’t be a slap next time. “Campbell accepted my offer. You are to spend time with him. Talk to him. Watch them. All of them. Do you understand?”
I will my heart not to thrash in panic. Does he know? Does he suspect them? I swallow. “You want me to spy?”
He tilts his head to the side as if agreeing. “I’ve heard of them for years. Many of our associates do business with them, but I don’t know them.”
“Yet you’re forcing me to marry one,” I say, but the words barely leave my lips before Rune’s hand is around my throat, yanking me from the chair and dragging me to my feet as he stands. My chest slams against his, the air punched from my lungs.
“You’re wearing on me, girl,” he hisses, his breath hot against my face. “This deal hangs by a thread. Campbell accepted my offer, but I can end it, and ruin him with a single word. Just. Like. You.”
My pulse hammers against his fingertips as I gasp. “Besides their buyers, what exactly am I watching for?”
Rune’s grip loosens, satisfaction darkening his eyes. “Anything. Everything.” His fingers release me but hover around my throat. “No more outbursts, Cora. We both know what happens when you anger me.”
I nod, biting back the rage. Every time I stand up to him, he knocks me down to my place.
“You still breathe because of me, sweet girl,” he whispers, stroking the skin along my collarbone. A finger drags lower, toward the low neckline of my dress. He tugs it, eyes trailing over me, landing on the space between my breasts. “We do what we must in order to protect this family.”
Like fuck the man who adopted me? My mind screams, and I grind my teeth. I’m not family. I’m his tool. A soft cunt to sink into. His punching bag. A ticket to more wealth.
But I’ll be his fucking demise.
Rune just doesn’t know it yet.
“I understand, Papa,” I say. “I won’t let you down.”