2. Viper
VIPER
Pain drags me up out of the dark. A hot line pulses along my ribs, pulling tight every time there’s movement.
It takes me a second to figure out what’s happening. I’m in a car.
My eyes fly open.
Where the fuck am I?
There’s a seatbelt across my chest, and my knees are jammed into a dashboard.
My knife is gone from my belt. So is my gun.
I take inventory of what’s left on me, which is only my clothes. I guess I’ll have to use my fists to kill the motherfucker who has me.
I turn my head, and the adrenaline pumping through my veins slows.
It’s a woman.
And she’s fucking beautiful. She has auburn hair. She’s wearing a sundress. Her hands are locked on the wheel, her attention fixed on the road.
Pieces of my memory surface. I was delivering a gun shipment. Three Crimson Warriors attacked me. There was a fight. I was stabbed.
That’s where my blade and my gun went. The Warriors stripped me while I was down. Took them like trophies. Fine. I’ve got more at the clubhouse.
Then someone helped me. Stitched up my wound.
The woman next to me helped me, and I’m in her car. I don’t remember getting into her car.
She turns, and a smile spreads across her lips.
“You’re awake.” She checks me and faces the road again. “Good. Stay awake. You lost a lot of blood, and I need to get you somewhere safe. The motorcycle place, right? The old hotel?”
“Yeah. The clubhouse.”
She sighs. “I assumed that’s where you’d want to go. I know it’s out this way somewhere, but I can’t remember where to turn.”
I look out the window, and we’re close. Thank fuck she assumed I was a Hellborn Kings member. It was probably obvious, though, by my leather cut and motorcycle.
Where the fuck is my bike?
I’ll have one of the guys go retrieve it. Right now, I just need to focus on telling Saber what happened.
“Turn there. The dirt road on the right.”
She makes the turn, and the clubhouse comes into view.
Trapper is on prospect duty and hauls the gate open when he sees me in the front seat.
The lot is full. It’s a Friday night, so the bar next to the clubhouse is packed like it is every weekend.
She pulls up to the clubhouse.
“Stop here.”
She stops. Kills the engine. She lets go of the wheel and knots her fingers in her lap. I take in the dark smudges on her forearms. Blood. My blood.
She’s facing me now, but there’s no fear in her. Most people would be scared.
She should be scared.
The porch door bangs. Saber comes down the steps. Trapper must have called him to alert him that something is wrong.
My door is open before my hand finds the latch.
“Viper.” The club Prez says my name, half question and half accusation, one fist closing on my arm to help me stand upright. “You all right?”
“Crimson Warriors. Three of them attacked me on the road. The shipment didn’t make it,” I blurt out.
“Shut your mouth.” His hand goes hard on my arm, his attention cutting past me to the driver’s seat.
To her.
She’s out of the car now. She must have climbed out while Saber was hauling me up, and now she’s standing a few feet off, taking in the whole scene.
“Who the fuck is that?” He jerks his chin in her direction.
“She found me on the road,” I respond. “Stitched me up, drove me here. She’s not a threat.”
“She’s a stranger who just heard too much about club business.” Saber isn’t talking to me. He’s looking dead at her. “And that’s a problem.”
A cold feeling hardens in me. The part that does the hurting. And right now, that feeling is aimed at Saber.
He better not fucking touch her. She’s not a threat.
“Back off.” I pull away from him until I’m standing on my own. A sharp pain jolts across my stomach from the movement. “She saved my fucking life.”
Saber goes quiet. Nobody talks to him like this.
I certainly never have.
He stays silent. The corner of his mouth pulls, and it isn’t a smile.
“Fine,” he finally says. “She’s your problem, then. If she says anything, it’s your responsibility.”
“Understood.”
The girl clears her throat, and the two of us turn to her.
“I won’t cause trouble.” Her chin is up, and there’s not a tremor in her. “I didn’t see or hear anything worth telling. And I know how to keep my mouth shut. I’ve had a lot of practice.”
There’s a whole history under that last part.
“Good,” I say.
She wants me to say something. Most people want a thank-you after they save a life. But my kindness might be the reason she shows up here again, so I keep it to myself.
“You need to forget me,” I say instead. “You never found me on the road. And you were never here.”
She doesn’t answer. Her chin holds. But her eyes go soft, just for a beat, and it tugs at something I don’t want tugged.
She nods, and she gets back into her car.
Saber gets a shoulder under my bad side. “Come on, inside. You can give me the full story. I’m calling Doc to check her work.”
I don’t push him off this time. It fucking hurts to walk.
I climb the porch steps with his help. Every step pulls at the stitches she put in me. But the stitches hold. She’s good.
I reach the top step when her engine turns over behind me. Gravel, a slow turn, and then the sound of her driving off.
She’s some girl from town. She’ll go home and never come near us again. That’s how it has to go.
I told her to forget me. I meant it.
But there’s no fucking way I’m forgetting her.