Den of Vipers
: Chapter 41

We wait until the next morning and then split up. Ryder is going to check all the businesses, Kenzo the illegal side of things, and Diesel will hit the streets and replace out anything he can while I inspect the safe houses. We all take guards with us and are armed to the nines with weapons. Before we depart, we make Roxy promise to stay inside just for today and leave some guards behind.

They will be looking for payback, and grabbing one of us won’t be easy, but we still have to be careful. I ignore my fury at how close they got to us. The hits came way too fast, they never planned to make a peace. They have been building this up to take us down. We let their families live, and this is how they repay us?

I’m going to kill them all.

Taking the armoured car, we drive to the safe house that was hit last night. I had Tony and a few others go straight over after it happened, but I need to see it for myself as well. First, the old house, then this. How the fuck are they getting this information? Ryder is stressed as well—he wants the rat and he wants them now.

I can’t wait to see what Diesel will do to them when we replace them.

The ride to the safe house doesn’t take long. We keep them running for any of our employees or even us if the need calls for it. We also have five escape plans—six now, thanks to Roxy. When you’re the most powerful people in the city, you sure as shit have a target on your back and gotta know when to run.

But this isn’t one of those times.

This? This is just another fucking lesson to assholes who think we’re weak, who think we’re nothing more than Ryder’s daddy’s money.

We pull up outside the safe house. I let them get out first, even though it chafes me, and with my hand on my gun, I slip out after them as they rap their knuckles on my door. I keep my eyes peeled, looking everywhere at once, checking doorways, other cars, rooftops, and windows. You can never be too careful, and with Roxy expecting me home, I replace myself wanting to live.

The safe house itself is a tiny bungalow tucked between two other bungalows on the suburban side of the city. It’s small and unassuming, just how we like it. We have a whole hotel of tiny houses spread across the city—you can never be too careful, after all.

The guys go before me as we head down the old, cracked driveway and past the overgrown garden to the yellow peeling front door. The handle is broken, the lock too, and I tap their shoulders to let them know I’m behind them. They go in first, and I draw my gun, even though Tony has already been here. It could be a trap. We sweep into the house and split up to check it out. The one bedroom and bathroom are clear, the living room and kitchen too. Holstering my gun, I frown as I look around. The place is trashed with things ripped from walls, dents and cracks in the plaster, and furniture turned upside down. It appears like they were looking for something, but we don’t keep anything at safe houses, so this is all a threat.

A reminder they are there and angry.

That they can get to us. Curling my fists into my sides, I stomp through the mess, kicking aside the broken sofa. “Check on all the other safe houses, I want a report back. Find whoever the fuck is betraying us!” I snap.

Grabbing my phone, I dial Ryder. “Speak,” he snarls, obviously having as much fun as me.

“It’s trashed, they fucking knew exactly where to go. We need to replace the fucking bastard who is giving them this information,” I growl, smashing my fist into the wall.

“I fucking know that, I’m trying. Go check out the other houses,” he orders, before hanging up. I pocket my phone. He’s stressed as well, we can all feel it. Before, it wouldn’t have mattered, it would have been fun, a game to destroy them, but now we have Roxy to think about, and we don’t want her caught in the crossfire. My phone vibrates as I’m slipping it into my front jeans pocket, so I yank it out and read the message.

Kenzo: No luck here.

Fuck.

Putting it back, I circle my fingers at the guys. “Let’s move out. We’re checking all the houses until we replace someone, and when we do, we’re going to fucking kill them.”

They nod, and we rush off to search the next safe house.

Five safe houses later, and I’m pissed. Three have been hit, but there’s no sign of whoever did it, or whoever told them about it, because we all know it’s the Triad, a revenge hit. Maybe they were hoping they would replace someone at one of them, I’m not sure. Either way, I want to smash someone’s face in.

I have to hold back the urge, my body vibrating with tension and anger, the feeling I get when I’m winding up to fight. Breathing through it, I try and tamp it down for as long as I can. Suddenly, my phone rings, and I answer it without looking.

“What?” I snarl into it, as we head to the next safe house.

“How fucking rude! I was going to be nice for once, but…” She laughs—Roxy. I relax instantly at the sound of her voice, a smile coming to my lips.

“You okay, baby?” I ask, my voice softer now. I see the two men in the front shifting, so I glare at their backs, and they hunch.

“Yeah, you, big guy? I got worried when I hadn’t heard from any of you.” She sniffs.

“You’re bored, aren’t you?” I chuckle.

“Out of my fucking mind.” She groans dramatically, making me laugh harder.

“Haven’t got up to any trouble yet?” I query, staring out of the window. All my tension seems to float away for a moment as I imagine her guards chasing her with pale faces, trying to keep up with whatever trouble she’s up to.

“Psh, not yet, but it’s only…nine in the morning.” She laughs, the sound heading straight to my cock and hardening it. “Though I did order us some new chains to play with.” Her voice goes low and sultry.

Fuck me.

I groan, closing my eyes for a minute. “Baby, I’m in a car with three other guys, you can’t say shit like that.”

“Why? You wanna chain them up too?” she teases.

“Behave,” I snarl.

She scoffs, “When the fuck do I ever behave? Now hurry your big ass up and get home, I’m fucking bored, and who knows what I’ll do.”

She hangs up, snickering. I pocket my phone again, but I feel calmer now. More relaxed and in control. I feel the guys looking at me, so I turn my head and narrow my eyes. “Do not even think about her, look at her, or go near her, or I will fucking smash your faces in.”

They all turn away instantly, and I smirk, even as Tony chuckles from the front. The next safe house is an apartment above a coffee shop, so after we check it and replace it trashed, I decide to take a break. I didn’t eat this morning, and I replace myself missing our usual breakfast dates. When I hated her, or at least tried to, they were the only real times I could be around her without the others catching on to my desire. I could stare at her without them noticing.

Sighing, I head inside. One of my guards stays in the car, another stands outside the shop, and the third sits and waits, his eyes scanning everyone. But I do it anyway, it’s a habit, and that’s when I see her.

Her.

Here, staring right back at me.

She has on a hood, hiding half of her face, but it’s her. I would recognise her anywhere. Her lips are turned up in a knowing smirk, her one cornflower blue eye locked on me. I used to stare into her eyes for hours, wondering if she was my forever, and now she’s here.

My whole body freezes, my chest and muscles burning as fear and fury pour through me. “Sir?” the woman behind the counter calls in confusion. I’m at the front of the queue, it’s my turn, but I can’t look away from her.

Daphne.

The bitch who tried to kill me, who stripped the skin from my chest. My ex-girlfriend. She’s sitting in the corner with an untouched mug before her, watching me the same fucking way she used to. An expression I didn’t realise was so cold and calculating, the greedy cunt, until it was too late. Until she had her blade in my chest, carving me to pieces while she laughed.

When I woke in the private hospital, the guys were there. They knew where she had run to, she had never gotten far enough to escape us. No place would ever be far enough. I didn’t ask, I just told them to take care of it. To make it hurt.

To make her suffer for what she did.

Because when I peeled those bandages away, I gagged at the sight of my own chest, and I couldn’t let the nurses help me wash it. Diesel had to. I couldn’t stand their hands on me, and when one tried, I snapped her wrist. This woman tried to kill me, ruin me.

Even managed it for many years. Only now, with Roxy, am I finally starting to live again, yet she’s here, staring at me like nothing happened.

How is she alive?

“Sir?” comes again, but I turn away and storm right up to her. I want to ring her neck, to snap it, but that would be too fast. How did she survive whatever the guys did? It had to be bad, they assured me she was dead.

How is she fucking alive?

And why do my hands shake? I hide them behind my back as I tower over her table. She tries to play it cool, her hand reaching for her mug, but I see the tremble in them, the fear in her eye. Unlike Roxy, she was always slightly scared of me for what I could do. She was disgusted at my fighting, yet the cold fucking bitch had no issue with my blood.

Cunt.

My gaze catches on her wrist as her hoodie pulls up with her movement, revealing mottled, burnt flesh. She gasps and yanks her hand under the table, her one eye narrowing on me.

“Gar,” she breathes. “You look good…almost fully healed.” She smirks.

“How are you alive?” I seethe, holding myself back from attacking her. It wouldn’t do us any good, but fuck, it’s hard. I want to snap every bone in her traitorous body. To make her feel the pain I felt, and not just at her betrayal.

“It wasn’t easy.” She shrugs. “But I had things to survive for.”

“Like a fucking cockroach you can’t get rid of,” I snarl, and she laughs, the annoying, high-pitched tittering sound that used to make Diesel threaten to stab her. That should have been warning enough. They didn’t like her, but I was blind.

I even protected her from him, let her pull me away from my brothers when she was scared of them. I hurt them, not that they will ever say it. I know that’s why Ryder is so panicked about Roxy, because I couldn’t just walk away from them for her.

I would do anything she asked.

I used to think Daphne would be it for me, that we would settle down and get married. It seemed like the right thing to do, since she was expecting it, dropping hints. Even though I wasn’t sure, I got the ring anyway. How was I ever this fucking blind?

She is cold, cunning, and a gold-digging cunt.

Roxy is so alive, so full of laughter, and if I ever tried to give her money, she would throw it in my face. Her hate, her anger matches mine, her scars mirroring my own. She is my world now, and it only shows me how desperate for love I was to not only fuck this woman, but propose.

“Gar, I remember when you didn’t want to get rid of me,” she purrs falsely.

“Don’t fucking call me that,” I growl. “Why are you here? In my city? You had to know I would replace out and fucking kill you.”

I sense people staring now, fucking let them. Let them watch as I wipe this cunt from the face of the planet, let them fear me, I don’t care what they think. There are only five people I care about, and they would stand behind me, fuck, they would hand me the blade.

“I hear you have a new little toy, she’s cute. Does she know your penchant for pain? Or how you like to fuck hard and fast…” Her eyes drop hungrily to my chest, and I slam my fists onto the table. “I bet she doesn’t. I wonder, can she even bear to look at your chest?”

My lungs are heaving, and I can almost feel the blade carving into me again, flaying me open. Darkness circles me, my demons growing and demanding to be let free. “Answer me now.”

She grins and leans back, and I get sick of the games. I grab the hood and yank it back. My eyes widen as she quickly stands, pulling it over her head. But she’s not fast enough. I saw what she was trying to hide.

Half of her face is gone, melted—no hair, no eye, and her skin looks like dripping wax. No doubt Diesel’s handiwork. It makes me grin, and it’s not a nice one. “Oh, poor little Daphne, can’t use your looks to get your way anymore? It’s not like you have any other moves, you stupid cunt. Why are you here?” I sneer for the last time.

I’m a string pulled too tight, ready to snap, faced with the woman I once cared for, the one who almost took everything, and I replace myself craving her death. I feel like Diesel, wanting to bathe in it, to watch her blood cover my skin and then storm back to my girl and fuck her with it across my body.

“I have unfinished business, Garrett. With you and your fucking Vipers,” she snarls, and pushes closer until she invades my space. I don’t move back, even as my head roars at me, my hands itching to grab her and kill her. “You will pay for what you did. I’m going to be there to watch you fall,” she whispers as she leans closer, her red tipped nails running down my chest.

I stiffen at that, my head blurring with anger, and I’m moving before I know it. Grabbing her wrist, I thrust her away, and she hits the wall hard, laughing. I’m on her in a moment, my hand wrapping around her throat. Her eye widens in fear. For all her bravado, she’s afraid.

Deathly afraid. Of me. Of us. Of what we will do to her.

She isn’t pulling the strings, she’s a puppet…for who? The Triad? Is it possible we have more than one enemy coming at us? No, they have to be working together. They were looking for a weakness, a way to get to us, and they thought they had it with her.

But she was never really one of us. She never stayed in our home, never saw our business. She saw what we wanted her to, nothing more. I squeeze tighter, not even using my full strength to hold her in place. I let her see it in my eyes, how easily I could kill her, end her, and no one would care.

No one could stop me.

But it would be too quick.

The noise of the shop around us comes back. People are screaming, and I hear them on the phone when a tap comes at my shoulder. Turning with a snarl, I throw her to the floor and meet my guard’s eyes. “Unless you want to spend hours talking to the police, we need to leave. If you want her taken or dead, say the word, we’ll organise it and call Ryder to clean up.”

He doesn’t question who she is, doesn’t even blink as he says it. I look back at her, but she’s scrambling to her feet and straightening her hoodie. She blows me a kiss. “Be seeing you soon, Garrett, and say hello to your girlfriend for me.” Then she’s gone, rushing into the scrambling crowd and blending.

“No, follow her though,” I snap.

He rushes off, and I stomp through the shop, the patrons falling as they try to get out of my way. Their faces are pale and scared as I rip open the coffee shop door and head outside.

I grab my phone to dial Ryder and tell him I know who the mole is, but when I dip my hand into my pocket, it’s gone. I have a flash of her sidling close to me, her hand stroking down my chest…I was so panicked, so angry, I didn’t even think anything of it when I shoved her away.

Fuck.

She has my phone.