“Who I fuck is none of your business.” Unable to stay still, she walked over to the window. Construction materials littered the lawn. Four workers were busy erecting, of all things, a white picket fence, while a few bored Black Jacks looked on.
“It is if the man you’re fucking is supposed to be me.” His voice was soft and all the more threatening for it. Evie shivered and her hand strayed to the phone hidden in her jacket, a backup in case Viper or his bodyguards took her purse. Arianne had also given her a gun, but Evie couldn’t even think about using it.
She turned and sat on the windowsill, the position giving her some courage because the workers could see in, and she could easily escape to the balcony if necessary. “I don’t understand how you think. Yes, I enjoyed your company. You are interesting, well read, articulate, and very savvy about the world. But you also killed Bill and T-Rex, threatened me, burned down my shop, and kidnapped my child. Pick one, and it’s a deal killer. Put them together and there isn’t a chance in hell I would ever want to spend another minute with you.”
His lips quirked, amused. “And yet you want to be with the Sinner VP, who I can assure you has committed crimes no less heinous than the list you just spat out?”
“The difference is in the choices you make.” Her fingers tightened on her purse. “You liked me. You wanted me. And when it didn’t work out, you chose violence to get me. Zane wanted me, too. So he chose to sacrifice himself, to give up the life to keep me safe. He protected me. I don’t think there is anything in this world that I would ask that he wouldn’t do for me. And I would do the same for him. I’m not about to judge him when he does what he does to protect the people he cares about.”
Viper’s face tightened. “As do I.”
“I want to see Ty,” she snapped, her patience at an end.
“And I want the pleasure of your company, Evangeline. I’ll let you see Ty and then we’ll have dinner together. That is why you got all dressed up, isn’t it?”
“I dressed up because you made it a condition for seeing Ty,” she said. “I didn’t dress up for you.”
“Shame.” Viper turned on the television and she saw Ty in a bedroom sitting on a red race-car bed playing a video game. The shelves around him were filled with toys. Her heart ached when she saw his tear-streaked face, but at least he didn’t appear to be harmed.
“I want to see him in person.”
“You will, but not yet,” Viper said. “But just to ease your anxiety, he’s upstairs. When I moved here I had them bring Jeff’s old things from my house. My son, Jeff, was spoiled so Ty will be well entertained.”
Hope flared in her chest. She had made a big assumption that Viper wanted her because she wasn’t part of the biker world, and that he wouldn’t be violent unless she forced his hand. But the main premise of her rescue attempt was that Viper would care about his now motherless son, and that he would fear for his safety if he knew the Sinners had him. The hostage trade hadn’t worked before because he clearly had no feelings for Doreen. But if he’d brought Jeff’s old toys to his new house, maybe there was hope for her plan after all.
Arianne had told her that although Viper had been a hard and cruel father, deep down he had feelings for Jeff and he had been devastated when his son died. From the conversations she’d had with Viper, Evie thought he also cared deeply about Arianne, even admired her for defying him and becoming Jagger’s old lady. Arianne didn’t believe Evie, however; she had been more than happy to go to Ennis to visit her new stepbrother.
Since meeting Zane, Evie had realized that people weren’t black and white, monsters or men. Everyone had a little bit of both inside them; it was their choices that made the difference.
Viper turned off the television and stood, holding out his hand. “Come. My chef has dinner waiting. And since you’re here because you want to be here, I’m looking forward to our meal together.”
She accepted his outstretched hand, grimacing when he squeezed it just a little too hard, and followed him to the kitchen where Viper introduced her to Mario, a short, nervous, slightly balding man wearing a white apron.
“Mario came to me looking for work after the Sinners burned down his restaurant.” Viper pulled out Evie’s chair and she took her seat. “Saved me from hunting him down. He was paying off his debt to us by keeping my boys fed. Now he cooks just for me, and we’re gonna rebuild his restaurant after we repair the clubhouse. The Sinners broke an unspoken rule when they took out a civilian building.”
“There seems to be a lot of that going around.”
“Don’t get nasty, kitten, he snapped. “It doesn’t become you.”
Mario placed a dish of antipasto in front of them: cured meats, olives, mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts, various cheeses, and vegetables in oil. He removed the napkin from beside Evie’s fork and placed it over her lap, then did the same for Viper. Bizarre didn’t even begin to describe the absurdity of eating a fancy meal, prepared by a chef in a well-appointed kitchen, across the table from a rough, grizzled outlaw biker, while her son was a prisoner somewhere upstairs. And if Arianne didn’t hurry up and call to let Evie know she had Doreen’s son in a secure location, she’d actually have to try to choke the food down.
“I thought you were smart enough to know I would never give up.” Viper tasted the wine and nodded for Mario to fill his glass. The rich, red liquid reminded Evie of blood and her stomach curdled.
“You’ve been around bikers long enough to understand what it means when we make a claim,” he continued.
Evie covered her glass when Mario approached with the wine. “No, thank you.”
“I insist.” Viper gently knocked her hand away. “It’s an Amarone and goes perfectly with the pasta. And it will help you relax. You seem a bit tense.”
Tense? Was he crazy? Maybe that was it. He was crazy. How else could he possibly think she would want to be with him after what he’d done? Or was he so far gone that he was unable to see that what he was doing was wrong? If Arianne hadn’t texted earlier to say that Doreen’s mother was even less fit to be a parent than Viper—and that was saying something—Evie might have reconsidered her plan to let Viper know he had a son.
Evie scrunched the napkin in her fist under the table as Mario poured the wine. Goddamn it. Why hadn’t Arianne called? She couldn’t pull off this charade for much longer, and it was all she could do not to grab her knife, stab Viper and race upstairs to …
“You wouldn’t even make it across the kitchen.” Viper pried her fingers off the knife she hadn’t even realized she was holding. “I know what you want. And you know what I want. I’m sure we can come to some arrangement that satisfies us both.” He laced his fingers through hers, and brought her hand to his lips, seemingly oblivious to Mario standing in the doorway. “And if not, I’ll just take you, although I would much prefer things to be the way they were when you wanted to be with me.”
“You severed that connection when you murdered Bill, and everything you have done since then has ensured it will never come back.” Her voice rose in pitch, and she wrenched her hand away.
“You don’t fucking get it.” Viper pounded his fist on the table, upsetting the plate of antipasto, and rattling the glasses. “The things you hold in such contempt I do for my club. I have to keep order. I have to keep control. Bill stole from us. If I didn’t send out a message, then every gang, every criminal, every MC would start circling. This is a world where only the strongest survive. And if you think the Sinners are not exactly the same, then you are totally and utterly naive.” He barked the last words and Evie stood so quickly, her chair crashed to the floor.