His Secret Baby (A Bad Boy Romance)

by Waltz, Vanessa

  The room rings with my voice, which sounds darker and grittier than usual. One of the Council members sits back, sucking in breath, but the old bastard keeps eye-fucking me.

  “Why?”

  Because Viper gave me no choice.

  “Because he was a prick.” That much is true. “I wanted his daughter, and he wouldn’t give her to me.”

  Also true.

  “Fawn.”

  “Yes.”

  They convene for a moment, leaning together as they whisper closely. I watch as Viper slowly moves in the background, catching the eyes of several other guards near the Council. No one notices.

  There must be a hundred syndicate members gathered here, most of them standing behind my back. I can’t fight my way out even if I wanted to. It’s hopeless.

  Their whispers carry loudly in the room, but they’re indiscernible. Finally they nod to each other and the old bastard glares at me.

  “Very well, Silas. The Council sentences you to die for the murder of Ryan Haines. Se mortem provocatio.”

  “On your fucking knees.”

  The guard slams his fist into my shoulder and kicks at the back of my knees. I grit my teeth as they smash into the ground.

  “On behalf of the Council of the Black Dragons, I hereby sentence you to die.”

  The bite of steel kisses the back of my neck. What a funny thing. The closer I am to death, the faster my heart beats as if to frantically keep me alive.

  “Wait.”

  A cool voice calls out as I feel a rush of air, and I look up to see Viper standing in front of me.

  “A new member should be voted in.”

  One of the Council members, an Asian man with a smooth face, glares at Viper from behind the desk. “Do you object to his execution?”

  “No, I object to the fact that his fate was decided without a sixth Council member.”

  “The Council will reveal the sixth member forthcoming. Until then, stand aside.”

  A scowl twists Amos’s face. “You have no right to interrupt the proceedings of justice.”

  Viper raises his hands, his face creasing with a smile. “You told me that I would be sworn in as Council member.” He speaks in a low voice, but it carries easily in the throne room.

  “Council member Lee informed us about his endorsement of you. We voted against you.”

  Fucking hell.

  My heart rate is jacked as I watch five men who I recognize as members of Viper’s Powell Street Crew inch toward the Council members’ seats.

  Viper keeps his eyes trained on Lee. “And what were your reasons?”

  “This is neither the time or the place—”

  “No. He needs to know.” The venerable man addresses him. “Your unbridled arrogance, for one. You have never shown the syndicate the proper amount of respect, and what’s more, you continue to defy the members of this Council.”

  “You’ll be a fine Dragon, but you’ll never become a Council member.”

  His powerful voice rings in the throne room, until it sounds like a mocking singsong.

  Viper’s face blanches as the voices keep ringing in the room. I curl my fingers into fists and dig my nails in as I watch the humiliation work its way into Viper’s body like a poisonous shot.

  “You stupid old fools.”

  The old bastard makes a sound of outrage before the man who crept up behind him suddenly yanks back his head, a knife at his throat.

  “PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN!”

  Lee stands up halfway, but another one of Viper’s people wraps an arm around his neck and slams him into his chest. The crowd lets out a volley of yells as the attacker holds a knife right under Lee’s neck. It happens very quickly in a storm of shouts. Within seconds—without even a scuffle—all Council members are at Viper’s mercy.

  “What the fuck are you doing?”

  A smirk tugs at Viper’s mouth as he leans over the desk, laughing at the old man’s attempts to throw off the arm locked around his throat.

  “You’re right. I’ll never become a member of the Council. I’ll be emperor instead.”

  “Stop this madness! You can’t—”

  His voice gives out into a garbled shout as the knife slides across his neck, opening his throat. Blood sprays across the table as the other four men do the same. The guard next to me charges Viper, who slides a knife from his belt. A sickening sound like a melon being split open hits my gut as Viper stabs the guard’s eye. He yanks it out, crimson dripping from the blade.

  It’s pandemonium.

  The Council members’ bodies crash to the marble floor as their blood runs over the oak table. Five vacant faces stare at the ceiling, their throats sluggishly oozing blood. It drips down the dais and pools around my knees.

  “Listen! You can fight me and die, or you can join us in this new era.” Viper’s voice, or maybe the fact that the leadership of the syndicate was just eviscerated, stops every member in their tracks. “From this moment forward, my power is the only power.”

  A single voice rings out. “Fuck you!”

  “Kill him. Kill anyone who resists.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  His thugs run down the dais as the throne room erupts into chaos again. Someone shuts the doors, closing off escape for those opposing Viper’s leadership. It’s a slaughter. Viper must have bribed the guards to let weapons inside. Fuck, he had all of them in his pocket.

  Including me. I played right into his hands.

  He seems to notice me then, still kneeling in a pool of blood that isn’t mine. Viper flashes a grin at me, and I tense at the knife in his hand. He bends down, stealing the keys from the dead guard’s pocket as screams of dying men ring out in the throne room. My hands twitch as I feel him unlock the handcuffs from my wrist.

  I stand up with him and gaze out into the sea of paralyzed men in blood-spattered suits.

  “No! No, please!”

  A young man is forced to his knees by Viper’s men, and it’s not until then that I notice his supporters wearing a small red dragon pinned to their lapels. Something to identify them in the slaughter.

  “Who is this?”

  “He’s the son of Council member Lee.”

  “Ah.”

  “That doesn’t mean I deserve to die!” he screams as one of them buries a gun in the back of his head.

  “Perhaps, but I can’t take a chance.”

  A deafening shot rings through the throne room as the guard fires the gun. Blood and dark chunks explode from the young man’s head as he falls to the marble floor, his blood mingling with the rest of the members’.

  “We kill anyone associated with the old crowd. Understand? The syndicate must be purged.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Viper turns around, facing me as waves and waves of shock obliterate every other feeling. He didn’t just want to kill a man. He cut the head off the Black Dragons. The most powerful gang—and he slaughtered them like sheep.

  “Death before defiance.” He gives me a smile as if we’re sharing a private joke. “Stupid fucking slogan.”

  He can’t possibly think he can get away with this.

  “I wanted to thank you for your part, old friend. I’m glad that you proved yourself to be trustworthy.”

  My slacks are covered in blood. Did I do this? Viper smiles at me, and once again I find it hard to connect the charming, boyish face to the mass slaughter—to the girl on the beach. He’s mastered every human emotion. He can mimic them to perfection, but I don’t think he feels anything right now but carefully controlled rage.

  Then he reaches forward and grasps my shoulder in what I’m sure he thinks is a comforting gesture. “You did well, Silas. And I want to give you a gift.”

  Die. That’ll be the greatest gift you could ever give me.

  I stare at him. “What?”

  “That girl—what was her name? Fawn.”

  My insides twist. “What about her?”

  “I’ll allow you two to marry.”

  T
he room is quiet. There’s only the sound of blood still dripping from the dais. Pat-pat.

  If the man is anything like the boy I knew, he’ll take offense if I say no.

  “I can see from the look on your face that you’re not thrilled by my gift.”

  “All due respect,” I say with contempt in my voice. “But I’m not the marrying type.”

  “It would set a good example if one of my captains married the daughter of a board member.”

  Fucking piece of shit—I’m not working for you.

  “I’m getting rid of anyone associated with the old guard. That means wives, children, and other family members. Would you let her die?”

  My throat closes as I imagine them storming in my room and carving a red smile into her neck.

  “No, I won’t.”

  Pepper’s face burns in my mind as he leans in, grinning from ear to ear. I’m sure he’s remembering her, too.

  “Same old Roach.”

  Then he laughs, punching my shoulder affectionately as numbness spreads through my body.

  I have to marry her.

  He’ll kill her if I don’t.

  7

  Fawn

  The crowd pushes against my back as we wait outside the closed doors of the throne room. Tears slide down my face and down my lips. I taste the saltiness and for a moment I remember the way he tasted after fucking me, the salt on his skin. I think of his dark, thick hair and the faint lines around his eyes and the freckles on his nose. The promise of a better life seemed so close because I had Silas. He made me want him so badly, and he killed my father.

  Why am I crying?

  I place my hand over the wood paneling. My ears strain against the noise, but I can’t hear a thing. I can only imagine what’s happening. He’s prostrate on his knees, helpless. The executioner’s blade (I have no idea what they actually use) kisses the back of his neck. Silas’s head bends forward as the blade whistles through the air.

  My stomach turns as I imagine his head swiped clean from his shoulders, blood spilling from the stump like a fountain.

  Good riddance, I try to tell myself. He used you.

  He deserves it, but I’m still sickened.

  Restless energy moves through the crowd in waves as the guards remind them to keep back. Then several shouts ring out from inside the throne room. They’re loud enough for us to hear outside.

  They did it. They actually did it.

  My stomach clenches, and I decide that I can’t bear to see Silas’s body paraded out of here. My eyes burn unexpectedly as Silas’s death collides into me. I feel nothing but a gaping emptiness. Dad’s gone and somehow bringing his murderer to justice feels just as awful. I turn my back on the door and elbow my way out of the crowd, my heart sinking with every step I take back to my new quarters.

  Then a heavy body slams into the door, making it rattle violently. The guards posted on either side give each other looks.

  “What’s going on?”

  The shouting within the throne room rises in a crescendo, and more bodies slam against the wall.

  “What the hell is going on in there?”

  “Should we check?”

  “I don’t know.”

  It sounds like they’re fighting in there. What the hell?

  Despite myself, I walk back to the doors, which shudder fiercely. Then they burst open and a view of the magnificent throne room flashes in my eyes until a young man covered in blood stumbles out.

  “Dead! They’re all dead!”

  “What the fuck happened?”

  Marble floors sprawl to a giant table that normally holds the members of the Council. I see them slumped over the table, as though they were sleeping. The doors groan as they shut again, pulled from the inside.

  “Barricade it! Don’t let anyone else out.”

  A muffled voice gives orders from inside the room. The guards grasp the boy’s shoulders, but he keeps screaming nonsense.

  “Dead! They’re dead!”

  “Who’s dead, goddamn it?”

  “The Council!”

  What?

  Then a wild thought bursts into my head—that the bodies slumped over on the table weren’t sleeping. They were dead.

  No, it can’t be. That would be ridiculous.

  “I don’t understand,” a nervous woman asks the guards. “I thought this was a hearing for the murderer—”

  The young man runs off as the doors buckle again. The guards seize the handles and pull, but they don’t give. “It’s blocked.”

  My heart leaps in my chest like a bird’s wings beating against a cage. No one’s usurped the syndicate in decades.

  The muffled yells rise into screams of pain, and I take a step back as the sound hits me. Several other women scream, running away from the door.

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  The guard kicks the door in frustration, and then suddenly it blows open, smashing into his body. Men in suits spattered with blood pour out of the room. At the head of the group is that same guy who took me to see the Council when Dad died. Venom? No, Viper. He’s the one who callously dropped me at the whorehouse.

  He doesn’t look the same. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s carrying himself differently. His eyes scan the scene of chaos with a look of supreme indifference.

  Mrs. Lee, the wife of one of the members, plucks at his sleeve. “What happened to my husband? The young man said—”

  Viper twists his arm, burying something in her petite chest.

  BAM!

  The sound is deafening, and I don’t hear the scream tearing from my throat. Mrs. Lee lets out a choked gasp as she is blown backward, an angry red hole in the middle of her chest.

  He shot her.

  Viper averts his eyes from the dying woman as her cries roll down his shoulders. My mouth is open in a silent scream as I watch blood stain her clothes.

  “Kill their families first,” he tells the others as the crowd scatters.

  “What about children?”

  “Separate them from their parents.”

  I don’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. All I know is that I can’t just sit here and let Mrs. Lee bleed out. My knees shake as I stand up and run toward her.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  A ruthless hand snatches my arm before I can get within two feet of Mrs. Lee. His cold, clammy touch sends an icy current through my veins.

  “Please, I need to help her.”

  Viper’s pitiless eyes graze over Mrs. Lee’s body. “There’s no help for her.”

  One of his lackeys looks at me. “Sir, this is Fawn Haines, daughter of Ryan Haines.”

  “I know who she is.”

  “Let me kill the bitch.”

  His fingers bite into my arm as I yank away.

  “No. She belongs to Silas.” His tone almost sounds regretful as his other hand lifts to gently wrap around my throat. My heartbeat jumps into his fingers as he clenches ever so slightly. Viper takes shallow breaths as his pupils dilate.

  At Viper’s feet, Mrs. Lee makes even higher gasps, her almond-shaped eyes rolling in their sockets.

  “Please let me help her!”

  “I should’ve been the one to fuck you next to your father’s corpse.”

  Let go of me, you fucking psycho.

  He flexes his fingers around my throat and then slides them down my neck, tearing his gaze away.

  “Go to Silas’s suite and stay there. Or stay out here and die.”

  I gasp for breath as his hand drops from my neck.

  “Let’s go.”

  They sweep past me, joining the pandemonium that spreads through the second floor. I hear distant screams, some of which sound like the wailing of children.

  I collapse to my knees, bending over the rapidly fading Mrs. Lee. God, there’s blood everywhere. It completely soaked through her gray dress. And her hands are ice cold. I look around for something to stanch the bleeding. Men run past me as I scream for help
, and then I search for a pulse in Mrs. Lee’s wizened neck.

  She’s already gone. Her cheeks are still wet with tears, and her eyes still stare at the ceiling, glassy and unmoving.

  “Oh my God!’

  I can’t take it in. My knees are bright red with her blood and my hands are soaked. The door to the throne room bounces ajar, and I catch a glimpse of carnage.

  My hands smear blood along the walls as I run away from it. I know this place intimately, like I know my own body, but I haven’t got a clue where I’m running, or where this hallway leads.

  I collide with another body and my scream mingles with his roar of outrage. We tumble to the floor and the carpet scrapes my hands, giving them a vicious burn.

  “Stupid fucking whore!”

  With a horrifying jolt, I realize he’s one of the men who looked after my father.

  “You.”

  I stumble on my heels and twist my ankle, screaming in pain as I fall down. Cruel laughter fills the hall as he yanks me up by my hair and buries a gun under my neck. His other hand gropes up my dress, up my ribs until he grabs my breast. I gasp at the violation as he breathes into my neck.

  “You have no idea how long I fantasized about these tits.”

  “Please stop!”

  “Fuck,” he hisses in my ear. “I’ll get some other slut for later tonight. Viper wants you dead.”

  I elbow his face, and then he takes my neck and slams my back into the wall. The air leaves my chest as he squeezes, robbing me of air with one hand.

  “Get the fuck off her!”

  I see the profile of a man with harsh features, and then my would-be murderer’s hands fly from my throat. I collapse to the floor, gasping as I watch a man with coppery-black hair hurl his fist against my attacker’s body. He doubles over, gagging as he takes several punches to his gut. The attacker swings, missing wildly, and my savior launches a vicious kick that makes a loud crack. A piercing scream hits my ears right before Silas wrestles the gun from his hands and aims at his head. I try to look away, but I’m too slow.

  The gun blasts and the man’s head explodes like a melon—chunks of brain flying everywhere before his body hits the floor. A scream finally tears from my throat, and then suddenly Silas’s palm smothers the sound as he covers my mouth.