by Sam Crescent
“It’s the fucking girl. I can’t believe this. How’s that possible?” said the blond.
“Hell if I know. There still a price on her head?”
The blond smirked. “Damn right there is. Sutherland never said we couldn’t cash in. Do you remember the terms?”
“Natural causes. That’s it.”
“It won’t look good if she tanks in her own house. Let’s drive her out to the suburbs and dump her,” said the blond.
Pepper still hadn’t moved. She felt like she was having an out of body experience, watching a movie where she had the unfortunate starring role.
They started to move in, cornering her, like hunters approaching a skittish animal. “Hey there, Pepper. Don’t be scared. I’m sure your stepdad will be thrilled to see you.”
The blond slowly reached out for her arm, but before he could make contact there was a shrill popping sound. He dropped straight backwards like a falling oak, crashing onto the wooden floor. The other guy waved his gun back and forth like a madman looking for a ghost. There was another pop, and a well of blood appeared on his forehead. He stared at her blankly before collapsing into a heap.
“Come on.” Viper took her hand and tugged her along. She kept looking back at the two dead bodies, shocked and speechless. He ushered them through two different doors, but she wasn’t paying attention.
“Who were they?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care.”
He pressed her against a wall as he cracked open another door. She tried to focus and get her wits back. They were about to enter the front foyer of the house. She could hear voices, and imagined there would be a lot of security at the entrance. The sun had faded, and there was little light in the corridor. According to Viper her stepfather’s hired men had killed the media crew, destroying her entire plan. Instead of laying claim to her fortune, she was a rat in a maze where everyone wanted her dead.
A man with an automatic weapon was waiting on the other side of the door. He aimed at Viper, and Pepper screamed. She watched in horror as several other men rushed over, shouting and brandishing firearms. What have I done?
Viper used a Glock with unbelievable accuracy, aiming and shooting, taking them down one by one. More footsteps echoed in the house. He dropped his gun, shrugged off his jacket, and reached into a holster for another weapon.
She crouched down low, watching Viper move about like a one-man killing machine—shooting, punching, and flipping men like a choreographed dance.
He was slightly out of breath when he finally checked on her. “You’re doing great, baby. Time to go.” Viper helped her up to her feet, but was blindsided by a huge man dressed in black. They crashed into the opposite wall, drywall raining down from the impact. Both men were powerhouses, bare knuckle boxing back and forth with no holding back. Viper was in his fitted t-shirt, strapped with weapons. His muscles were straining, and she prayed he was capable of coming out on top. If anything happened to him, she was as good as dead.
“Fuck,” Viper cursed, taking a shot with a gun but missing when the brute knocked his arm to the side. The bullet whizzed near Pepper’s head making her squeal.
“Submit, fucker!” The other man used the same moves, making it impossible for one to overpower the other. This hired gun had a shaved head with dark stubble and tattoos on his neck. She wasn’t sure which man looked scarier.
More gunshots fired, and then they were both on the floor, wrestling. Viper got the other man into a head lock, his massive biceps bulging as he applied intense pressure. Within minutes, the man’s body went limp, and the house seemed eerily quiet again. Only the sound of Viper’s heavy breathing broke the hush.
“Is he dead?” she asked, crawling over to Viper. He had blood coming from his lip and a blackening eye. She wanted to kiss every inch of his face, so relieved he was okay.
Viper shook his head, pushing up into a sitting position. He leaned against the wall. “He’s just out cold. I couldn’t kill him.”
“Why not?” Of all the other hitmen, this guy seemed like the stiffest competition. She didn’t want him to wake up and kill her man.
“His name’s Bain. He’s a ghost from my past.”
Chapter Nine
Back at another motel, Viper paced the length of the room right near the front door. The lights were turned off, and as much as he wanted to join Pepper in the shower, he stayed to guard. Now was not the time to be enjoying a nice fuck before bed. He needed to get shit dealt with. It was like thinking about Bain had brought him out of thin fucking air.
“What’s the news?” he asked the moment Boss answered the call.
“That the attack on the media has been considered an accident. One of the hitmen dressed as a reporter opened fire, and killed them all. None of them were rolling their cameras, but the security footage on the outside of the building confirms it. As far as law enforcement is concerned, one crazy man whom they can’t identify did it. Fucking assholes.”
Boss didn’t sound impressed, and what concerned Viper was what he sensed was coming next.
“Viper, either Sutherland goes down, or she does. It’s one or the other. You can’t keep her alive forever.”
“I know.” He glanced toward the shower.
“Can you do it? Can you kill her? It would end all of this. We have the ten million advance. Kill her, get it over with, and return to your life.”
Any mercenary would see the instant they were pushed into a corner. There were too many risks. They had taken out reporters now, and it was only getting worse. “Bain was there.”
“What?”
Bain was not only someone from his past, he was also someone that Boss had tried to bring into the fold.
“Yeah, he was there. I couldn’t kill him. Look, I know I should just take care of everything, and we’d be up financially, but I can’t do it. I can’t … kill her. I don’t want to.” He rubbed at his eyes, feeling the strain of everything. She had admitted that she loved him. It had been during the throes of sex, but those words had meant something to him.
It was stupid, but no one in his entire life had ever told him that they loved him. No one. He’d always been a thing to train for them to get to be a killing machine, and he couldn’t kill her, not even if he wanted to.
“I didn’t think you’d kill her.” Boss sighed on the other end. “She is not going to last much longer, Viper. The kills on her head, I looked into her family’s fortune, and it’s fucking huge. We’re talking an empire forged hundreds of years ago that has only gotten stronger. It has survived so fucking much, and continues to. They employ hundreds of thousands, and they actually have a good work ethic. She’s far from a pampered princess.”
“You want her to live?” he asked.
“Yeah, I do. She’s worth more to us alive than dead and not just because of our paycheck. If Sutherland takes over that company, heads will roll. The man is pure evil, and he’s got to die. I’ve found out the reason he’s got so many men on his side. He’s offered them a percentage of the company, Viper. That’s millions if not billions of dollars.”
Viper knew what he had to do. “Tomorrow, I’ll go.”
“Viper, you’ve got to use her as bait. I’ve got the sedative that will make it look like she’s dead. The only way you will get close is if you take her with you. This guy is not going to stop, and he’s going to have a shitload of men around him.”
Again, he was rubbing his eyes. Everything that he had to deal with, he’d handle tomorrow.
“I’m going to need back up, and I want tonight with her. Give me that, please.”
What he was planning would certainly kill the two of them, but he wasn’t about to risk either of their lives, not for a second.
“We’re guarding you. You have nothing to fear. Have your night, and enjoy it.” Boss ended the call, and Viper clicked the phone off, holding it in his hand, and wanting to crush it so it didn’t disturb him again. When he turned, he found Pepper sitting on the bed. Even in the dark, he
knew she was sad.
“I didn’t hear you finish in the bathroom.”
“You were talking.”
“You heard some of that?”
“Yeah, I heard some of that. You can’t kill me, or you don’t want to kill me?”
Tears glistened in her eyes, and it twisted his gut to see them. He couldn’t handle this, not for a second. It was all too much for him, and he gritted his teeth. Never had he felt such weakness, and yet was it really weak to love a woman? “I’m not very good at this.”
“All you have to do is answer the question.”
“I can’t kill you, okay? Do you know how easy all of this shit would be?” He exploded. He was angry, enraged, and just plain pissed off. Deep down he had known this fucking plan wouldn’t work. Sutherland was too much of a greedy bastard to let some woman take from him what he’d been wanting all along, power, money, everything. Her mother had been too fucking weak to see what was going on, and now her own daughter was having to pay the consequences of that. “I could kill you right now, and have the money you’ve sent as a payment, and then whatever Sutherland will pay. That is how easy I can end this.”
“Then do it.”
He shook his head and growled. “You’re so infuriating, you know that? You’re rich, and have this perfect life, and yet you don’t. This is not supposed to happen. Not to me.”
“What’s not supposed to happen?”
He had confused her. “This! I shouldn’t want you, Pepper. I’m a bad guy. All I’ve ever known is violence. I can’t even fucking read, and yet I have a piece of paper in my pocket to say that we’re married, and all I want to do is fucking read it, and for it to actually be true. Do you even get that?” He heard her gasp, and yet continued anyway. There was no point in stopping while he was on a roll. “There are men willing to take out a whole group of reporters to see you dead, and to get one big paycheck. A paycheck that I was on the way to get when I first met you.”
“Then do it, Viper. I don’t want to cause you any more pain.” She stood, holding onto the towel. Her hair was still wet, and she looked so pitiful, yet he fucking loved her. This woman, this stupid woman who ran away just to be safe. Damn it. “I don’t want you to be hurting because of me.”
“You stupid, stupid, woman.” He reached out, cupping her cheeks. Pressing his head against hers, he tried to calm his rage. “I do not want to, and I will not kill you.”
“It will make your life easier.”
“A life without you, Pepper, will not make my life easier.” He pressed a little kiss to her lips. “I want that wedding certificate to be real, not just on paper, I mean, but for us both to be married. I don’t want to kill you because I couldn’t live without you.” Even as he spoke he was finding it hard to speak the words.
Every single moment growing up, whenever he wanted something, or loved something, it was taken from him. Pepper at any moment could be taken from him, and he couldn’t handle that. Her dying just couldn’t happen. He refused to allow it.
“I love you, Pepper.” He gritted his teeth. “And because I love you, I cannot let you die. I’m going to fight for you, fight for us, and I’m not, no matter what you think, going to let you die. I can’t do allow it.”
There was silence, and Pepper stared at him, no words coming from her.
“You love me?” She was the first to break that silence.
“Yes.”
“You want to marry me?”
“Know a woman to be the first to pick that out.”
“I’m being serious, Viper. You want to marry me?” she asked.
“Yes. I want to marry you. I want to belong to you.”
“Then we can get married, you know. Before we go and deal with him. If anything goes wrong, you can have it all. You’ll be the next in line as my husband to inherit my family fortune. I want you to have it.”
He pressed a finger to her lips, to silence any more words or plans from her. The last thing he wanted to be talking about right now was what was about to happen. She had no idea that this threat was never going to go away. They only had each other for this one night, and then he was going to have to fight, and to fight hard. “I don’t want you to be thinking about that, or about anything else right now, okay?”
“Viper, we can do this together. I know we can.”
She always saw the positive, and never what had to happen. It was like she was either blind, or refused to see the truth. He loved that about her. Even after everything, knowing what he did, she never judged him.
“Why couldn’t we have met a couple of years ago?” He wasn’t asking her, or anyone else. The truth was, he deeply regretted his life for a split second, and wished there was some way to end it.
He wasn’t a good man, never would be. Tilting her head back, he stared into her eyes, and tried to remember everything he loved about the color blue. How it reminded him of the ocean, of the dreams that would often come to him as a boy. Stroking her cheek, he relished the softness of her skin, and then he remembered the feeling of her tight, virgin pussy wrapped around his cock.
For as much as he could be poetic in their last night together, he still was a man, a man with needs. He stared at the knot holding the towel together. Her skin had dried a little in the warm air, but the temptation of her body was too much of an allure for him to give up.
Sliding his hands down her neck to that very knot, he released it, and slowly began to open her towel, letting it drop to the floor in a heap.
She didn’t try to hide her body from him, and for that he was thankful. His cock sprang to life, hard, pulsing, demanding, but he ignored it. He was going to take tonight to give Pepper a night she would never forget. This was all about her and the two of them together. He pushed thoughts of her stepfather, responsibility, and Killer of Kings to the back of his mind.
He had tonight, and he was going to make every single moment count.
Stepping away from her body, he removed his shirt, placing his gun on the small cabinet beside the bed, and opened his belt. Piece by piece he became as naked as she was.
Once he wore nothing, he stepped up to her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and pulling her close.
Just the feel of her naked body pressing against his own, Viper was in heaven. In his world, he had more money than he could ever spend, but he had never had the one thing that he had craved as a little boy—love. Until now, Viper had never known what it was like to love a woman, or to be loved by her. Many nights, he would lie on the cold ground, shaking, shivering, and begging for someone to take him away. He craved someone to love him, to hold him close more than anything.
When Pepper wrapped her arms around him, he sighed, contented.
“I wanted you so much, Pepper. When I was a boy, I wanted a woman, and you are my dream come true. There is no one else for me in this world.” He pulled back just enough to press a kiss to her lips. “And I will do everything in my power to keep you alive.”
****
Pepper didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had never wanted a man in her life, and had always believed she would be nothing more than a lonely businesswoman, with the family empire to keep her company. Viper exploded onto her scene in more ways than she could have ever imagined. Against all odds, he had saved her when he didn’t have to, and she had fallen in love with him.
Maybe it was that Stockholm thing, but then again, Viper had never hurt her. Sure, he’d grabbed her roughly a couple of times, but the moment he saw that he was hurting her, he released his hold. He was entirely the wrong kind of man to love, and yet, the perfect one. He never took crap from anyone, and he was a damn fierce man.
She loved him with all of her heart, and knew that he would take a bullet for her. She didn’t want him to though. Sinking her fingers into the short hairs at the back of his nape, she smiled at him, and tried to control the tears that were threatening to fall.
“I love you, Pepper.”
They fell. She couldn’t contain her tears an
ymore, and nor did she want to. “Let’s go away together, Viper. In time everything will die down, and we can live happily, just the two of us. I don’t want my family’s empire. I only want you. That’s all I want.”
He held her close. “They will never stop hunting you, and your stepfather will only get desperate. We have tonight, baby. Give me tonight, and then I will make sure you never have anything else to fear.”
She closed her eyes, and then pressed her lips against his. No matter what it took, she would stop him. Pepper would make sure that he didn’t go and find hell, but that he stayed, and loved her.
Viper wrapped his large, muscular arms around her, one hand going to the back of her head, holding onto her tightly. She loved how he held her, how his arms helped her to feel comfort. So many had died because of him, but not her. He held her, protected her, and above everything else, he loved her.
His tongue traced her lips, and she opened to him, wanting his kiss, needing him more than anything. Pushing all of her fears to one side, she concentrated on the moment she had with Viper, loving him, being surrounded by him, consumed by him.
Running the tips of her fingers down his back, she marveled at the man in her arms, knowing what it had cost him to open up like that. His body pressed against hers, Pepper was in total heaven. She held her thighs together as heat rushed through her body. She was so wet already, and it was kind of embarrassing. When it came to Viper, he inspired so much inside her that it was next to impossible to keep it contained.
She loved him.
She wanted him.
Their lives were in danger, and he was going to do something crazy, and stupid. She wanted to make him stop, but for now, she just wanted to have this time with him.
Pulling away from the kiss, he pressed her lips against his neck, and then down his shoulder toward his chest. She flicked her tongue against one nipple, and then over to the next. His hand tightened in her hair, and she couldn’t help the moan that slipped through her lips. Glancing up, she saw that his gaze was on hers, and there was no mistaking the fire within his eyes.