Page 75 of Viper

“Good. Sasha, see to it that she’s paid, and give her a little something to keep her happy until the rest arrives.” He nods and pulls out a couple of baggies from his pocket and tosses them to her. She catches it and walks away, already focused on getting herself as high as she can.

When we’re in the car and pulling away, Sasha looks at me in the rearview mirror and asks, “Want me to put out a call to have him found?”

I nod. “I want him alive, Sasha. The boy is not to be harmed. And just for good measure, put out the same on this Eden Mercer. But her, I don’t care if she’s dead. I just want her out of the way. Understood?”

“Understood.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

VIPER

Fucking Dagger and his games.

“You sure you’re good?” I ask Eden over the phone as I walk into the clubhouse. It’s the first time that Eden has been with Archer on her own, but I had to come to the clubhouse for Church, and Archer didn’t want to come. He’s been a bit quiet since I picked him up from his mother’s, but he hasn’t offered up the reason even after me prodding him. I know he’ll tell me eventually, so I didn’t push him. But when he said he didn’t want to come to the clubhouse and hang out at home, I didn’t have many options.

Of course, Archer took that opportunity to ask Eden if he could hang out with her, and she offered to stay with him at the apartment. Crypt is watching my place while I’m here, and it’s the only way I feel okay with this whole arrangement. Though I know that Eden won’t let anything happen to him.

Other than one night, she was with me all week while Archer was with his mother, and the two of us made good use of our time alone. Fuck, there are very few places in my apartment I haven’t had her at this point, and a few in hers. It’s also been nice to be able to have that time to talk and get to know each other.

I learned she isn’t close with her parents, but she loves them and wants to go home and visit them soon. I’ve also found out pretty quickly she’s an amazing cook and likes to do it when she has time. Lately she hasn’t had much, but she made me a few different things and I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything better in my life. A fact that I will never admit when Rose is around or even has a chance of overhearing, but holy shit, my woman can cook. I also learned that she does not like being woken up in the middle of the night when she has to work the next day, and the one time I tried, she grabbed my cock tight and threatened to yank it off if I didn’t let her sleep.

Needless to say I left her the hell alone. She did make it up to me by giving me a blowjob in the shower in the morning, so I wasn’t complaining.

Right now, though, I don’t have a good feeling in my gut. Maybe it’s because of Archer, but I’m getting the itch that I need to go home, though I know I can’t. I need to finish Church first, and with so much having happened in the last week, I need to be here.

“I’m fine, Viper,” Eden assures me. “Archer’s in his room playing his game, and I’m going to curl up on the couch and read the book I’ve been wanting to forever and haven’t had time. And he already ate, so I’ll give him some snacks if he gets hungry.”

“Has he said anything to you about why he’s so quiet?” I ask her curiously.

“No, but I told him if he needs me, I’m here for him. I don’t want to push him. I’m still his friend, and friends know when not to. I’m sure he’ll tell you. He’s at that age where kids like to think on things for a bit before they blurt it out.”

“Yeah,” I sigh. “I’m going into Church now, but if anything happens, call me. I got special permission from Bullet to have my phone on me and turned up just in case.”

“Nothing’s going to happen. Besides, you said one of the Prospects is outside?”

“Yeah, Crypt. He’s former Special Forces, so he’s the best trained we have.”

“There’s nothing to worry about. So go and do Church, and then when you get back, you can heat up some of the leftovers I saved for you. Then tonight, if you’re not too late, you can shove my face in a pillow and fuck me nice and hard. How’s that?”

I groan as my cock throbs. “Baby girl, I’m going to spank your ass for teasing me,” I warn her.

“Promises, promises,” she breathes into my ear. Then she hangs up and I pull the phone away from my ear and shut my eyes for a moment as I try to calm myself down and push the images she put in my head out so I can focus.

She’s going to be the death of me.

But my thoughts are quickly cleared when Bullet suddenly bellows, “Church! Now.” There’s an urgency in his tone, and I’m heading for our Church room quickly, as does everyone else. The women all look at us in surprise and concern, but we ignore it. I glance over and see that Kaleb has now positioned himself at the bar and gives me a knowing look when his eyes connect with mine. He’ll watch over them.

The door of Church slams once we’re all in our seats, waiting tensely to hear what’s going on. “Cryos,” Bullet orders sharply.

Cryos nods. “I just heard back from my contact with the information that he found on Misha’s phone, about Dagger, and the Yakuza,” he announces. We all lean forward, waiting anxiously for him to continue. “I’ll start with the small shit first. Apparently the Yakuza have decided to back off now that they know Vlad wasn’t aware of their deal, and the fact that there is a lot of police action around here with Vlad’s sudden surge of warrants and shit against us. There is chatter of them trying to get into another state, but nothing concrete. So for now, we don’t have to worry about them.”

“Small piece of good news,” Sniper remarks.

Cryos nods. “They aren’t happy that one of their best men died, though, so we need to be careful they don’t come back to get revenge, but it seems they’ve pulled back and are going to try elsewhere. But now onto the more important stuff.” He pulls something up on his screen, and I narrow my eyes as I try to figure out whatever the hell it is. But it’s not anything I’ve seen before. It’s just a bunch of gibberish.

“It’s a cypher,” Shadow suddenly says.

Cryos nods. “This was found on Misha’s phone. The bastard was fucking clever, and he knew if something happened to him someone would be trying to hack his shit. So he didn’t make this easy to figure out. But my person was able to decipher some of these, and they are coordinates and location codes.”

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