Page 70 of Viper

“Ghost and Rebel. I had them watching over you.” Viper anchored his palm on her hip, the heavy warm weight of it nothing short of proprietary. “I like that Belinsky’s so protective of you. Yet, I don’t.”

Her brow knitted. “You do, and you don’t?”

“The more protection you have the better. But I don’t like that another man has those rights to you.” Viper moved his face closer to hers, his voice lowering as he added, “Especially when I know you’ve been in his bed.”

“I never said I’d been in his bed.”

“You didn’t have to. It was obvious by how you were spluttering and rambling and avoiding the question when I asked about it.”

She wasn’t touching that subject. “I didn’t tell him you’re having me guarded, by the way. He’d freak and ask the kind of questions I’m not feeling inclined to answer truthfully.” She frowned at the odd look on Viper’s face. “What is it?”

He drew in a breath through his nose. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

She tilted her head. “What?”

He hesitated, his eyes drifting intently over her face. “I was there the night that you interfered with that mugging.”

She double-blinked. “What?”

“I heard you shouting. Well, cursing. I came over just in time to watch you take the psychic hit. I stepped in and killed the fucker that assaulted you.”

“But … why … why didn’t you … ” Ella shook her head, struggling to gather her thoughts. “Why would you come to my rescue and then vanish?” That made no sense. Unless … She narrowed her eyes. “Or were you up to no good at the time? You couldn’t afford to be seen in the area?”

He ran his tongue over the front of his teeth. “Something like that.” The hand cinching her hip breezed a thumb over her hipbone. “I’m telling you this because I don’t want you hunting the wrong person. Whoever’s writing the notes isn’t the fucker that assaulted you. He’s long gone from this world,” he added, his voice dropping, sheer menace threaded through each word.

Something told her that her attacker had diedhard.

While it was annoying to only learn of this now, she couldn’t really blame him for keeping it to himself. He hadn’t known about the notes; hadn’t realized how hard she was searching for the identity of her mugger. Once he did learn of it, he chose tobe upfront with her … even though it meant revealing something he’d apparently prefer to keep quiet.

Okay, so he hadn’t been upfront with her straight off the mark. He could have told her this morning but hadn’t. She was guessing he’d wanted to speak with his club about it first.

Ella sighed. “How am I supposed to tell this to my family and Luka? They’ll want to know how you could possibly have known about the notes. I mean, there’d be no other reason for you to admit to being at the scene.”

“Belinsky already knows. I paid him a visit earlier.”

Yet again, she rapidly blinked. “You did, what?”

“You said you wanted to keep us on the downlow. That meant I needed to handle this a different way. I told him I’d overheard that he was searching for information on who’d assaulted you that night. I admitted to him what I just admitted to you. He hasn’t called you?”

“He might have done. I was in the bath. I left my phone over there on the nightstand.”

“He’ll want to let you know about our conversation, because he’ll have no reason to assume that I’d be the one to tell you.”

“Thank you for being honest. You could have hid it from me to conceal your whereabouts that night. You didn’t. I appreciate it.”

“I told you, you’re mine. I protect what belongs to me.”

She probably shouldn’t like it when he used the M-word, but she did.

“Is there no one else who could be sending you these notes? No enemies, old or new?”

She blew out a breath that slightly rattled her lips. “Not really. I mean, I recently fired someone. But that wasafterI’d received the first two notes, and she didn’t actually want to work for me, so she doesn’t care.”

He kissed her forehead. “We’ll eventually find out who it is.” His brow creasing in concern, he breezed the pad of his thumb beneath her eye. “You look a little—”

“Tired. Yeah. Normal for me recently.”

“Why?”

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