Page 61 of Viper

“As I said, very little can keep me from somewhere I want to be. It doesn’t reflect on the strength of your wards. They’re powerful. I can feel it.” Viper telepathically reached out to Jester and said,Round up the brothers, I need to hold a meeting.

Done, said Jester.

“If you receive any more of these, I want to hear about it.”

“Viper, I have this situation covered—”

“Clearly not, because this shit is escalating.” He inched closer and cupped her neck. “The bastard came to your home, baby. And this note isn’t as petty as the others. He’s getting bolder. He could do something worse next time. Might even harm you or someone you love. Take what help I’m offering so we can get to him faster.”

She huffed. “You’ll involve yourself no matter what I say.”

He gave a small shrug. “Figured it’d serve me better to let you think it’s on your terms.”

She tried stifling a smile, but it didn’t work too well.

“You’ll reach out if you receive another, yeah?” he pushed.

Her shoulders dipping in surrender, she rubbed at her forehead. “Fine.”

Relief filled him, and his entity relaxed ever so slightly.

“But if anything more happens with the strix, you have to tell me.”

Shit.He’d rather none of that touched her, rather she didn’t … He let his thoughts trail off, knowing he’d have to give in here. If he didn’t, neither would she. “If and when there’s anything further to share, I’ll be sure to tell you.”

She sniffed, seemingly mollified. “Okay, then.”

“In the interests of full disclosure, you’ll have guards on you from now on.” Watching her bristle, Viper added, “They won’t be seen. You won’t even know they’re there. Give me this, Ella. I have to know that you’re safe. Wouldn’t you rather make it harder for this fucker to get to you?”

She let out a long sigh. “Fine. But only because you’re right; he’s getting bolder; we need to catch him before he hurts someone.”

Hiding his satisfaction, Viper gave a nod and lightly squeezed her neck. “I’ll see you later.” Neither he nor his entity wanted to leave her, especially when they now knew there was a threat hovering over her head. But they also wanted to get rid of said threat.

“I have work, but I’ll be home around six.”

“I’ll come to you then. In the meantime, you need anything—absolutely anything—you call me.”

She swallowed. “Okay.”

He released her neck. “Take care, baby.” With that, he teleported to the meeting room in his clubhouse. His brothers were seated at the long table, all looking varying degrees of curious.

Viper claimed his usual seat at the head of the table. “Many of you came across Ella at the compound last night, so you’ll know she was here. The rest of you no doubt heard about it.” News traveled through the club fast.

“I was hoping you were going to tell us she’d let you claim her already or something like that,” said Ghost, lazily sprawled in his seat, “but you look kind of pissed.”

“I am.” Viper splayed his hands on the armrests. “On taking her home, I discovered she’s been getting anonymous notes.”

Jester’s brows knitted. “What kind of notes?”

“Threats,” Viper bit out.

Dice straightened in his chair. “Someone’s threatening her?”

“Yes.” Viper idly rapped his fingers on the table. “Two were tucked under her windscreen wiper. The third was left outside her front door, which means they teleported into her building since they wouldn’t have otherwise gotten past the security measures … or they live in it.”

“What exactly do the notes say?” asked Ghost, his posture having lost its lazy edge.

“The first two were oddly phrased warnings.Let sleeping dogs lie, andYou know what happened to the curious cat. The third read,Back off if you want to live,” Viper added, his entity baring his teeth at the memory.

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