Page 8 of Serpentine

But I also don’t know what I’ll do with you.

I can’t take her back; she could immediately have the police here. The last thing we need is another Cobra behind bars. The police may pay no heed—for the right price—but they won't be able to ignore something like this. It's headline material.

“Why have you taken me? Something to do with my father? I’m not him. I have nothing to do with him or his company,” she spews.

I sit on the edge of the bed, running my eyes over her.

She’s got dark, wavy hair that’s a fucking tousled mess. Her lips are pouty, and I bet everything in my wallet they’re soft. Her eyes are round and the prettiest shade of blue. She’s as curvy as the back roads I love to speed down when the weather is perfect.

Fuck me if I can’t see why he’d lost his shit over her. There’s just something...

“Your father is on our radar, yes. But why you were taken, dearest, hasn’t got a thing to do with him, unfortunately.” I sigh.

Her eyes drift down, and she looks at my club ring. It’s a massive piece we all wear. It took some getting used to in the first few weeks of being in. It’s white-gold, gaudy, and has a skull on it with a cobra slithering through the mouth and eye sockets.

“Who are you people?” she asks softly before her gorgeous eyes flick back towards mine.

It’s doubtful she doesn’t know us.

“If you think playing stupid means I’ll let you go, you’ve got another thing coming, pretty princess.”

She scoffs, rolling her sinful eyes. “I’m no princess.”

“Really?” I lean in, running my finger down her cheek softly. “Because you look as delicate as one to me. Alabaster, perfect skin that’s never known a bite of fucking pain.”

“What?” she breathes.

I lean away from her.

Now you’re losing your fucking head?

When I stand and move towards the door, her breathing panics. “You won’t let me go?”

Holding the door open, I look back at her over my shoulder. “One doesn’t capture something so sweet only to throw it back. What kind of hunter do you take me for?”

Slamming the door shut, I rest my body on the other side of it as she cries again.

“Pres? What do you want me to do with her?” Blaze’s voice breaks through the mania in my head, spinning me in circles.

I rush him, wrapping my hand around his throat before lifting him off his feet against the wall. “I don’t know who you think your boss is, but it’s surely not Braxton. If you listen to his command one more time before conferring with me, it’ll be the last order you carry out. Do you understand me?”

He nods, grasping at my hand for oxygen.

I drop him to his feet. He bends in the middle, coughing and sputtering.

“I want you to allow her to use the restroom and feed her. She’s to always stay under lock and key until I say otherwise. Do you understand me?”

Blaze nods.

Sully is in the hall, staring at the two of us with a brow quirked. Working his hands, using ASL, he signs, “And what do you want us to do with Brax?”

I sigh, rubbing my temples. “Nothing. You do nothing with Brax. I’ll handle him. But I don’t want him anywhere near her. She’s gotten into his fucking head somehow, and I don’t trust him around her,” I sign back.

Sully nods, moving to slap Blaze on the back as he finally stands straighter.

I walk past them, grab the bourbon bottle from the card table, and head toward the house.

“Hurry and get her handled. We’re going out tonight!” I call back before slamming the clubhouse door behind me.

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