Page 2 of The Vipers and Their Venom

His words sting, but while I may be curvy, I know full well he’d fuck me if I give him half the chance.

It takes everything I have not to knee him in the balls. I’m gambling on the hope that my dad will notice I’m missing any minute now, and he’ll ask around and someone will have seen me coming this way. I’ll fight this asshole, if I have to, but first I need this to get worse before it gets better.

I throw an insult as ammunition against his cruel words.

“I’ve been with guys like you before. You only go for younger girls because you hope we won’t have enough experience to recognize your dick for the micro-penis it actually is.” To demonstrate my point, I cock my pinkie finger and give it a wiggle.

His jaw drops. “You bitch.”

“What did you—” I start, but his hand around my throat cuts off my words.

“Shut up, slut.”

His grip on my neck frightens me. He hasn’t cut the air off from my lungs completely, but he’s definitely narrowed my airway. My breath seems to whistle down my throat, and I lift my hands to claw at his arm.

“Let’s see what you’re hiding under there,” he says and uses his other hand to tear down the front of my tank top.

Fucking asshole.

I lift my booted foot and stomp down on the top of his. He lets out a yell of shock, anger, and pain, and releases my neck.

Please come. Please come now,I pray to myself.

“You fucking bitch!” he snarls.

He lunges for me again, but I manage to duck under his arm and slip past him. I think I’m home and dry, but, with a speed that’s surprising for a man of his size, he lashes out with the backof his hand. He catches me around the mouth, sending my head rocking backward. I let out a cry and stumble back, fall over my own feet, and land heavily on the ground.

The metallic tang of blood is on my tongue.

He’s on me in an instant, pressing me into the dirt and gravel. His hands are all over me, grabbing at my exposed breasts and trying to undo my jeans. I cry out and try to fight back, but although I might be curvy, I’m also short, and he probably has a hundred pounds on me.

The music gets louder again. Either someone else has come out, or whoever had exited the building before has gone back inside.

This is all going horribly wrong. It occurs to me that I have made a terrible mistake. This plan was not a good one, and I’m going to pay for it.

An angry male voice cuts through our fight. “Hey! What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

It’s followed by the thud of two sets of footsteps running toward me. I want to cry in relief.

I recognize Big Mike, one of the club’s Sergeants at Arms, and Smokie Saul—named on account of the fact he always has an unlit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Big Mike hauls the man off me.

My attacker lets out a yell of annoyance at the interruption. “This ain’t none of your business, dude.”

Mike’s balled fist connects with the man’s nose, and the crunch is sickening. I cover my mouth and scramble back, trying to create space. I don’t want to end up covered in his blood, though I already felt some drops hit me.

The man barely has time to recover or attempt to swing back when he receives a punch to the gut. He doubles over, bringing his already bloodied face lower, and a knee to the face sends him flying.

I wince. I almost feel bad for the guy. Clearly, he was a complete asshole, but I am the reason he’s ended up in this alley, having the shit beaten out of him by two of my father’s club members.

A booted foot connects with his back, and he lets out a grunt of pain. It’s followed by another and another, and, at some point, the man goes silent, and I turn away.

“What the fuck is going on here?”

My father’s voice.

I got my diminutive height from my mom’s side. My dad is six-feet-two and a solid wall of muscle. He might be in his late forties now, but that doesn’t stop him from lifting some seriously heavy weights at the gym. He knows he needs to be big and strong if he’s to be feared by other rival gangs, and also by anyone in his own club who might start getting stupid ideas about taking over. That he’s utterly ruthless and doesn’t hesitate to clip someone if they do him wrong also helps.

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