Page 4 of The Vipers and Their Venom

“Verona Falls, huh?” he says.

“It’s in the Adirondack Mountains,” I continue in a rush. “So there’s no chance I could get in any trouble all the way out there.”

He gives a derisive laugh. “You think I don’t know how much trouble kids get up to on campus? Don’t need to be elsewhere, honey. College boys are the worst.”

“Worse than bikers?” I throw back. “Worse than the man who just attacked me out there? I doubt it.”

He blows out a breath and shakes his head.

I sense him wavering and forge on. “You said yourself that I’m smart, Dad. I deserve the chance to get a degree. You know I do.”

He doesn’t want me becoming a biker’s ol’ lady, getting knocked up, and most likely cheated on. I’ve been managing the accounts at the bar since I was thirteen years old. Admittedly, most of it has been creative accounting, finding ways we can launder money from other less legal sources through the bar, but I’m still talented at what I do.

He rubs his finger across his lips. “I don’t know…”

“Or I could end up with one of the guys like the one Big Mike just beat up? I guess that would be preferable to you than me going to college and getting a math degree and ending up with a law-abiding job?” I hang my head. “I suppose I could go to the local university and still live here like we’ve discussed, but itwould be hard to study with how noisy it gets around here, plus then there’s all the…distractions.”

I don’t need to elaborate further to make him understand I’m talking about all the men.

“Verona Falls is super strict.” I’m not lying. Some of the well-guarded prospectus reads like something out of the Victorian era. “I think it will be safer than anywhere else.”

He growls, but his meaty shoulders slump. “Fine. Let me investigate the place. If there’s any possibility they won’t be able to keep you safe, then it’s going to be a hard no from me. Got it?”

I grin. “Yes, Dad.”

He nods at me to say the conversation is done, and I head out of the room and up to bed, my body aching, and my mind filled with the images of what just went down. I had a plan, but that plan got a man killed. I just have to hope it wasn’t in vain.

It takes another twenty-four hours before Dad comes back to me with a decision. He punches into the office, the door flying open.

In that time, I’ve been working on accounts and managed to keep my head down and not get into any more trouble. How long that will last, though, is anyone’s guess, especially if my dad agrees to what I want. There’s a reason I want to go to Verona Falls, and a reason I put myself in such a precarious position.

Mom had told me something before she died.

I remember the moment she told me the truth with painful clarity. How she’d been lying in the hospital bed, and her eyelids had fluttered open. She’d clasped my hand and told me there was something she needed to say. “You have a sister, Vani, a baby I was forced to give up before I’d even met your dad. The baby’s father, Jarl Olsen, was a bad man—a terrible man. He did things to me…” Her eyelids had fluttered shut again, as though she was in pain, though I didn’t know if it was from her current injuries or the recollection of what had happened to her.

“He found out I was pregnant, and after she was born, took her from me. I had no choice but to let her go. He said if I didn’t, he would kill her, and I believed him. He said he’d bash her tiny head in with a rock rather than let me keep her. He didn’t want me. I was just a toy to him. But he wasn’t going to allow me to keep the child either. The baby was his property.”

“Why didn’t you tell Dad?” I’d asked. “He would have gotten your baby back for you.”

She’d shaken her head. “Vani, when men like Olsen and your father go to war, there are no winners. There would have been so much bloodshed, it was unthinkable. And the first person Olsen would have killed was the child.” She twisted her face away from me. “But also, I was ashamed. Ashamed of what that man did to me, but also ashamed that I let my own daughter go so easily. What would your father have thought of me? It’s the reason I haven’t told anyone until now, but I couldn’t take this to my grave.”

I’d jerked back at her words and my eyes had filled with tears. “You’re not going to die, Mom. You’re going to be just fine.” I’d squeezed her fingers, and she gave me a weak, tired smile.

“Sure, baby. Sure.”

But I didn’t believe her. She’d told me this because she knew she was going to die.

“There’s something else,” Mom continued. “The baby was only two years older than you, Vani, and all of the Olsen family send their offspring to the same private college. It’s called Verona Falls. If you’ll find your sister anywhere, it’ll be there.”

The news I had a sister had been like a cross between a gut punch and being told about a lottery win. I’d always wanted a sister—had yearned for it when I was growing up. I’d even played pretend, like my make-believe sister was an imaginary friend. Now I know the truth, it makes me wonder if subconsciously I’dpicked up on something. Had the universe been trying to point me in the right direction all this time?

But Mom hadn’t finished. “You must never tell your father the truth, Vani, or there will be bloodshed.” Her fingers tightened around mine and she stared into my eyes, trying to impart to me the importance of what she was saying. “And you must never, ever contact Jarl Olsen, no matter what. He must never find out that you are mine, and that you know the truth. Promise me, Vani. He does terrible things. I had no idea of his depravity when I met him. Don’t ever mention his name or ask after your sister openly.”

I’d nodded. “I promise.” Then I’d thought of something and licked my lower lip before asking, “What is her name?”

Mom had sunk back against the pillow. “Reagan. Her name is Reagan.”

Now I stare up at Dad expectantly. My stomach is churning. This is it; either I get to find my sister, or I spend the next few years here, stuck in this club and going nowhere.

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