Page 52 of The Vipers and Their Venom

Rude.

That seems to be my experience of many of the students who attend Verona Falls, though.

People here know how to keep their mouths shut.

30

VANI

Afew days go by, and I start to settle into the routine of Verona Falls.

I haven’t seen much of the Vipers, except for at a distance. I wonder if their interest in me has waned. I’m not sure how I feel about that. While it gives me space to breathe and get my thoughts together, I’ll also admit I’m a little disappointed. Had I been hoping Lex would keep his word on me owing him again? Or had the moment I’d had with Zane in the field been a part of that?

I’m also at a complete dead end with finding anything more about Reagan, and it’s incredibly frustrating. The college isn’t huge—at least when it comes to the student body number—and I don’t understand why I haven’t at least heard her name somewhere.

Right now, the only link I have is with the Vipers, and that makes me feel strange for all different kinds of reasons. It should put me off having anything more to do with them. Firstly, because maybe my sister did—and maybe even still does—and that’s just weird, and secondly, because they might have been nasty to her and made her move houses.

The trouble is this place is so big and sprawling and the houses so defined that people don’t seem to mingle much between them. In most colleges, the year you are in is the defining factor of the social hierarchies and groups. Here, it seems to be the houses.

It’s been a lonely couple of days. Lonely and frustrating.

I’m still a little homesick as well. I’ve never been away from the club for any length of time, and I miss it. I miss my dad, and the other guys, and the easy camaraderie. There was no second guessing everything and everyone there. I knew who I was, with no doubt, and everyone else knew who I was. I’d hated my dad’s overprotectiveness, and the way guys hadn’t even dared to look directly at me, but I’d been respected. I had belonged, even if it had been a strange sort of belonging.

I decide to call my dad on a whim. I don’t want to feel like a failure by calling, but, somehow, I do. It’s as though I’m admitting that I can’t cope without him.

I want to hear the familiar hubbub of the bar and imagine inhaling the scent of beer and motor oil. I want to be home.

As soon as the phone rings, I realize it’s a mistake because tears clog my throat, but he answers before I can hang up.

“Vani!” He sounds so pleased to hear from me, and my father isn’t normally one to show emotions, which only makes my own stronger.

“Hey, Daddy.” I realize my mistake right away. I never call him Daddy these days.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asks.

“Nothing,” I lie. “I’m just a little homesick. I’m sure it’s normal, but I wanted to hear a friendly voice.”

“They’re not being friendly to you there,” he growls.

“No, they are,” I assure him. “I just suddenly missed home.”

I hear another voice in the background, and my father grunts then says, “Big Mike says hello, and he wants to know if you need anything. Says he can do a run with some of the guys if you do.”

I smile through the tears that are now threatening to spill out. “No, thanks, Dad. I’m okay. Are you all good?”

He tells me they are all fine and talks a little about a new ride they’ve found, and then I make my excuses because I really am going to cry if I don’t hang up.

Mike offering to come all this way just to bring me anything I might need is a sign of respect for his leader’s daughter.

The Vipers don’t know the meaning of the wordrespect.

I still don’t want to be anywhere near Saint after the way he treated me, but I have to admit I’m warming to Lex, and Zane is something else altogether. He’s an enigma, and maybe I should be angry at him for not stopping when I’d told him to, but I discover I’m not. It was too hot to be angry at him, and there seemed to be a strange connection between us in that moment. One I can’t bring myself to regret.

Later that day, as I leave one of my classes, a shout chases me up the corridor.

“Vani, hey, wait up.”

I pause and glance over my shoulder.

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