Page 27 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

I allow her to propel me to the door before she leans past me and pushes it open. With one final shove, she throws me out into the hallway. I manage to get a look at her face, at the way tears are streaming down her cheeks and her eyes are red and swollen. The bandage looks a bit wet despite the bag, and there are scrapes and bruises across one shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her, still standing there with my ass on display. I’m not sure what the fuck I’m apologizing for.

She closes her eyes briefly and shakes her head, and then slams the door behind me.

Her sobs filter through the wood, and I picture her throwing herself onto the bed, still in her towel, crying.

It’s only as I try to cover myself, wondering what to do next, that I realize we still need to talk with her, even if she doesn’t want us to. Why have we hesitated for so long to ask her why she’s so invested in Reagan Olsen in the first place? It’s an important question, and one we’ve ducked.

Maybe it’s because we don’t want to hear the answer.

CHAPTER 9

Saint

We pickedup the bike without any further drama. It’s a little beat up, but it runs. I used the keys to start it when we were on the road, as they were still in the ignition, and rode it up onto the back of the truck. In hindsight, we didn’t need the truck, but we didn’t know that at the time. Besides, it starting is very different to it being ride-worthy, and the last thing we need is one of us coming off on the road as well.

Back on campus, Zane and I wheel the bike off the back of the truck and park it in the spot Vani had it before she left. We thank the guy driving the truck, and he leaves us to it.

Movement comes to my right, and my twin emerges from the dark.

I narrow my eyes. “What are you doing here, Lex? You should be with Vani.”

He shrugs. “She threw me out.”

“What? Why?”

He folds his lips and his nostrils flare. “No idea. She just went nuts on me.”

I can tell when my brother is lying. “What happened?”

His voice rises a pitch. “Nothing.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Lex. I’m your twin. I know when you’re lying.”

He lets out a sigh that comes from deep in his lungs. “Okay, I might have fucked her in the shower, and then she lost it on me and threw me out.”

“You fucked her in the shower? She’s injured! You could have hurt her.”

He throws a hand toward Zane. “Well, he got her to give him a blow job while we were dealing with the Preachers.”

Anger flares through me, and I spin to face Zane. “What the fuck, Zane?”

He gives a nonchalant shrug.

Not wanting to take on the man mountain that is Zane, I take the coward’s way and focus my anger on my brother and get in his face. “You asshole. You were supposed to be watching her, and now she’s all alone. What if something else happens to her, huh? What if the fucking Preachers try to break into her room and snatch her again?”

“That’s not going to happen. They were fucking with us, not her.”

“Yeah, and they can do the same again. What if she falls unconscious and doesn’t wake up? No one will know about it.”

Lex glares at me. “What the fuck was I supposed to do while she was crying and yelling at me to leave? Pin her to the bed and put my hand over her mouth?”

“How about if you hadn’t screwed her in the first place so she wouldn’t have had a reason to throw you out? You could have just been a decent human being for once in your life, and tucked her in bed, and kissed her forehead goodnight, and sat and watched her sleep. But oh, no, you had to get your dick wet.”

“I was going to wash her hair,” he murmurs.

I snort laughter. “Yeah, like when we offer to give a girl a massage, that’s all we plan on doing. You just wanted to get her wet and soapy, and then slip her your cock.”

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