Page 64 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

Faith looks down, and Jarena studiously ignores him, but Angelica’s eyes flash.

She pushes to her feet. “You’re not wanted here, Saint.”

He narrows his eyes. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

She flips her hair behind her shoulder and lifts her chin. “And we weren’t talking to you. Stop acting like you and your buddies own this place. Vani was talking to us, because we’re her friends and we support her. All you and your twin do is destroy people.” She shoots me a glance. “Look at poor Reagan.”

A muscle in Saint’s jaw tightens. “You know we had nothing to do with that. If I find out you had anything to do with spreading those rumors about us, I’ll?—”

She cuts him off, her eyes flaring. “You’ll what? Throw me off the tower to land on your brother’s car?”

He shakes his head. “You’re fucking nuts.” His hands ball into fists. “You ought to be careful what the hell you say about people, crazy bitch.”

“Am I? I’d rather be crazy than a murderer.”

His dark blue eyes narrow dangerously, and my heart sinks.

“Please, both of you,” I beg, “stop it.”

There’s a little part of me that’s proud of Angelica for standing up to Saint on my behalf. It lets me see there might be a future for me here where I don’t have to deal with the Vipers and their bullshit. Maybe I can just be one of the girls—something I never got to be when I was at the club—and ignore the men. I see now that I came here like a woman who’d been in a sex-desert—because of my father’s overprotective behavior—and I jumped into the fountain of orgies that was the Vipers.

It’s just sex, though. That’s all. I won’t let my heart torture me with the way Zane holds my face when he kisses me, or how he said I was the only thing that made him not hate himself. I won’t remember how Saint captured me with his paint, making me more beautiful in his eyes than I’d ever considered myself.And I won’t think about how Lex nurtures me after sex, how he holds me and washes my hair and my body while telling me how incredible and perfect I am.

The potential loss of the three of them makes me want to cry all over again.Just sex, I tell myself, an addiction, really, and the only way to get over an addiction is to go cold turkey.

Saint turns to me. “Fine. For you, I’ll let this go, but I’m here for you, Vani. If you should need me.”

I force myself to harden my heart. “I don’t need you. I don’t need any of you.”

His handsome face flickers with hurt. “You’ve got my number.”

I want to tell him I’ll delete it from my cell, but I know I won’t. I also know I’d only really be saying it to try to impress Angelica and the others.

But what does he expect after the way they treated me the other night? They practically abducted me in the woods, tied me up, and fucked me every which way they wanted. I’d gone there planning to get the upper hand, but things hadn’t gone my way at all. To make matters worse, after using my body, they’d kicked me out.

I wonder if Zane told the twins that I’d then gone to his room, attempting to seduce him as a way of coming between them. If he did tell them, did he also mention how he held a knife to my throat?

It seems to me, the only people I need protecting from are the Vipers.

Saint walks away, and Angelica sinks back down, shaking her head. “God, he is such a fucking asshole. He absolutely loves himself, too. What’s with the way he dresses? It’s like he thinks he should be on a fucking runway or something.”

“I thought you liked a man who dresses well,” Jarena teases her.

Angelica’s eyes are like ice shards. “Nothim. There’s a difference between a man who takes care of himself, and one who has a fucking stick up his ass and thinks he’s God’s gift.”

“They’re all like that, though, aren’t they?” Jarena says. “They all think they’re God’s gift.”

“Yeah, well, they shouldn’t. I mean, the big one, Zane, is a fucking freak. He can’t even talk.” Angelica sneers, her face a mask of disgust.

He might be an asshole of the highest order, but she’s disgusted at him for something he can’t help. Calling him a freak because he can’t talk is just downright nasty.

I find myself defending Zane, my heart beating faster at the confrontation, my cheeks burning. “It’s hardly his fault. He’s been through a lot. It’s not right calling him a freak.”

Angelica eyes me. “He’d be a freak even if he didn’t have his throat cut. Maybe someone should have finished the job.”

The thought of Zane dead with his throat slashed is all too much for me. I suddenly realize how drunk I am and unsteadily get to my feet.

“Actually, I think I need some sleep. All that alcohol has just hit me.”

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