Page 76 of The Vipers and Their Vendetta

“I just saw Vani in the bar. She’s talking to Jarl Olsen.”

Saint’s jaw drops. “What? You’re sure?”

“One hundred percent. We were right about her all along. She’s a fucking plant.”

My brother drops into a nearby chair and covers his face with his hands. “Putain!”

I take a few paces, unable to keep still. “We must watch our backs. We don’t know what Jarl Olsen is doing here, other than having secret meetings with Vani, of course, but we need to be extra careful.”

Saint sucks his teeth. “Maybe it would be better if we confronted him ourselves. Put the record straight.”

I angle my head toward my twin. “You think he would listen to us? I heard the man is a psychopath.”

“We go to Dean Rossi, then, tell him Jarl is sniffing around.”

We look around at each other. This seems like the best plan.

But Zane picks up his notepad and scribbles something down.But what happens to Vani then? The dean will send her home.

I grit my teeth. “Maybe it’s for the best.”

A silence falls over us, and I know we’re all thinking the same. No matter how much we might hate her and can’t trust her, we also don’t want her going back to live her life in the MC without us.

We don’t want to admit it, but we need her like we need fucking water, or air. How the hell do we square that need with the anger and mistrust?

Saint hangs his head, his fingers knotted together between his knees. “She’ll get away with it, then. She’s fucked with us this whole time, and she’ll get to walk right out of here.”

“She won’t,” I say. “Dean Rossi will make sure she knows what he thinks of her.”

Saint snorts. “You really think that’s enough? A telling off from the dean?Nom de Dieu, Lex. That’s nothing.”

He lifts his blue eyes to mine, identical in every way, and I’m surprised to find them glassy with unshed tears. Is he really going to cry over Vani? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry the whole of our adult lives. Not since we were teenagers. Fuck.

“Saint,” I say. “Bro…”

I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to offer him some comfort, but he shrugs it off. What’s he so upset about? Is it that Vani has betrayed us, or that if she leaves, we’ll most likely never see her again?

Zane is affected, too. I’d prefer him to be angry, to be kicking holes in walls and throwing things, but instead he’s just standing there, his jaw rigid, and his gaze locked on a spot on the floor.

“We have to tell Dean Rossi,” I insist.

Zane writes again.That isn’t the Vipers’ way. We deal with our own shit. We don’t go running to the dean.

Saint reads it and nods. “Yeah, I agree.” His face hardens. “Maybe we just … keep her. Just for us?”

Like a beast scenting blood, Zane raises his head and his gaze locks on Saint. A slow smile spreads across his face.

Shit, this is going south fast, because although I’m not averse to the idea of keeping her as our own special fuck toy, it’s a death sentence.

“So, we fuck with her, punish her, and then what?” I throw at them. “We can’t just make her ours. Lock her up in a fucking cellar or something and keep her as our own little petputain. At some point, someone is going to notice her missing, and then her dad is going to bring the whole of the MC down on this place. The first thing Angelica and her little friends will do is point them in our direction.”

I’m so frustrated. There’s no winning this game.

My brother gets up. “I still don’t think we can let her go. She needs to know what she’s done is not okay, and that people don’t get to mess with us like that and get away with it.”

Zane writes something on his pad.Well, it’s been a wild ride. Why not go out in a blaze of glory?

“Seriously?” I stare at him, my eyes wide, and then at Saint.

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