Page 87 of Striker

“We can’t,” Viper says as he crosses his arms, propping a hip on the side of the piano. “You saw her that day what if…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t need to.

We all saw her that day she left Rune’s office. It’s the entire reason we became suspicious. Cora had left his office just a few weeks before we took them, with a bloody nose. We knew something was off, but had no proof. I think we all feared the worst. When we took her, it was confirmed.

Rune has been hurting her. More than likely in ways that make me want to kill him a thousand times over.

“You read the text,” Reaper says from behind me. “We have orders to take her back.”

“We stopped following orders the second we took Cora,” Viper snaps. His eyes slide my way, then down to my crotch.

Fuck. I recognize that look. I give it to the girls anytime I’m with in a few feet of them.

I glance at Breaker and catch his knitted brows. “Wait, wait,wait,” he says, motioning between me and Viper at his side. “What the fuck is this?”

My stomach drops.

“What the fuck happened?” Breaker asks, his lip somehow managing to pull up into a smirk and down into a frown all at the same time.

Is he upset?Why am I worried? It’s not like Breaker has any claim over Viper.

Shit. Why am I thinking like this?

“Not now,” Viper growls, standing upright to walk further away from me. He stops next to Reaper in the center of the room, eyes dropping to his boots. “We have to decide how we’re going to deal with this.”

“There’s nothing to decide. She goes back.” Reaper rakes his fingers roughly through his hair. “You know damn well we have to. This isn’t something we can ignore. They made a deal.”

He’s right. Even if we don’t like it.

“And why the fuck should we care?” Breaker asks. “Too bad if Rune made a deal. We don’t have to abide by it.”

Reaper sighs. “But she does. Rune does. We all do, otherwise we’ll start an all out war.”

“We’ve already waged war the second we took his daughter,” Viper reminds him.

“AgainstRune,” Reaper barks. He doesn't like this any more than the rest of us, but he’s also not stupid. We were told to take Cora back. She’s not ours to keep. She’s already been promised to another. He gestures to the window and the black sky outside. “If we don’t send her back, it’ll be fucking World War Three out there.”

“Does she even know?” Breaker asks.

“I doubt it,” Viper says. “I doubt Rune would care enough to let her know she’s been promised to Zane Devin.”

My fists curl at my sides. Fucking Zane. He’s a sick motherfucker, maybe even worse than Rune, and that’s a hard task.

“Rune promised Zane a wife,” Reaper says, looking down at his mask in his hands. He stretches it out, thumb sliding over the eyehole, then his shoulders drop. “You know how these families work. He didn’t want to sentence Delilah to such a fate—”

“So he gave him Cora,” Breaker says for him.

“Zane Devin is a powerful man with a powerful name. That’s why he’s Rune’s right-hand man,” Reaper says. “If he’s been promised a pretty trophy, then that’s what he’s going to get.”

“You know what he’s like,” I remind him. We all do. We have files, pages and pages detailing the level of depravity that lives under his skin.

“We don’t have achoice,” Reaper hisses. “If he doesn’t get Cora as promised, Zane will make a move against Rune and all hell will break loose. The backlash will cause Rune to go into hiding. He’ll be forced to clean up his act and we’ll never be able to touch him.”

He's right. Even if we hate it.

“I don’t like this,” Breaker says, eyes moving between all of us. His jaw pops and I wonder for a second if we can get away with defying these orders just so that tense look in his eyes leaves.

“I don’t like it either,” Reaper says, “but it has to be done.”

“Fuck.” Viper snatches his mask from the bench seat, stalking toward the door.

---