Page 23 of The Devil's Ice

“How long?” Viper repeated.

“How long have you been plannin’ to end us? No way you pulled all of this together in a couple of weeks.”

“Ah.” Viper flicked his tongue, and suddenly his name made a lot more sense: the tattoo was obvious, but the man also had a swaying, serpentine quality to him. “Like Crusher, I started thinking about punishing you assholes for leaving the life almost six years ago, but then, lots of people did. Lots of people stilldo. In terms of finding the right pressure point, not as long as you’d think. It came to me only about five months ago, and when I actually zeroed in on it, I could have fuckingkickedmyself, seeing as it had been staring me in the face for years… ever since that bitch took over your tattoo place.”

“Zoe?” Wolf was perplexed. He wasalsowondering just how the fuck he’d missed the fact that Viper Grant was a legitimate threat, all on his own. He supposed that when standing next to Crusher Alcott,anybodywould look tame. Viper had certainty presented as a non-entity; dim to the point of stupidity, even.Thatwas clearly a huge fucking mistake. “What does Zoe –”

“I’m averyorganized person.” Viper raised his voice and talked over Wolf. “And Iknewthat Crusher getting involved with that absolute asshole Guardian Michael in his vendetta against you would end badly for him. I couldn’t predict how Crusher would bow out, but I had averystrong feeling that he would, strong enough that I rolled the dice and cashed in one big chip that I’d been holding on to. Though, to be honest, I thought that you or one of your boys would end my dear ex-President. I never saw him being killed by his old high school buddy. I do admitthatwas a surprise.”

“Five months… and since Zoe came,” Wolf said blankly, still stuck on those time frames, his mind busy trying to find what was surely blatantly obvious. What had been going on five months ago, what would have pushed Viper to start plotting and planning in earnest? What had happened five months ago that made The Road Devils vulnerable to total destruction? What had been going on when Zoe arrived all those years ago that Viper had first missed? “Why –”

“Nuh-uh,” Viper said airily. “No more. You can figure it out yourself… I mean, you’ve got nothing but time to think, right?”

“But –”

“Oh, OK.” Viper sighed in mock exasperation, clearly enjoying every second of Wolf’s agitation. He glanced at his VP. “Preacher, maybe you can give him a little hint and preview of events to come?”

Preacher nodded, then looked at Wolf, now moving the gun to point at Wolf’s heart. He paused, clearly deep in thought, then he fixed his clear green eyes on Wolf’s gray ones.

“‘They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire’,” he intoned. “That’s Kings Seventeen.”

Wolf stared at him, his mind whirring, the pieces slowly clicking into place.

Is he sayin’ – no. Oh, fuck no.

“‘And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, and the land was polluted with blood’.” Preacher smiled into Wolf’s ashen face. “Psalm One-oh-six.”

“Viper,” Wolf said, almost numb with terror, his lips barely moving. He wasn’t a man who ever begged for anything, but he heard the pleading in his own voice and truly didn’t care. “Pleasedon’t –”

“Wolf,” Viper said, almost kindly as he and Preacher headed for the door. “Don’t you get it? I already have. And remember this: it’s allyourfault.”

The door slammed behind them, and Wolf was left standing in the middle of his cement cell. Naked and horrorstruck and with only one thing going through his mind, over and over again:

The kids. The kids.

Oh, sweet fuckin’ God.

The kids.

Chapter Eight

Denver, Colorado

The next day

Vixen slung her purse over her shoulder and hurried out of the staff room, bang on the nose at four o’clock. Annoyingly, Ice had been in the clubhouse and bar for most of the afternoon for some reason, and although she had mostly ignored him, she’d felt those wintry eyes trained on her. He’d tried to talk to her, but she’d given him a quick smile, then kept moving. She sensed that he’d be watching for her to leave now that her shift was over… and she wasjustas determined to make it out of Satan’s without having to talk to him any more. She was finder it harder than she’d predicted to have him around, so she was just in self-protection mode right now.

Her mind flitted back to his apology the day before – a totally surprising thing, if she were being honest with herself – and she felt herself weakening. Just a bit.

Maybe… maybe just talk to him?

She slammed the door on those traitorous thoughts, stomped hard on her stupid little heart that was betraying her. OK, yeah, the apology was nice; it wasgreat, even. But she couldn’t seemto getpast the sneer on Ice’s gorgeous face when he’d called her a whore, the way that the word had been spat at her in that tone of utter disgust. She was very much afraid that in that moment of stress and anger, Ice had revealed his deepest, truest thoughts about her. He might be apologeticnow, he might be sorry about his behaviornow– but that didn’t mean that he’d lied to her that day.

That stiffened her resolve, shored up all her defences again, and Vixen sailed down the hallway with her head held high and her chin up.

“Vixen! Hey, can you hang on a sec?”

She paused and turned. The voice calling her wasn’t Ice’s, it was Zoe’s.

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