Page 42 of The Vipers' Vow

“She didn't want me to kill him?” he questions. “Why? Did she still have feelings for him?”

“Of course not. She had feelings for you. Shelovedyou. She was trying to protect you.”

He scoffs at that. “Vani, have you seen me? Do I look like somebody who needs protecting?”

I look around at the rest of the room, the easy camaraderie between the remaining bikers. They’re brothers, and the Ol’ Ladies are like sisters. We’re a family, however strange.

“What about all your men? If you do this, you'll be playing into his hands. It'll start a war between the MC and the Danes. There will be unthinkable bloodshed.”

“So, what are you suggesting, Vani? You think you’ll just hand over the necklace and he'll free your friend?”

I shake my head. “No, not exactly. There's something else he wants. The necklace is just a way of showing goodwill.”

“What's the other thing he wants?” Dad asks.

“He wants the person responsible for his daughter's death. If we can deliver that, it’ll be over. There doesn't need to be a war. There won’t need to be any more killings.”

I’m under no illusion that Jarl Olsen is a good man. I don’t think he’s even a decent man. Maybe he didn’t think of Reagan as anything more than his property—but she was still his. Of course, I don’t agree in any way with the methods he’s used to get what he wants, but our objectives actually align. Jarl wants to know what happened to Reagan, and so do I. I just have to get close enough to him to make him understand the Vipers and I are not his enemy. We all want the same thing.

“But how are you going to give him what he wants?”

I shake my head. “Honestly, I haven't figured that bit out yet.”

“No, you haven't, which is why you need me to come with you.”

I grit my teeth. “No. This isn't your fight. I'm not a little girl anymore. I’m a grown woman. I can handle my own business.”

He raises his salt and pepper eyebrows, disbelieving. “Vani, you will always be a little girl to me.”

I put my shoulders back and lift my chin and look him directly in the eye. “Yeah, well, maybe that needs to change.”

But he won’t back down. “We’ll ride out at first light.”

“No, Dad, we won’t.”

He slams his fist on the table, and plates and cups jump with the force of the impact. Around us, the room falls quiet. “We ride out at first light,” he repeats. “No argument.”

I press my lips together tightly. I’m not going to agree with him.

“At least let me have the cross now,” I say.

“Why?”

“Because I still need to be the one who gives it to Jarl. If he sees you there with it, I’ll never get Lex back. You have to at least give me the opportunity to talk to him, to make the exchange and get my friend to safety. Once Lex is safe, then you can do whatever the hell you like.”

He glowers at me. “I still don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to like it, but it’s what needs to happen. Lex’s safety is more important than your need for revenge over something that happened twenty years ago.”

He seems to consider my words. “You care about this boy?”

To my surprise, my throat clogs as my eyes fill with tears, and I struggle to speak past the lump. “More than I thought.”

His eyes narrow. “And the other one? The big, silent one?”

“I care about him, too, Dad. Maybe evenmorethan care about him.”

It’s the first time I’ve seriously considered that I love them, but deep down, I know it’s true. All three of them. The realization catches my breath. They mean everything to me. Still, I can’t let my dad think I am with two men. He’ll lose his shit, and I won’t get what I need from him.

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