Page 51 of Infected By Virus

VIRUS

“Okay, little man.” Unstrapping Adam from his booster seat, he led him into the clubhouse. “Let’s go see your uncles.”

Virus had barely managed to control his rage. If it weren’t for Adam, he would’ve hopped on his bike and hunted that fucker down.

It was all he could do not to leave Adam with his brothers and do exactly that, but Rae asked him not to, so he would hold off until he had all the information.

He wasn’t convinced that Barker hadn’t put his hands on them. Rae sounded terrified, more so than just an exchange of words as she’d put it.

He would not get the chance to hurt anyone he cared about. He’d been obsessed with Rae for as long as he could remember. When he tried to convince Virus that Rae had flirted with him, he blew it off to just harmless jealousy. He’d never told Rae about Barker, mostly because he didn’t want to give any thought to what he’d said, and a little because he started doubting it was all lie whenever he’d catch them with their heads together laughing when he wasn’t around.

When Barker claimed he’d come this close to fucking her but they were interrupted, Virus had beat the shit out of him and never spoke to him again.

He’d tried not to believe it, he’d tried so hard, but then Barker mentioned her birthmark. The one that could only be seen when she was naked with her gorgeous peach of an ass in the air, and that’s when he’d broken his fucking nose, but things had never been the same between Rae and him after that.

He told himself Barker was lying, but a sliver of doubt had remained and poisoned their relationship.

Shame washed over him at having never asked her, instead he refused to comfort her or ease her insecurities about Celeste because he was battling his own. Even more shame pelted him that he hadn’t confessed that to her when they were trying to start over, especially when she’d mentioned him. In all honesty, he’d forgotten the depths of it until he’d seen him today.

But he refused to ask Rae now, especially when she’d just accepted his explanation about Carrie and didn’t ask for details. He owed her the same, especially about the past.

He didn’t, however, owe Barker a goddamn thing. It seemed to Virus; he was up to old tricks and still trying to get Rae. Over his fucking dead body.

“Oh my god, look at that face,” Heidi gushed when she saw Adam. Before he could take his next breath, all the ladies had whisked Adam away and were promising goodies and movies and a million things Virus couldn’t track. His soul focus was on his president.

“Can we have a word?”

“Sure, just us, or …” He trailed off before asking club business or private without saying it.

“Everyone.” He nodded toward church.

Zombie whistled and pointed, causing all brothers present to follow.

Zombie banged the table and turned the floor over to Virus.

“Barker Langdon. He and I used to be tight back in the day, but he became obsessed with Rae. I ignored the noise and, well, you see how well that worked out for us. Anyway, apparently, he wormed his way into her life pretty deep after we split. She calls him, or called him, her best friend—until today when he threatened her and Harmon at their place. Adam even calls him Uncle Barks.”

Outlaw shot up from his seat. “What the fuck? They all right?”

Zombie silenced him with a raised hand. “Go on, Virus.”

“That’s really all I know for now. She claims he didn’t put hands on them, but she sounded terrified, so?—”

Hook piped in. “She’s either trying to keep you in check by downplaying any physical altercation or he threw down a pretty scary threat.”

“Exactly. I had a run-in with him in the diner earlier and he rubbed me the wrong way. Said I may have fucked her, but she wasn’t mine. Shit like that.”

“And you didn’t feed him his teeth?” Santa asked incredulously.

“No, he was sitting next to Adam, and then this waitress sat down. One I fucked once and, well … look, I didn’t give him the message and that’s on me. But I don’t like it. The way he looked when he spoke about her was just off, coupled with the past and whatever transpired today with the girls, well, I’ve got a bad feeling.”

“Care to elaborate on what you mean by obsessed with Rae in the past?”

It wasn’t pleasant to talk about.

“It started as little comments disguised as compliments about her body or jokes. Then they seemed to always be together. Heads together laughing and whatnot. It built inside me and one day he claimed they would’ve fucked if not interrupted, so I beat his ass. He backed off after that, but the damage was done. I had doubts, and because of Celeste, she had doubts, and …”

“Poisoned the well,” one of his brothers whispered with a little too much knowledge lacing the words.

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