Page 40 of Quadruplets for the Vipers

The brute of a bouncer moves toward me, and I quickly sit before he can put his hands on me and force me to. Tony nods approvingly, seeming pleased that I’ve not forgotten his ‘lessons’. Tony dismisses the rest of the people at the table with a disdainful flick of his wrist. The two scantily clad young womenshoot daggers at me as they leave. I want to tell them that they’re welcome to him, or that they should run now while they have the chance, but I don’t.

“Where is he?”

“Your grotesque friend was putting my customers off and making the place look bad, so I had my men escort him somewhere private.”

Fury boils in my veins. I refuse to rise to his taunting, defending Rider’s looks will only serve to anger him or make him resort to even crueler remarks.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I’ll have my men take you to him shortly. But first, I wanted us to catch up. It’s been too long. It took me a long time to find you. Where have you been hiding?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Well, now, that’s not strictly true, is it? After all, I’m your employer currently. I’d say I have a right to know about your previous employment, don’t I?”

I snort at him with derision. “If I’d known this was your club, I wouldn’t have accepted the gig. I certainly won’t be working for you again. Now, where is my friend?”

Tony sighs as if I’m a particularly irritating child who won’t do as I’m told. “He’s fine. I’m trying to have a conversation with you, Leah. Can we not obsess over this nobody, who is he to you? You’re not sleeping with him, are you?”

“That’s none of your business.” I fold my arms, stubbornly refusing to play his game.

“You’re beginning to sound like a broken record, Leah. If it weren’t for the fact that I know my girl better, I’d be concerned that you’re romantically involved with this disgusting loser. But of course, that would be ridiculous since you’re mine.”

I almost blurt out everything about my relationship with the guys just to see the look on his face, but I hold myself back. Tony is wildly possessive, jealous, and dangerous. Who knows how he’d react? Until I know where Rider is, I can’t risk angering him. I need to find out how Tony found me and how much he knows about my relationship with the Steel Vipers.

“If I thought that this… man,” he sniffs as if Rider barely qualifies as human in his eyes, “had any romantic intentions toward you, I’d have to make an example of him. People need to know what happens if they touch what’s mine.”

“No. No, he’s just a friend,” I stammer.

Tony once blinded a man for looking at me the wrong way. I can’t let myself forget how cruel and dangerous he is. He’s also good at reading me, and I’m thankful that I haven’t slept with Rider, because I think if I had, then neither of us would be safe. He nods, seemingly happy to accept it, at least for now.

I dread to think what might have happened if one of the others had come with me. Tony is so shallow that it wouldn’t occur to him that I’d be attracted to a man with a scar. One look at any of the others and he’d fly into a jealous rage.

“Let’s cut the crap, shall we, Leah?”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak. This pleases him, mistaking my silence for compliance.

“That’s enough running around now. You’ve had your space, and you’ve gotten yourself in trouble. I know all about thepeople you’ve been hanging around with. They’re not the sort of people a person like you should be associating with. You’re mine. It’s time to come home.”

I want to laugh at how deluded he is. Does he really think I’m going to come back to him? I don’t bother to tell him that I don’t want to be with him. Anything negative I say about him will fall on deaf ears.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I will help my new dogs destroy the Steel Vipers, starting with your new friend, Rider.”

I don’t doubt that Tony is deadly serious. His family is the largest crime family in LA. If he wants to destroy the Steel Vipers, he can easily do it. The mention of ‘dogs’ makes my heart drop as I realize what this could mean. Is Tony working with the Hellhounds? I feel sick to my stomach at the thought that he might have been involved in Zeus and Donna’s deaths. Could the real reason they were killed be because of me? But if that’s the case, surely that must mean he knows about the baby. There’s no way Tony would tolerate me being pregnant with another man’s child, even if that man is dead and never laid a finger on me. I have to pray that he doesn’t know about the baby yet.

I push my concerns to the back of my mind. Right now, I need to focus on getting Rider out of here. If he doesn’t leave this building with me now, he never will. If Tony kills Rider and takes me captive now, it won’t take him long to figure out I’m pregnant. I don’t allow myself to think about what he will do when he finds out.

“Alright, let’s say I agree to come back. I need you to make me some promises so we can do this the easy way,” I say, using his own words against him.

He raises an eyebrow in amusement. Thankfully, he decides to humor me. “Go on…”

“Let me and Rider go now. I need to leave to get my things and say goodbye to my friends and quit my job at the Steel Vipers club.” Before he can refuse, I quickly explain. “If I don’t go home tonight, they’ll think I’ve been taken against my will, and Rider won’t leave without me. You’d have to kill him or keep him captive. The Steel Vipers are bound to come for us both. If you’ve killed one of theirs, they’ll want revenge. It will be messy, and people will get hurt. But if you let us go now. I can quit my job and tell them I’m leaving. If I go of my own free will, there will be no repercussions, no one following me or causing trouble.”

Tony considers this. For a moment, I worry that he’s going to refuse, but apparently, my logic wins out over his desire to be back immediately. “Fine, you have twenty-four hours. If you don’t come to mine by then…”

He doesn’t have to finish his sentence for his threat to be clear. It will be the hard way.

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