Page 11 of Viper
Mine to have, mine to love, mine to keep.
Chapter 3
Lake – Age Twenty Five – Present Day
I smile as I take a sip of my coffee while Ivy bounces Hudson on her lap opposite me. His chubby hands are gripping hold of his mama’s hair while he babbles away happily, making my heart soar.
The boy is a living, breathing miracle, and I couldn’t be any happier for my friend who has been through a hell of a lot over the past several months.
From agreeing to marrying the asshat leader of the Hyenas for her mama who lied about having cancer and needing the money for her treatment despite knowing she was pregnant with Psycho's baby. To nearly losing Hudson who was born twenty weeks early and shouldn’t have survived and Psycho taking a bullet for her from a crazy clubwhore who was obsessed with him and being in a coma for months. He woke up with five yearsof his life missing, not remembering he had a baby and that he had Ivy.
Thankfully, Hudson has been discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health, and Psycho has regained the most important parts of his memory – Hudson and Ivy. However, things have been hard for her, that is for sure.
Though I am surprised Psycho hasn’t shown up yet. The man doesn’t like to be far from his little family, and I don’t blame him.
Hudson who is now six months old but is about size of a newborn, coos at his mama and I grin wide before taking a sip of my coffee. Callum flirts with some woman whose passing through town at the counter before we get called out again because apparently he doesn’t get enough ‘action’ – his words not mine.
“Have you spoken to Viper?” Ivy asks, trying to get my attention off her little cutie of a son, and I try not to tense as I shake my head, not taking my eyes off Huddy so she can’t see my pain.
Jaylen curls his lip and sneers, “So you’re the patch chaser, huh? Was this what this was? Did you seek me out on purpose?”
I try not to flinch at the memory from a month ago, his words still haunting me, the anger I feel towards him intensifying.
For nearly a year, we had been dating, and everything was perfect, so perfect, in fact, that I was ready to introduce him to my dad and the girls but before I could, I came in here for a coffee break. I found Ivy with Raya and Hudson, a few weeks after he was released.
I took the little cutie off a pouting Raya and began dancing with him, but accidentally bumped into someone, no, not someone,Viper, the man I gave my heart to, the man who lied to me, then tried gaslighting me.
“Shorty?” Jaylen says in shock, and I freeze with Hudson in my arms, and pain seeing the cut on my boyfriend's shoulders absolutely destroys me, and I stutter, “Jaylen? What are you… A-are you a brother?”
He told me that he loved me, but he couldn’t have if he lied to me, or omitted the truth, I guess. He did tell me he worked at a strip club, he just left out that it was at Dark Angel’s Girls, where I know Cherri likes to work sometimes, the same Cherri,Viperadmitted to screwing.
My boyfriend has screwed my mother, and all he could focus on was the fact that I didn’t tell him she was part of a club I had no idea he was a part of.
“Did you… have you slept with Cherri?” I stammer, pain, so much pain filling me.
Please, please, please, don’t tell me he has, please.
“Now, how would you know her, huh?” he demands more forcefully, and I snap, “Have you slept with her?!”
I need to know the love of my life hasn’t hurt me that way, please...
His jaw ticks and he snaps back, “She’s a clubwhore, of course I fucking have, every brother has,” and I turn my head away as pure agony takes hold and he growls, “Now why don’t you answer my fucking question Lake instead of trying to make out like I’m sort of cheater!”
All he cared about was wanting to know how I knew Ivy. He didn’t care that he’d just torn my heart out. All he cared about was himself, allowing his own fears to take over. Now, well, now we aren’t together and can barely be in the same room without arguing. Not long ago, Skylar informed me that he had made out with Caitlyn, her old receptionist whom she had to fire at Angel’s Accountants, tearing me in two.
As I said, he clearly didn’t love me, and honestly, if I had known he was a brother, I wouldn’t have asked him out for drinks.
“What about your dad?” Ivy asks over Hudson’s coos, and I swallow hard.
Dad found me in tears when I didn’t answer his calls and he came looking for me at my place, and obviously I couldn’t lie to him. He quit his job after punching Viper in the face.
“He’s only willing to help at the garage until Mama Lopez is mended, allowing Blade to be with his mama, then he’s going back to Gary’s motors,” I admit, and Ivy sighs with disappointment.
She’s supposed to be starting at the garage soon after quitting Gary’s Motors when Hudson was in the hospital. She was hoping my dad would stay on with the club, especially considering that, along with her grandfather, who was killed last year, my dad taught her everything she knows about mechanics. Unfortunately, too much crap has gone down with Viper.
Damn, I hate calling him Viper.
I give her a sad smile when she complains, “But Mama Lopez is nearly there!”
