Page 34 of Viper
Fuck I miss the feel of her body pressed up against mine, to feel her skin on me.
Quietly, while slowly drowning with my emotions, I watch as Tate goes down the slide three times before rushing over to the sand pit, no words exchanged between me and Lake. It’s like we’re complete strangers, while my mind goes over our entire relationship. Every word said, every action.
“My mama didn’t want me.”
She wasn’t really lying, Cherri’s been extremely vocal about not wanting her daughter, that she was useless by not being born to a brother, while trying to get me to fuck her.
I shiver in disgust.
“Growing up, it was just me and my dad. I didn’t really want anyone else around.”
That was a lie, though, wasn’t it? She had Anna growing up.
“Dad preferred me to be homeschooled.”
Well, that isn’t so shocking considering the whole town knew who Cherri was and what she wanted.
I side eye Lake to see she’s not paying any attention to me, her whole attention on Tate like it has been since she walked out of the preschool with her in her arms.
She had a label put on her before she was even born, a label my generation was told to continue, fuck, the brothers, not Brick though, warned us away from her if she ever came to see her dad, which she never did.
“You scare me, Jaylen,” she whispers, “You make my heart beat faster, my stomach tighten. When you’re not around, you’re all I think about, and I know I’m falling madly in love with you, and it scares me.”
I blink as Tate’s giggles and see her knocking her own sandcastle down, and I side eye Lake again, who's smiling at the sweetheart.
I believed her when she said those words.
It was late, the sky black with stars shining above us, and we were lying on a blanket in the meadows and I made love to her after those words she whispered into the night sky. Two days later, I walked into the diner only to have her bump into me holding Hudson, and three months later, I feel like I can’t fucking breathe without my anchor, my heart.
The shock of seeing her, fuck, it knocked me for six, and not once did I stop to think that it was all innocent, that she hadno idea who I was, who my family was, and that it was just a coincidence she was friends with Ivy.
No, instead, I jumped straight to her being a patch chaser because of my upbringing, then to full-blown livid when I found out she was Cherri’s daughter, the same Cherri who would do anything for a patch, but the brothers wouldn’t vote her out because apparently she gave good head.
I chew my cheek. Lake didn’t really lie to me. She told me her mother never wanted her, yet I accused her of lying.
My anger spikes through again, anger at her for not letting me in more, anger at me for taking things too far and destroying us without having a rational conversation with her, and anger at the fucking world for being a dick and pushing us into that situation that day.
I sigh, looking down for a moment, the silence between us choking me, and I cave.
“What happened with Viking all those years ago?” I ask reluctantly, but I need to know.
She flinches but doesn’t look my way as she admits quietly, “I was ten and had started my period, something my tutor claimed wouldn’t happen for a few more years,” she looks my way, her gorgeous dark green eyes I always get lost in looking haunted as she reluctantly says, “I was embarrassed to go to my dad and ask for help. In my head I needed my mama but for years my dad refused for me to have any contact with her. I, well, I didn’t understand why,” she looks back at Tate as she continues, “He denied me again when I said I needed to see her. I thought mamas were supposed to help with what kind of tampons or pads a girl needed, but when I asked my dad, without telling him why, he denied me. I ran out of the house screaming I hated him.”
Fuck. If, over the past year, what she said is true, her father is her whole world, and I’d bet my Harley she felt guilty over that comment.
“I spent two years trying to make up for that little comment,” she confirms my thoughts with a little chuckle before continuing, “I disobeyed him and went to the club anyhow but as soon as I tapped her shoulder and called her mama, she turned but didn’t recognize me. Which yeah, I should have seen that as a ‘leave now’ kind of thing but I didn’t, instead I told her my name and she threatened to drag me out of the club by my hair claiming I wasn’t her child and called me a failure, a mistake and a disappointment.”
Fucking Cherri, a bitch as always.
Lake looks at me with sadness and admits, “It was then I realized my dad was trying to protect me and I should have just told him what I needed,” she looks back at Tate, “I ran out the door, scared she was going to hurt me but before I could make a few steps I heard two bikers talking.”
Lake swallows hard, and I prompt, “What was said, Lake?”
“A biker with long blonde hair said he was going to take me when I turned eighteen, implying it would be with or without my consent, something I wasn’t fully aware of what he meant at the time. He wanted to know if I’d be just as good as Cherri giving head while the guy he was gloating to laughed and didn’t put him in his place,” she admits in a whisper.
Holy fucking shit.
If Brick hadn’t have killed him, I would have hearing that.
