Page 83 of Hupotasso
“Honestly, I was more shocked to learn Falcon was doing the same. But I’ve seen soooooo much worse now, Yin. I’ve almost become inured to the deaths, if that’s a thing. I know thatmakes me sound like a horrible, horrible person, but seeing dead people, thinking about killing people, it just doesn’t shock me like it used to. I literally plot how I’m going to murder Viper every single day.”
“Let’s talk about Viper,” she says quietly, watching my expression.
I try not to show how I feel about recounting his total control of my mind and body, but I know I’ve paled.
“Nothing specific,” she adds hurriedly, “just Viper in general.”
I shrug.
“I can’t tell you much. I asked Asumpta about him before I began to suspect she was in league with him, but she wouldn’t tell me anything other than to more or less corroborate my opinion that he was a sick motherfucker.”
I don’t remind her that he rapes animals. That kind of information only needs to be said once, and it’s not likely to be forgotten.
“So, he spends all his time at the castle?”
“No,” I frown, “periodically he goes elsewhere. I don’t know where, but usually only for a day at a time. Now that I think about it, he probably goes to wherever the schoolgirls are delivered. I know Asumpta isn’t allowed to procure kids for Falcon’s castle. Even though they’re mostly teenagers, I’d say she delivers them someplace else for Viper. It didn’t lessen his grip on my mind, though. I still had to do everything he’d told me to do.”
“Like sleep with this vampire called Jag,” Yin supplies.
“Yes,” I swallow hard, the strawberry feeling like it’s lodging in my throat as memories resurface. “He’s not like Falcon or Viper. He’s good. He’s literally been my champion from the start. I’m so disgusted with myself for convincing him I loved him and seducing him to betray his best friend.”
“It wasn’t you,” Yin says firmly, placing a hand over mine. “You can’t be consideredyouwhen your mind and body are controlled by someone else. Nothing you did during those weeks was you. Understand?”
I nod. I’d already come to the same resolution myself when I was in the castle. It was the only way I could compartmentalise the horrible things that I had to do or have done to me under Viper’s calculated ministrations. It wasn’t me, it was him, I was just a body, nothing more. By telling myself that I’d managed to lock myself, my real self, up safe and secure inside my mind. Thankfully I hadn’t completely lost myself, or thrown away the key, because the moment his hold on me broke, I resurfaced. Admittedly I wasn’t wholly myself. I was a little worse for wear. But thank God for Yin and her common-sense, no-nonsense approach. Every day I was becoming more me. Just a stronger, more deadly version.
“Anyway,” Yin gets my mind back on track. “We know Viper wants to destroy your marriage and Jag’s friendship with Falcon. We know that much.”
“Yes,” I muse out loud as my thoughts begin to collide, “and he’s not smart enough to do it by himself. I know him, Yin. He’s a bloody idiot. It must have been someone else’s idea. He couldn’t have come up with it himself.”
“You said he told you to start sleeping with Jag when Tatyana was there.”
“Yeah,” I frown. “I guess it could have been her idea.”
“And you said Tatyana was Spider’s minion.”
I nod.
“Oh shit,” I drop the strawberry I was nibbling and look up at her as the pieces all fall into line. “It was all a ruse, all a lie.”
“What was?”
“Viper’s kidnapping, Falcon having to go on the show to get Spider to set him free. It was all bullshit. Viper and Spider are working together!”
“That’s excellent news,” Yin grins.
64
I sit at my desk, head in hands, and consider my next move.
Jag’s latest text doesn’t give me much hope that he or any of my men have made headway in finding my pregnant wife.
Meanwhile the queen is breathing down my neck, my business dealings are slipping due to my inattention, the Free Men have my mother’s body, Spider is still alive, Sophie is perhaps carrying my child, and my wife and heir are out there somewhere unprotected, potentially in the hands of the ones who killed my unborn child’s grandmother.
If I didn’t know better I’d say I’d swallowed a bad penny. My luck since Viper was kidnapped last year has simply gone from bad to worse.
As if he knows I’m thinking about him, my brother sticks his head around the corner.
“Brother?”
