Page 11 of King's Claim
The way his voice wrapped around her, the way her body responded even when her mind screamed not to, Lena couldn’t ignore it.She didn’t trust him, didn’t even like him, not really.But she wanted to understand him.Wanted to know why a man who could have anyone seemed fixated on her.
And if Lena was honest, wanted to know what it would feel like to let herself want him back.
She shoved the phone in her bag.“No other option.That’s all this is,” she muttered to herself as she headed for the bench outside to wait.
Viper arrived twenty minutes later, roaring into the lot on his bike.He was younger than King, leaner, with sharp eyes that seemed to take in everything at once.He swung his leg off the bike and gave her a nod.
“Lena, right?King said you’d be waiting.”
She forced herself to nod back.“Yeah.”
“Good.Let’s get you packed before the snakes slither back around,” Viper said.
Just like that, her life tilted again, spinning away from everything she thought she could handle on her own, and deeper into the world of the Devil’s Crown MC.
Chapter Four
The ride out to thecompound was longer than Lena expected.She followed Viper’s bike in her beat-up car, her hands tight on the wheel the whole way.By the time Viper slowed and turned down a gravel drive, Lena’s stomach was tight with nerves.
The compound loomed ahead.It had a high chain-link fencing crowned with razor wire, two men at the gate wearing cuts like Viper’s, their arms folded across their broad chests.
Behind the fence stretched a sprawl of buildings, including a squat brick clubhouse with a neon crown glowing faintly above the door, a wide garage lined with bikes and trucks, and a row of smaller houses set further back.
The place radiated danger, its own sort of gravity.Viper gestured for her to pull in behind him.The guards swung the gate open and she drove through, gravel crunching beneath her tires.Her heart hammered harder with every foot she crept forward.
This was it.She had actually agreed to step into their world.When she parked, Viper was already off his bike, waiting with a small smirk.
“Not what you’re used to, huh?”Viper asked.
Lena climbed out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.“That obvious?”she asked.
“Don’t worry.You’ll get used to it.”He jerked his chin toward the clubhouse.“King’s inside.”
Her pulse quickened.She hated that it did.She followed Viper across the lot, trying not to stare at the knots of bikers drinking, smoking, laughing too loudly.Or at the women draped across their laps, their short skirts and heavy eyeliner making it clear what role they played here.
This was a different universe than the hospital or the Pit Stop.It felt raw and lawless, and Lena knew she didn’t belong.
