Page 64 of Vice

27

Viper

It’s amazing what normal, everyday people will take at face value. Sure, the townsfolk think it’s a little odd that Madelyn up and left with no notice to apparently take care of her sick mother long term, leaving her cousin behind to run the diner. But also, Madelyn was notoriously private. Didn’t talk much about any family or whatnot. Only came here because she inherited her grandfather’s house and then stuck around for the last decade or longer because a small town that nobody cared about was as much of an escape as she was going to get from the issues she apparently had back home. We don’t even have to sell the story. The town sells the story for us.

It’s not even a coincidence that it happens at the exact same time that the son and daughter-in-law of another local convince him to come live in the big city with them. Because as far as they’re concerned, neither are connected.

We still have to stick around for a few days to make sure the change in management of the facility goes smoothly and that there’s nothing that could signal to Pray that something has changed. But Wyan is spearheading that for us, leaving Dele and I with little to do except take turns going to the facility every day with Wyan until we leave.

It’s at the end of my day that I come to the old shack Wyan’s been living in to find Dele lying on the bed with her head propped up on her elbow, naked and idly touching herself.

“You know,” she says before I can say or do anything, “you continue to surprise me.”

“Says the woman lying in wait for me naked and touching herself,” I point out, unable to take my eyes off of where she’s touching her pussy.

To my dismay, she stops and while running her finger up from her pussy to her torso, she says, “I contemplated killing you, you know?”

“Is that supposed to be news?” I ask. Because of course she has. She’s tired to kill me before. Just like I’ve contemplated and tried to kill her before.

“In the recent past, I mean,” Dele says casually. “Seriously. Not the normal ever day way I contemplate killing you.”

A few years ago, I might have flown off the handle at her admitting this. But I know her better now than I knew her then. She’s telling me about it. So it means she’s changed her mind. Not to mention she’s had every opportunity to kill me because I’ve given it to her. Because she’s my one and only blind spot. It’s like Eileen said. I’d never see it coming. Even in plain view.

“Is that so?” I ask. “And why were you?”

“Because I didn’t think you were capable of stopping.”

“Stopping?”

“You’re an unshakeable object, Viper. And you like to prove it. You like to kill and kill and kill and obliterate your enemies beyond the point of nothing being left. You say that there’s a better way to engage in this business. An ethical way. But I didn’t believe you’d be able to pull it off. And if you failed at that, maybe people wouldn’t dare take their chances on you, but they might on your children.”

She’s getting to a point, so I don’t interrupt her.

“They won’t be secret forever. We can’t watch them every second of the day. We can’t keep them prisoner. One day they would be vulnerable, and one day any enemy that couldn’t take you down would take their chances taking them down instead. Because when you have nothing left, why not? Especially when you, Viper, don’t have any rules about who you’d go after to get to someone. If you couldn’t prove that you could curb that, I was going to eliminate you myself to give your enemies the satisfaction of you being dead. So they wouldn’t look to get that satisfaction from your children.”

She sits up on the bed. “But this week, you proved yourself capable. You proved you’re willing to take less vindictive means for the same goal, and it makes all the difference. Though, you did have me worried with threatening Madelyn’s child like you did.”

So that’s what her earlier questioning was about.

“So you were planning to kill me to protect my children from my own ambitions? And you’re admitting that to me?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve decided you’re not.”

“Yes.”

Dele leaves things out. Omits significant facts. Lets people draw their own conclusions. But she’s not an outright liar. So I believe her.

“And what if that changes? What if in the future the danger I pose to them by existing outweighs the protection I can offer them? What then?”

“Well,Adrian, the good thing about you is that you don’t tend to regress when you experience growth. So I’m hoping you just get better.”

I stalk forward and ask, “But if I do. If I do regress, what will you do then?”

She shrugs, not intimidated by me like she’s usually not at this point.

“Then I suppose I’d kill you and become the greatest kingpin in the west myself.”

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