Page 60 of Vicarious

“You’ll see.”

Knowing that’s all I’m going to get out of him, I settle back into my seat with my guns in my lap, resigning myself to find out exactly what Viper has planned.

27

Dele

Viper had my curiosity when he arrived in New York City and practically kidnapped me to take me on a supposed date. He has my complete attention when we take a private flight and land in Texas of all places. Viper’s home state. A place I know that, if he could, he’d completely obliterate from the map he hates this place so much. It reminds me of how little I actually know about his childhood here. What it was like with his mother. Before he was taken from her. Before the Soles got to him, put a gun in his hand and told him where to shoot it.

Viper brought an outfit for me to change into on the flight. The outfit I wear as Vicious only without the protective vest I usually wear underneath, which clues me into the fact that wherever he’s taking me, I’m not going to be in any danger. I haven’t paraded around as her in a few months. Not that I need to now. Not when I’ve garnered enough power and attention that people come to me now to make deals with Addy Bianchi, and I can do most of my work in New York.

Still, it feels nice to pull on the denim outfit again. To put on my masquerade mask when Viper pulls up to an out of the way abandoned warehouse. To be next to Viper as he pulls on the mask of the feared and dreaded enforcer and takes me inside with him.

Revnor is there, sitting in a chair reading a book next to a man tied to a chair with a black bag tied over his head. And in front of the man is a television sitting on a rolling stand and plugged into a long extension cord.

“I trust you didn’t have any trouble getting him,” Viper says to Revnor.

Revnor shrugs. “Took a little creativity to get to him and slip him past his guards, and he put up a fight. But nothing me and my men couldn’t handle.”

“Good,” Viper says. “We’ll take it from here.”

Revnor closes his book, nods to Viper, then nods to me and leaves the warehouse.

“Viper,” I say. “What…?”

“I have a surprise for you,” he says and then takes the black bag off the man’s head to reveal Jason Travis. He’s gagged, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to demand an explanation when he sees Viper and I.

“I considered just killing him and presenting you with his head. But then I thought it would be more fitting for you to watch him suffer the same way he watched you suffer while he laughed.”

For a moment all I can do is stare. First at the man who I have vivid memories of watching with a cruel smirk while sipping on a fucking glass of wine as I was gang raped. Then at the man who rescued me and killed every person in the building that had anything to do with my assault, except this man tied in front of us. This man who escaped because he left before Viper could get there.

“But you… You can’t kill him. He’s too close to Pray. He’d be suspicious.”

Viper places a gloved hand on my cheek and looks at me through a mask that has struck so much terror into so many people. Men. Women. Children. But there’s no terror in my heart as he caresses my face.

“Don’t you worry about that, my love. I’ve got it all taken care of. In fact…”

He takes his hand away to grab the control to the television. I’m only able to grieve the loss of his touch for a second before the television is on and he directs me to look at it.

There a breaking news banner across the front of a national news station, reporting on a leaked video of Jason Travis, leading senatorial candidate for this fall’s election, fucking another man.

In isolation, it’s no big deal. At least not to me. People can fuck whoever the fuck they want. It’s private, and releasing someone’s private sex video says more about the person who released it than the people in the video. But a leaked sex video like this is a big deal to Travis’s conservative Christian base who would make up the bulk of his votes. They would tolerate a lot of things. Him cheating on his wife with another woman if he has one. Him sexually assaulting a woman. Hell, they may tolerate him murdering a man. But this? Him being willing to lay down to fuck or be fucked by another man? This is where his base draws the line in the sand.

In short, any political aspirations Jason Travis thought he had are shot to hell.

“Such a tragedy,” Viper says with feigned sympathy. “An anonymously leaked video. So devastating and so shocking, it drove Jason Travis to do the unthinkable.”

Viper’s plan dawns on me. Expose Travis, kill him, and then have someone stumble across his body after we’re done. They’ll think it was a suicide. Even Pray. Hell, even if Pray suspected foul play, unless he had solid proof, he wouldn’t be able to dispute it and punish Viper for it.

“So, how do you want to kill him?” Viper asks me.

I turn back to look at Travis, staring shocked at the television as it dawns on him that his career is over. That he’s going to be a social pariah to his voter base and to the people he’s openly campaigned against in effort to appeal to his political base. He may very well be contemplating suicide.

But I want him to suffer.

“Well, we’ve got to make it look like a suicide so that definitely limits us,” I say as I walk around Travis.

“Unfortunately. That just means we’ll have to be creative.”

---