Page 61 of Vicarious

Travis begins to try to sputter past his gag again.

“Take the gag off,” I say.

Viper does so and without hesitation, Travis snarls at Viper, “You fucking traitor. I knew it. I knew you had something to do with this Vicious bitch. She was too much like you not to. And she too conveniently disappeared and died in that little fucking trap we set. But Pray wouldn’t hear anything against his favorite little enforcer.”

Viper takes his gun and stuffs the barrel into Travis’s mouth. It makes him shut up, but he still glares viciously at Viper. I have to give it to him. He’s no coward. Maybe because he knows there’s no escaping from this. That no matter what he does, he’s going to end up dead.

“You’re lucky that I have to be careful how much I scar this fine body of yours to make people fall for this fucking suicide story. But you call her a bitch again, I might be tempted to forget about that,” he warns.

Viper pulls the gun from Travis’s mouth, and turns to me while he wipes the barrel off. “So. How do you want to handle this?”

I don’t say anything, just walk up to Travis, take off my hood, and remove my masquerade mask.

“Put the gag back on. I don’t want him to get any ideas like spitting in my face,” I say.

Once Viper has the gag back in the man’s mouth, I kneel down and look Travis directly in the face. There’s no recognition in the disdainful look he gives me, and that just won’t do. I want this man to know exactly why he’s about to die.

“You remember Dele Martin?” I ask. He can’t answer, but I don’t want or need him to. “She was a Sole, close friends with the infamous Adrian Blake. So close that even though there were a lot of people who wanted to hurt her, they knew better than to test his ire. Until… one day, she was framed for a crime against a cartel that she didn’t commit, and not wanting to be at the center of another war, the Soles cast her out. Stripped her of all protections. And when you heard about it, you put a hit on her. Got some gang to kidnap her right out her own apartment. Though, she didn’t make it easy. Heard she killed a dozen men before they managed to get her.”

That was according to Viper, who found the bodies when he went to investigate. I always thought he was exaggerating to cheer me up after he rescued me, but he’s stuck to the story after all these years. So if it’s not true, I’ll never know.

“You wanted her to suffer for all the money she lost you when she was involved in busting a deal you stood to profit from. So you told the gang to rape her. And you watched. And then you left and told them they could do whatever else they wanted with her. You left just in time to miss Adrian Blake finding her and killing every person in the hideout whether they had anything to do with taking and raping her or not.”

Travis tries to say something behind the gag, and I nod to Viper to remove it.

When he does, Travis spats, “What the fuck does that have to do with you? Why do you care?”

I really wish I could hit him right now. But I have to restrain myself. Anything that could indicate a struggle or someone else involved would take away credence from making his death look like a suicide.

“All this time, I’ve been right under your nose, and you don’t recognize the woman whose torment you ordered. Makes me wonder how much you really cared about the money and just wanted an excuse to fulfill you sadistic fantasies.”

It takes a few seconds, but then I see it. The recognition in his eyes after looking me directly in my fucking face on three separate occasions since he ordered me kidnapped. Once sitting right across the table having lunch. Once after I left Viper’s office and ran into him. Once while he watched me get publicly fucked in a gentlemen’s sex club.

Maybe if he’d recognized me before, he would have been able to prevent being here right now. Not likely. Viper would have found out and caught up to him eventually. But, also, maybe he would have seen it coming.

Travis laughs. “We clearly have a very different memory of that night. If I recall, you came and came so hard while they fucked you that you passed out and then woke up and begged for more like the whore you are. You—”

He’s cut off by Viper punching him in the face.

“Viper,” I say blithely.

“Couldn’t help it. Don’t worry. I pulled the punch.” He turns to glare at Travis as he adds, “With great effort, I assure you. It’s not going to leave a mark.”

“Why do you even care?” Travis demands. “Why does the great Viper care that some bitch got exactly what she deserved for playing a man’s game?”

“Well, since we’re getting things out in the open,” Viper says and takes off his mask. He drops it onto the floor.

For the first time, I see actual fear in Travis’s eyes. Somehow, he’s more afraid of Viper unmasked than masked. Interesting.

“I’m sure I don’t have to answer that question now.”

Travis manages to compose himself and snarls, “Of course. It was always this girl. This bitch.” He tosses his head back and laughs. “You should have seen it. When Pray made his offer, he practically begged him to let you live. Tried everything he could to convince Pray to let you live and assure him that he could turn you to our cause before Pray got tired of his whining and made him choose between that pretty little pregnant wife of his and you.”

Those are details to ask Viper about later. But for now, I’m getting tired of hearing Travis talk.

“I’ve got an idea,” I say. “A way to kill him and make it look like suicide and a way to make him suffer.”

Viper grins. “Do tell.”

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