Chaos Bound (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #4)(103)
Naiya held her breath. Above, on the stairwell, she heard the thud of boots on concrete, the clang of metal, heavy breathing.
“This way.” Shaggy pulled on the fire exit door leading to the fifth floor. The metal lock thunked, but the door didn’t budge. “Fuck. It’s locked.”
They ran down the stairs, trying the doors for each floor without success. When they hit the ground floor, Shaggy gestured her toward the back exit and she ran full tilt into the alley and smack into a broad, hard chest.
“That was almost too easy.” Viper grabbed Naiya’s ponytail, pulling her to a stop, while his bodyguards slammed Shaggy against the brick wall. “Walk around the lobby so any Sinners watching will send a message up to warn you. Lock all the exit doors. Chase you down the stairs. Like flushing rats out of the sewer.”
“Let him go.” Naiya gestured at Shaggy. “He has nothing to do with this.”
“He’s a Sinner. Can’t have him running off to bring in the cavalry.” One of the bodyguards backhanded Shaggy, snapping his head to the side.
“Stop it.” Naiya drew in a breath to scream, and Viper clamped a gloved hand over her mouth. She gagged on the taste of leather, the scent of sweat and diesel burning her nostrils.
“Tsk. Tsk. Don’t you know better than to involve civilians in biker business? You don’t want civilians to get hurt. You’re already responsible for two deaths today. Three after we deal with the old man.”
Naiya’s eyes widened, and she bit his finger, her teeth finding flesh through his leather glove.
“Fucking bitch.” Viper tore his hand away and cuffed the side of her head, knocking her to the ground. “You want to know who died today because of you? Your new boyfriend and his pal.”
“No.” She stared at him aghast. “They aren’t dead. I don’t believe you.”
“Believe me, love. If they aren’t gone already, they will be before we leave his alley. I was done with T-Rex. Had my fun with him. But for some f*cking reason, he wouldn’t leave your side. So I sent my reporter friend to find Tank, just in case I needed an insurance policy. And after my ATF mole tried and failed to bring you to me twice, I cashed it in. He’s with Tank and T-Rex now, along with four of my senior patch with orders not to leave until they’ve both been put to ground.”
Did she hear some hesitation in his voice? A hint of uncertainty. Would Michael really execute two men in cold blood? He might be a dirty cop, maybe blackmailed by Viper, but she’d sensed a streak of decency in him the few times they’d met. He wasn’t a hardened criminal like Viper, soulless and beyond redemption. Even after the Sinners had beaten him for touching her in the bar, she couldn’t imagine him pulling the trigger.
But maybe he had no choice. She’d known Viper owned the police, a few judges, and maybe a senator or two. But if he owned the reporters and the ATF, he was playing at a much higher level. Not even Jagger would be able to stop him now.
“Let her go,” Shaggy said. “She can’t help you. She’s nobody. And you can get yourself a finer piece of tail over at Peeler’s Strip Club.”
“She can help me.” Viper pulled Naiya to her feet. “In fact, I can’t do it without her. When Naiya turns twenty-three, she’ll have access to a trust fund containing twenty million dollars. Imagine that. Imagine how many people I could buy with twenty million dollars. I wouldn’t even have to run in the nationwide Black Jack election. I’d just off the National Black Jack president and take his place and no one would be able to do anything about it.”
“Bullshit,” Naiya spat out. “You know my mother was nothing but a drug addict, and my father was one of your Jacks. We had nothing when I was growing up. And my grandmother had nothing either. When I lived with her, we barely had enough money to eat and pay the mortgage.”
“Your mother was definitely a drug addict because I made her that way.” Viper’s lips turned down in mock regret. “I had to keep her around in case your father showed up. The trust could be broken with both their signatures, and if he was a Jack, then that wouldn’t be a problem. And I had to keep you f*cking safe, because if you died before you turned twenty-three, the money went to charity. Your grandmother thought of everything when she replaced your mother’s name on the trust with yours.”
Naiya tried to take it all in, but there was only one thing she really cared about. “You know who my father is?”
“Don’t be f*cking stupid.” Viper shook her hard. “If I did, I would have hunted him down and made him sign on the dotted line when your mother was alive. I got all the information out of her I could, but it wasn’t enough. His name was Joe Johnson. He hid his identity from her, but she didn’t know why. They had some pathetic love affair and he took off after you were born. Your grandmother was a smart woman. She musta known the deadbeat would never come back so the trust was secure until you turned twenty-three. I had to listen to the f*cking sob story so many times I had to gag your damn mother every time she brought it up. She loved him. He left her. He broke her heart. He gave you his f*cking ring and left her with nothing. Blah. Blah. Blah. I had a good look at that ring the night I made you mine” He leered and Naiya’s stomach roiled. “Didn’t mean anything to me. But that was a f*cking good night. I want to hear you scream like that again.”