Viper's Kiss (Back Down Devil MC #8)(76)

The sight was terrifying.

But it all had gone too far.

Too f*cking far…

Lena crouched and pulled the knife out of the floor. She stood back up and held it tight in her hand. She pictured Victor in front of her. Eye level with her. He was short, but that didn’t matter. It never mattered. But it was… weird. Lena always pictured cuddling up to someone bigger than her. Strength, calmness, love. Everything in silence. That’s where the power came from.

Not this life.

She stabbed the air and licked her dry lips. She wondered just what she would have stabbed on Victor. Knowing her luck and worry, she’d end up cutting his arm or something. And then he’d kill her. Without hesitation.

Lena knew too much.

And after what she had found out…

“Lisa?” a weak voice called. “Oh, my, it hurts!”

Lena put the knife down. She rushed from the small kitchen, through the small dining room, to find poor Annie standing next to her old green recliner chair cradling her left hand. There were tears in her aged blue eyes.

“Lisa… I’ve been calling for you…”

Lena had long gotten used to Annie calling her the wrong name. It was all just part of Annie’s life now. She was old, confused, and was just enjoying what time she had left in this world. The woman had a rainbow array of pills that needed to be taken throughout the day, with times of clarity that were beautiful and sharp, and other times of anger and confusion that broke Lena’s heart.

“What’s wrong, Annie?”

“You made the coffee too hot.”

Lena saw the coffee mug tipped to the side on the tray next to the chair. The coffee had been there for hours now. It was impossible to be hot, but Lena knew not to argue with Annie. She approached the woman carefully and asked to see her hand.

Annie had long and crooked fingers. Lena knew they had to have once been long and slender fingers. Beautiful fingers on a beautiful woman.

“Your hand looks fine to me,” Lena said softly. “I can get you some ice if you’d like. But I think you’ll be okay.”

Lena looked Annie in her eyes and smiled.

“He never loved me, Lisa. Never loved me.”

“Who didn’t?”

“My sweet Anthony. He never loved me. He always wanted…” Annie slowly turned her head and sighed. “Oh, my, look at that mess.”

“It’s okay, Annie,” Lena said. “Here, sit down. Let me put on the evening news for you. Okay? I’ll make more coffee if you’d like.”

“How about a cup of tea?”

“I can do that.”

Lena helped Annie to the chair and got her comfortable. Another member of the family would be coming soon. They all traded shifts with the full-time nurses. Lena hadn’t gotten much about Annie over the time she knew the woman, but from what she heard from whispers was that Annie was very wealthy and the family were all around her, waiting for her to let go, so they could pounce. Her husband - Anthony - had been tragically killed in a car accident twenty years ago. Rumor was it had been a complete inside job.

That was definitely something about the family. They didn’t care. They lived to kill and killed to live. Another vicious cycle that Lena had been accustomed to seeing.

She carried the entire tray into the kitchen and slowly cleaned up the mess of coffee. From the corner of her eye she saw the large knife resting there.

I can do this. I can escape all this. Even if I…

Lena closed her eyes.

Fuck, she couldn’t fight her feelings on this. She was afraid of dying. And what normal person wasn’t, right? Sure, when time was up, it was up. A day, week, month, year, whatever. Some people lived beyond a hundred years, and some didn’t even make it out of the womb. That was the cruel sense of time. But with Victor, it was different. He controlled it all. If Lena messed this up, he wouldn’t just shoot her. He’d… hurt her. Bad. She’d suffer greatly.

But she couldn’t continue living like this.

Lena finished cleaning the tray, made tea, let it cool down, and then carried both back into the living room. She put it down next to the chair and Annie looked at her.

“What’s this for?” Annie asked.

“Your tea.”

“I didn’t ask for tea. Oh, I hate tea. Too bitter.”

“I’m sorry. I must have…” Lena grabbed the mug. “Can I get you anything?”

“I’m okay right now. Thank you for all you do for me. Taking such good care of me. Victor is lucky. I can hear wedding bells, Lena. Oh, you don’t know what it’s all like until you marry into it all. Such a sense of family. Protection.”

Lena nodded. “Yes. That sounds quite amazing.”

Annie didn’t respond.

Lena went back to the kitchen, completing the hundredth lap of the day. Kitchen to chair, chair to kitchen, rinse and repeat for hours on end.

This time was a little different. This time Lena took the knife and put it in her bag. Damn, it was sickening to think she was stealing an old woman’s knife to kill Victor with. But this was the life. The family. This was what Lena had been put through for years.

And now Victor had other women.

That was the line for her. That, and Victor had started using force to keep her under control. It started with placing his gun on a table. Then he wouldn’t speak. He’d sit there and act like the gun wasn’t even there. Then he started to point the gun at her. And finally, after a night of too much drinking, Victor pulled the trigger. But the gun had been unloaded. He did it for fun. For a laugh. Because he was an *.