Page 96 of Sinner's Steel
“Jagger killed my son.” Viper’s voice rose to a shout. “He turned my daughter against me. The Sinners kidnapped Doreen, burnt down Mario’s restaurant, and blew up my clubhouse without even considering that someone might be inside.” He stood and rounded the table, coming at her so fast she was forced to back away. “Where is the honor in that?”
“Youkilled your son.” She hit the wall and put out a hand to stop him. “Arianne told me what happened. You kidnapped her. You were trying to kill her and Jeff intervened. Andyoualienated her.Youbeat her and gave her to your VP when she was sixteen.”
“I would never have killed her,” he growled. “She was bait for Jagger. And when he showed up, I tried to kill him, but she was in the way.” He grabbed Evie’s wrists and pinned them to the wall on either side of her shoulders. “Don’t tell me there is any difference between the Jacks and the Sinners. And don’t use that as a justification for your decision to fuck a Sinner when you belong to me. What I do as president of the club has nothing to do with who I am as a man, and that’s who you wanted. Marcus. Not Viper. And that’s who wants you.” He bent down to kiss her and Evie turned her head so his lips landed on her cheek.
“You can’t have me. Not the way you want. Even when you want to be Marcus, Viper comes through. You want to kiss me and yet you’re hurting me. You want me to come to you willingly, and yet you kidnap my son to bring me here. Violence is in your nature. Violence is who you are. Violence for the sake of violence. Violence is your choice for achieving your ends. That’s the difference between you and Zane. He can be violent, but at heart he is not a violent man.”
Despite his outlaw life, the Zane she’d fallen in love with as a child was still there. Always trying to protect her, save her, keep her from getting hurt. She had no doubt, if he had known about Ty, he would never have left Stanton. Just as she had no doubt that he was on his way now.
“Jesus Christ.” Viper tightened his grip on her wrists. “Don’t you understand? I gave you Marcus. I have never asked a woman out. I have never gone on a date, nor have I ever walked away when I could have had a woman in my bed. I could have taken you the first time we met. I could have stripped off your clothes and fucked you over a table in your shop and no one—not Bill, or the mechanics, or any of my men—would have stopped me. I pretended to be a goddamn civilian for you, and I got nothing for it except to find out you’re fucking the enemy. I even spared T-Rex for you because despite his Sinner cut, he was trying to save your life.”
Her brain fuzzed with pain. Was T-Rex still alive? What about the body they’d found in the Black Jacks’ dungeon? “You’re hurting me.”
“And you hurt me. But no more. I will have you, Evangeline. Whether you are willing or not.” He thrust his knee between her thighs and kicked her legs apart.
“Don’t do this.” She struggled in his ironclad grasp. “Marcus… you’re just showing me I was right about you. Show me I’m wrong. Show me the humanity that I know you have inside you. Show me man who mourns his son and misses his daughter.”
“Viper to you,” he growled. “You had your chance with the man. Now you get the beast.” He fisted her hair, yanked her head to the side, and bit her neck, not a gentle love bite, but a skin-piercing dig into her flesh.
Evie screamed. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a blur of motion, the faintest disturbance in the air, and then Viper stiffened and arched back, losing his grip. He spun around and her eyes widened at the sight of the knife in his back, and Mario, his hand still in the air.
The back door exploded open and Viper’s bodyguards raced into the kitchen, heading straight for Viper. “Fucking Mario did this,” he roared. “He’s gotta be a Sinner rat. Get him and get the fucking knife out of my back.”
Seizing her chance, Evie ran through the house and up the stairs, opening doors in the immaculate hallway until she found one locked.
“Ty!” She thumped on the door. “Are you in there?”
“Mom. Mom. Get me out of here.”
She found the key on the cabinet down the hall and unlocked the door. Ty flew out and into her arms.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry I ran away. I don’t hate Zane. Really. I don’t.” He hugged her so tight she could barely breathe, his body shaking with sobs. She wanted to hold him and never let go, but they didn’t have time to linger.
“Shhh, baby. It’s not your fault. But we have to get out of here quickly.”
“There’s a bat inside. I’ll get it. Just in case.” He grabbed a baseball bat and they ran down the stairs only to find Viper and one of his bodyguards blocking their way. Evie stopped short and pushed Ty behind her.
“You had a knife in your back. How can you be walking around?”
“I always wear a vest, kitten. Even to dinner. Never know who’s going to stab you in the back.”
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she pulled it out and saw the picture of Arianne with a little boy who looked to be just over a year old.
Finally.
“I’m leaving with Ty.” She held up the phone so Viper could see the picture of his son with Arianne. “Once we’re safe I’ll let Arianne know she can end her visit with her stepbrother… your son.”
“I don’t have a son.”
“You do. Doreen’s boy. He’s your son; not Axel’s. And now he doesn’t have a mother.”
A multitude of emotions crossed his face, from disbelief to anger, but not fear. Evie’s heart sank. If he didn’t fear for his son, then he had no reason to let her or Ty go.
“Arianne won’t hurt him.” Viper snorted a laugh. “She suffers from compassion, which is why she didn’t kill me when she had the chance.”
Evie pushed Ty backward, step by step. There was a door leading out from the living room. If they ran fast enough, they could get outside. “You’re right,” she said. “Arianne won’t hurt him. But the Sinners can arrange for him to disappear. You lost one son. Do you want to lose another?”
“I could say the same to you. One of my brothers is behind the door, waiting for me to tell him what to do. Stalemate, kitten.”
