I tilt my head back. I won’t let him down. I slip from the car, and he comes around and takes my arm, leading me to the restaurant like we are here for a nice meal and not to start a war. When we slip through the front wooden door and into a dark, candlelit restaurant, I let all weakness go. Garrett needs me, Kenzo needs me, they all need me. Now is the time to step up.
Ryder passes the host stand, ignoring the man in the suit there, and rounds it into a Chinese restaurant before leading me up a curved staircase. We step into an open restaurant, which is up top and looking over the area below, with white cloth covered tables. Along the back wall are floor-to-ceiling windows showing the city all lit up in its glory. The walls are a deep black with red and orange accents in paintings, tapestries, and prints. The ceiling is covered in hanging lanterns. It’s dark and moody, and I love it. If it weren’t for the men who own it, I would want to eat here, looking out at the city and watching it all go by with Ryder’s hand on my thigh, Kenzo’s fingers slipping into my knickers in front of everyone, and the food forgotten before us…
Ryder tugs me after him as he winds through the tables to a raised area at the back, where a circular table sits, slightly hidden, behind a white letter covered screen. I don’t look at anyone specifically. The restaurant is empty except for the men in suits, hired muscle, all watching our progress, yet Ryder is unafraid. As is Diesel behind me.
Three versus at least fifteen men, that’s how many we can see, yet they don’t let any concern show. In fact, they stroll through the room like they own it, the power flowing off them in waves, and then I realise what it means to be a Viper. Even surrounded and in an enemy’s nest, we are still the big bad.
The baddest motherfuckers in the city.
Even in the face of loss, even in the face of death, we own this shit. I raise my head and add confidence to my walk. I’m a fucking Viper, it’s time I start acting like it. We take what we want, we do what we want.
There is a lone man sitting at the table with his side towards us. He picks a napkin up and wipes his mouth as he sits back and waits for us to reach him. His short hair is pushed back, and he looks similar to the Asian man from the hotel. He has a number two tattooed on his neck as well. Is this like fucking Thing One and Thing Two?
Uncaring that he didn’t invite us to join him, Ryder pulls out a chair for me, and I sit. He pushes it back in, but not too much so I can access my weapons and move quickly. He sits next to me, legs parted, hand close to his gun, even as he leans back like he has no worries in the world. His face is cold and empty, that usual control in place. I envy that, I don’t have that kind of bluff, so I’m going to own being a mean, cruel bitch.
Relaxing back in my chair, I tilt my head and let my eyes run across him. “I don’t know, number three had more of an air of power about him…you look like a little bitch.” I grin as his eyes narrow and flicker to Ryder.
“You came here unannounced to insult me?” he snaps, but there is a quiver in his voice. This isn’t in their plan, he doesn’t know what’s happening or what to do.
“Of course not, but you can understand Roxxane’s anger. You did, after all, kidnap and torture her.” Ryder’s face tightens at the words, his anger flaring, so I lean over and lick his ear, my eyes on number two.
“Stay cold, baby, you can let it all out on me later,” I murmur, and he groans.
“She tends to hold a grudge. I know that from personal experience.” He laughs. “But no, we are not here to talk. We both know the time for talking has passed. Your family has signed their death warrants, and now you have a simple choice of how quickly you die.” He grins.
The men in the room rustle, and one in particular steps closer, his gun drawn. Diesel shifts behind me, protecting my back. Straightening in my seat, I wink at number two. “He’s right, I do hold a grudge. I’m very fucking good at it. Ask my men. Oh wait…you have one of them.” Wagging my finger, I lean into the table, flaunting my breasts as I take his wine glass and sip it, watching him before leaning back in my chair. His eyes flicker to the blood still on my skin, and he swallows. “So where is he?”
Ryder doesn’t stiffen at me taking over for him, no, he relaxes more, he’s too emotional to act the part right now. I don’t have to be composed, I’m the scorned girlfriend, so I can be as crazy as I want, and I plan to be. They took what is mine.
They hurt me.
They hurt my family.
Number two licks his lips nervously before he smiles. “Probably being cut open as we speak.”
I freeze and carefully, calmly place the wine glass on the table. “I will ask once more, and you should know that every person who has ever hurt me has a tendency to wind up dead…and you know the man behind me, right?” I relax back into D, who bends down and kisses me, making me moan as he flicks his tongue across my lips, tasting the wine there. “He’s a master of torture, and I learned from the best, so one more time before I get mad. Where is Garrett?”
Diesel’s hand circles my throat possessively and drags my head back again, kissing me hard and biting my lip until I taste my own blood before he releases me. Licking my lips, the blood undoubtedly dripping, I look to number two. “I’m waiting,” I purr.
“Go fuck yourself, you stupid bitch. You will all be dead when this is through, and no one will remember you and your fucked up family,” he snarls.
I blink, letting his words drop into the silence for two seconds before I jump into motion. Yanking out Ryder’s gun, I point it at the man closest to him and fire, hitting him square between the eyes as I push back from the table and stand. Yells go up, then guns are drawn and firing as I let off four more shots, killing four more guards before giving the weapon to Ryder and storming around the table. Trusting them to protect me. I hear Diesel laughing and others screaming as I meet number two head-on. He’s tangled in the tablecloth as he gawks at what’s happening.
He thought he was untouchable, but he’s wrong. No one is untouchable but us. Everyone can die, I will kill them all to get my man back. No one fucks with what’s mine, my damaged lover.
I kick back the chair, and it crashes to the floor with a loud thump. Stepping over him, I press my foot to his throat to stop his struggling, my heel pressing against his soft flesh. He gulps, his hands going out to the side in a gesture of peace, his scared eyes locked on me. He’s finally realising his family is dead. Everything they did to win, every law and rule they broke, and everyone they bribed or killed was for nothing. All because they got greedy and took something that wasn’t theirs.
“Where is he?” I snarl.
The firing stops, but I don’t look away as Diesel rounds the table, crouches next to number two, and looks up at me with blood on his face. “That was fucking beautiful. You are wearing those heels later,” he murmurs, as Ryder steps up next to me and stares down at number two.
“We warned you, where is he?” he growls.
I hear a rustle at the stairs and Diesel, without looking, pulls his gun and fires. I hear a grunt and then the distinctive sound of someone falling down the stairs.
“Sorry about your brother, he was a real prick though.” I smirk, leaning forward like I’m sharing a secret. “He talked like a little bitch at the end of my bat.” Number two sputters, and I laugh. “Don’t ever fuck with a Viper. Just because I have a pussy doesn’t make me weak. You fucked with the wrong family.”
He narrows his eyes, but he sees the truth in my gaze and deflates. “Please don’t kill my wife, she’s innocent in this.”
I don’t speak, but I dig my heel in deeper. “Did you afford us those same niceties?” Ryder snaps.
He closes his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking at me. “He’s being held at our family’s home, 478 Rosewater. The mansion on the hill overlooking the city.”
“Security?” I ask, and I can feel Ryder’s surprised and appreciative gaze.
“Over thirty men, the last of us, my brother will be there too…and her,” he sputters as I jab in deeper.
“Her?”
“Daphne, his ex, she was working with us,” he wheezes. “Came to us wanting revenge. We made a deal to kill you all, but she could do whatever she wanted with him. She’s been supplying us information.”
“Fucking knew it,” Ryder snarls.
“I should have tortured her more.” Diesel grins. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
I look to Ryder then. “Why did she betray him in the first place?”
The man under my heel struggles, so I push harder, and he starts to pant. “Why?”
He looks at me sadly. “For money and power. She was offered both by a rival, she thought they would own the city, but she was wrong. It almost killed him, they paid her to do just that, but he survived. We hunted her down, and Diesel killed her, or so we thought.”
“Now she has him,” I hiss. “She’s going to finish what she started,” I whisper in shock. “Ryder, we have to get him now.”