And I just had my heart broken.
She left.
She left us.
A noise has my head jerking up to the balcony. I see Ryder’s retreating form, and then hear his door slam. She broke more than one heart today, but we will keep our promise.
Her freedom.
But-but what if I can’t?
Because as the seconds tick by, it gets harder and harder to breathe the farther I know she gets away from us. What if, without her, there is no us?
What if I can’t let her go?
What if I’m not strong enough?
What if I’m too much of a Viper to release our prey?
Chapter Thirty-Eight
ROXY
My heart is hammering and my lungs ache, but I outrun it. I grip the keys so hard, they cut into my hand, even that pain doesn’t register. It doesn’t compete with the sick feeling in my stomach or my screaming heart.
He begged.
He laid it all out for me and asked me to stay.
And I left.
I run faster, throwing myself down the stairs until I reach the garage. I put my hand on the scanner and it flashes green, letting me through. With hurried steps, I reach my car and throw myself into the driver’s seat, but with nowhere else to run to, it all hits me.
The pain in his voice. The love in his eyes. The desperation I saw in the set of his shoulders. They have given me everything I ever wanted since they first walked into my bar…but what if what I want has changed? What if this snake has shed her skin and became something new?
No, don’t let them get to you.
This is what you wanted, I remind myself. I grip the wheel and turn on the engine. I’m free. I’m not theirs anymore.
But sitting in the car, I can’t move. My old life is filled with ghosts, an empty, lonely shell. Do I really want to go back to that? Is there anything to even go back to?
The Vipers aren’t a walk away situation, they are for life. If I choose them, I’m choosing them forever and everything their life entails.
Because somewhere along the way, ‘I hate you’ became our ‘I love yous.’
I do, I hate them so much, it scares me. That’s really why I’m walking away, but I can’t let fear hold me back. Not with so much on the line. Not with four hearts. It’s simple. I want them, they want me.
Freedom, family, work, none of it matters. Only them.
The Vipers.
My Vipers.
I’m their girl.
So why am I running? Because I’m scared, that’s why. Scared how much I want them, how much they have consumed me. How right I feel in their arms, in their life. The cold, controlling alpha. The damaged enforced with a heart of gold. The romantic, charming gambler. The insane killer with an obsessive heart.
What does that make me?
Their captive?
No, not anymore. It makes me theirs, a Viper. It makes this home.
As soon as I realise it, I know. I know I didn’t want to leave, haven’t for a long time. That fight and hate was aimed at myself, because I knew if I didn’t, if I gave in, I would have seen the truth all along. From the first kiss, wink, and smile. I was theirs.
But you can’t take and not give.
They took me, but they gave me themselves.
And I just ruined that. I refuse to be like Ryder and Kenzo’s parents. I refuse to be the bitch who ruined Garrett. I refuse to be the mother who never loved Diesel. I refuse to repeat the past.
This is our future, they are my future. I turn off the engine, and when it doesn’t feel wrong, I know this is the right decision. I’m staying with them. With their lifestyle and all that includes—enemies, blood, riches, parties, snakes, and liars. All of it. Slipping from the car, heart hammering, I turn to run back to them and freeze when I spot Kenzo there.
He’s standing behind the car, his eyes filled with tears, his chest heaving, body shaking, like me. Both of us are fighting, but what I told Garrett is true, I’m done fighting.
He steps closer, and this time I don’t retreat. “I lied,” he croaks. “I will follow you always. I’ll hunt you across this world. Even if you hate me, us, for it. I will drag you back kicking and screaming. Hit me, slap me, fight me. I don’t care, the pain is worth it to have you with me, darling. I love you too much to let you go. I’m too fucking selfish to let the best thing to ever happen to us walk away. You’re ours.”
I rush to him, and he meets me halfway, lifting me instantly. Our lips meet here in the parking garage. Pulling back, he grips my hair harshly, his eyes sharp and cruel. “Don’t you ever fucking walk away from me again, darling.”
“Don’t fucking let me,” I snap, and slap him as I smirk.
He groans, his head jerking back around, and he kisses me hard. He starts walking backwards to the elevator, but stops and slams me into the concrete wall, making me gasp at the pain. His eyes are brutal, and I fucking love it. “You aren’t getting away from us now, Roxy.”
“Good.” I smirk. “Is that a promise?”
He grunts when we hear the garage open, and I look over his shoulder to see Garrett storming in on his bike. He rips off his helmet, and when he sees me, he prowls over, his eyes angry and body taut with anger. He gets right up to us, uncaring about the position we’re in. “You’re not fucking leaving.”
“Thought you hated me,” I tease.
“I do,” he snarls, his hand wrapping around my throat as he gets in my face, unbothered about Kenzo. “But you don’t get to leave.”
“I hate you,” I snap, and he smirks.
“I hate you too, baby.”
Kenzo pulls me away. “Upstairs, now,” he demands, and rushes us into the elevator. Garrett stabs his finger on the button, his dark eyes on me, and I know whatever they’re planning will hurt. In the best fucking way.
He watches me the entire ride up, and when the doors open, a wild-looking Diesel is there. He stops when he sees me, his eyes narrowing. “Little Bird, Little Bird, trying to escape?”
“Nah, just wanted to be punished.” I grin.
He smirks, his eyes running across me hungrily. “That can be arranged.”
Kenzo refuses to let me go as we leave the elevator, but Diesel manages to get close. “You thought I would let you leave? I told you, you’re mine, they would have to kill me to stop me from coming after you.”
I melt at that. Once, it would have scared me. The first time I saw him, I thought him mad, he still is—fucking batshit. But he’s my batshit. And when he whispers threatening, dirty things like that, I can’t help but wiggle, wanting more.
Guess I’m crazy too.
I have to be to love four Vipers.
The door is still open, and Kenzo storms through it, dropping me to my feet in the living room and standing in front of me, arms crossed and angry. “Strip. Now.”
“What, no dice this time?” I taunt, even as my pussy clenches at the order. Where’s Ryder?
Diesel prowls around me, and Garrett watches me from the sofa, legs spread and eyes hungry. But they are still angry, angry that I almost left. I am too. The best way to solve that? Fuck it out.
“Better strip, Little Bird,” Diesel growls.
So, rolling my eyes, I rip off my crop top, and kick off my boots and shorts until I stand bare before them. I feel confident in my skin, so I don’t bother hiding. I run my hand down the valley of my breasts, feeling powerful when three sets of eyes watch the movement and masculine groans fill the room.