by Atlas, Lilly
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Author Note
Blurb
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Cbapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Bonus Epilogue
Author Note Amazon
FB Group
About the Author
VIPER
Hell’s Handlers Book 9
Lilly Atlas
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2020 Lilly Atlas
All rights reserved.
Other books by Lilly Atlas
No Prisoners MC
Hook: A No Prisoners Novella
Striker
Jester
Acer
Lucky
Snake
Trident Ink
Escapades
Hell’s Handlers MC
Zach
Maverick
Jigsaw
Copper
Rocket
Little Jack
Joy
Screw
Audiobooks
Audio
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I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I’ll love you tomorrow whether you’re here with me or waiting for me among the stars.
Known to the Hell’s Handlers Motorcycle Club as Mama V, Cassie is living a full life she could never have dreamed of growing up in a wealthy, loveless, and miserable household. With her family and beloved husband Viper at her back, she’s survived loss, club rivalries, injuries, and illness. Now, she’s coping with the challenge of a lifetime, one she can never defeat but must learn to accept and survive no matter how difficult.
Faced with life-changing tragedy and decisions on how to move forward, Cassie can’t help but reminisce on the events of the past that led her to her Hell’s Handlers family, starting with the fateful day she met Viper. Had it not been for him, Cassie’s life would have taken a drastically different and possibly deadly course.
To everyone experiencing loss, grief, and fear in these uncertain and frightening times. May you find peace and happiness, even if it is in a few hours of reading.
My deepest sympathies and healing vibes to you.
Be safe.
PROLOGUE
PRESENT DAY - TENNESSEE
“Listen up, old man. I’ll take a nap if and when I want to take a nap, not because you tell me to.” Cassie’s huff came through the phone, loud and clear.
Viper chuckled as his wife of more than thirty years groused at him. She always got prickly when he bossed her around—her words, not his. So sue him if he occasionally issued orders just to get her all hot under the collar. Still, after all these years, her temper revved his engine. Those green eyes flashed and shot sparks that ignited his flame every single time. Back when her hair still had its fiery red color, he swore it deepened from the roots outward as her ire grew.
“Gorgeous, I’m just looking out for you, you know that. I need you to have some energy for when I get home. Plus, if you’re already in bed, it saves the time of having to get you there. We can go straight to the good stuff if you know what I mean.” He dropped his voice to a pitch that never failed to get his wife in the mood.
She snorted, but he’d bet money she was grinning into her phone. “You’re nothing but a horny old goat, you know that?”
He snickered again. “Yes, ma’am, I do. But don’t blame me. You’re the sexy thing who’s been making me hard for more than three decades.”
A hum followed by a sigh came through the line. “Pretty sure I’m nothing but a wrinkly bag of bones right now. Can’t imagine how you find me remotely attractive. And with the hair loss…you must be going blind, old man. Either that or senile.”
Christ, it broke his heart to hear the dejected tone and worry in her voice. “Woman, you’re crazy if you think I’ve ever looked at you and seen anything less than pure beauty.” Cancer, actually the treatment for cancer, had been rough as hell on her body, stealing her energy, weight, and much of her hair. Still, he meant every word. Nothing in the world could make her less than stunning in his eyes.
“Viper…” She said in an awed whisper.
“I ain’t foolin’, baby. You’re as gorgeous to me today as you were the first day I saw you.”
That had her letting out a small laugh. “You mean when dirt and bruises covered my entire body? Well, that explains it.”
He grinned. There was the sass and attitude she tossed out like nobody’s business. “That’s right. Gorgeous that day and gorgeous now. You think I care about a little weight loss or missing hair?” He snorted. “Fuck, I don’t even notice that shit. All I see are those witchy green eyes casting a fucking spell on me. You own me, woman. Heart and soul. Always have.”
“Always so romantic,” she said with a sigh.
“That’s right. Don’t you forget it. Especially with that new prospect, Monty, looking after you.” The young future Handler had been keeping an eye on Cassie whenever Viper couldn’t be home. A conflict with a rival club had the men keeping guards on all their ol’ ladies, just in case.
“Ohhh, that’s right. He’s out there by the street, isn’t he? Maybe I should invite him in for some coffee, so he doesn’t freeze,” she said, humor lacing the words.
Viper growled. “Don’t you dare.” He’d flay that prospect from scalp to dick if he so much as winked at Cassie.
“What did I tell you about giving me orders?”
There we go.
Back on solid ground. Cassie’s voice lost all sadness and returned to full spitfire. Mission accomplished.
“Listen, baby,” he said as he pulled his truck into Toni’s Diner’s parking lot right next to Thunder’s pickup. “I’m popping by the diner to drop something off with Thunder. Be home in forty-five, tops.”
“Guess that means I’ll be waiting for you…in our big bed. All by myself.” A sultry hum followed her words.
Goddamn, now he had to climb out of his truck with a boner. “Woman,” he growled as Cassie broke out in a fit of giggles that warmed his heart as much as they stroked his dick.
“You started it.”
“That’s what you think.” He gave her a moment to giggle again before moving the conversation in a much more serious direction. “Hey, baby?”
“Yeah?”
“I loved you yesterday, I love you today, and I’ll love you tomorrow, whether you’re here with me or waiting for me among the stars.”
Her breath caught before she repeated the words back to him, and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind as to the veracity of her statement. She’d been the best goddammed thing to happen to a young idiot like him all those years ago, and she was still the best thing in his world. Sure, their life together hadn�
��t been without trials, and he’d spent his fair share of nights on the too-small and hard-as-a-rock couch, but when the temporary glitches passed, the bones of their relationship were not only intact but strong as fucking steel.
He loved that woman with every ounce of his being and made damn sure she knew it. Especially over the past few months. How many times in his fifty-nine years had he heard the phrase ‘life’s too short’? Countless times. And like most people, he smiled, nodded, and forgot all about the sentiment, seconds later. Even the loss of friends and loved ones throughout the years hadn’t driven the point home. But the day he learned his wife might not live to another see birthday, the point had been driven home like a stake to the heart.
Life indeed was too fucking short. There were still countless experiences he wanted to share with Cassie. Cities he wanted to explore. Adventures they planned to embark on. And for a terrifying time, he feared she’d be ripped away from him. The grief of her diagnosis had nearly choked him, but he managed to keep it hidden for the most part.
Shit, if he didn’t stop with the pity party and get moving, he’d never make that deadline he gave Cas. Viper climbed out of his truck. Time to get this show on the road. His woman was waiting on him, and as any smart married man knew, keeping a woman waiting was a bad idea.
Five minutes later, he had the power tools Copper requested loaded in Thunder’s truck. The prospect would be heading to the clubhouse after escorting Jazmine to one of his brother’s houses. She’d been barred from her place after discovering a shocking amount of assault weapons in her shed. Everyone seemed sure Jazz’s neighbor, who also happened to prospect for the rival club, had stashed them there. What they didn’t know was how extreme retaliation would be once the Chrome Disciples Motorcycle Club found their guns missing.
Shit with the CDMC grew uglier by the day. It weighed on Viper. He loved his club to his marrow, but he’d be lying if he didn’t admit his fatigue. A lifetime of one-percenter living could exhaust any man.
With a heavy sigh, he pushed the door to the quiet diner open. The joint had closed about an hour ago. He spotted Jazz behind the counter, and Thunder seated at it as the jangle of bells announced his presence.
“Hey, V!” Thunder said as he got up and walked over with an extended hand. “How’s Cassie?” From behind the counter, Jazz’s face broke out into a genuine smile, but dark circles under her eyes betrayed her weariness.
“She’s well.” Damn, it felt good to finally be able to say those words. Cassie’s medical team felt confident her treatment was progressing better than they’d hoped. “Really well.” He could feel the enormous grin stretch across his face.
“Fuck, that’s good to hear.” Thunder clapped him on the back. “Give her my love, okay?” Everyone adored Thunder. The guy just had this way about him. A magnetic personality few could resist.
Viper nodded. “I got those tools loaded in the back of your truck,” he said as he opened his arms for Jazz. “Copper will grab them from you at the clubhouse.”
“Got it, man.”
Jazz practically flew around the counter into his waiting embrace. She squeezed with all her might, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She’d been amazing since Cassie became sick, always offering to help, bringing by leftovers from the diner, and stopping by to cheer Cassie up on the rougher days.
“Hey, kiddo,” he said against her head. “You smell like cinnamon.”
She laughed. “No surprise there. I think it’s permanently embedded into my skin.” She pulled back and studied him as though picking through his brain. After a good thirty seconds, she must have been satisfied with what she found because she turned to the prospect. “Thunder, let me grab your food from the walk-in, then we can take off.”
“You guys hang there. I’ll grab it,” Thunder said. He practically ran into the kitchen, as comfortable in the diner as he was in the clubhouse after many months of prospecting.
Since they had a few seconds alone, Viper asked, “So, how are you holding up after yesterday?” He tried to give her his best fatherly glare, but it probably just came off as constipated. He didn’t have much experience in the parenting arena. Not like his wife, who naturally mothered every newcomer to the club be they ol’ ladies, prospects, or even the Honeys.
For a second, Jazz’s face registered shock before she shook her head and answered. “I’m doing all right. The guys got rid of the guns.” A visible shudder ran through her as the word guns fell from her lips. “I’m just hoping I can go back home soon.”
Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to be the one to make that tough call. No one would forgive themselves if they allowed Jazz back into her house only to have her end up injured, or worse. “Yeah, we just gotta make sure the CDMC isn’t going to retal—”
An ear-piercing crash of shattering glass rent the air. Jazz jolted so hard, she bumped his shoulder. Without thought, as he went into full-on alert mode, Viper shoved her body behind his. Jesus Christ, the entire center front window of the diner now lay in a million sharp shards all around the dining room. And there in the middle of the disaster lie a red brick.
“What happened?” Jazz screamed as she tried to peer around him. He held her back as best he could, but she still caught sight of the wreckage. “Holy shit!”
“What the fuck was that?” Thunder sprinted from the kitchen as Viper’s attention went to a man standing outside the window. Before he had a chance to react, a grenade was lobbed through the place where the window once stood.
“Fuck!” Thunder screamed even as Viper opened his mouth to do the same. “Grenade.”
Behind him, Jazz froze still as a statue.
“Get down!” Viper screamed as he grabbed hold of Jazz and shoved her to the ground.
Thunder screamed, “I see him! It’s that fucker, Jeremy. I can fucking catch him.”
Jazz grunted as she hit the unforgiving floor, but Viper didn’t have time to apologize or ask if she was okay.
“Go get him!” he shouted to Thunder. “I got Jazz.” If Thunder could catch that fucker, the club would tear him limb from limb and find out a wealth of information about their enemy’s plans.
Thunder’s long legs ate up the distance from the kitchen to the broken window. He practically sailed through the air, up onto a booth, then straight out through the gaping hole of what used to be the front window of Toni’s Diner.
Viper didn’t even spare a second to consider his options. He started forward, gaze focused on the bomb as every second brought them closer to death. After not even one full step, two surprisingly strong hands fisted the back of his cut, and the next thing he knew, he was falling toward Jazz.
“Viper, no!” she screeched in a way that would leave her voice ragged.
Just as he found his footing and prepared to shake loose from Jazmine’s hold, the entire diner shook as though in the midst of a catastrophic earthquake. At the same time, a thunderous boom that put action movies to shame stole his hearing, leaving a high-pitched ringing in its place.
The force of the blast propelled him backward, and somehow he managed to spin his body and wrap his arms around Jazz before hitting the floor.
The moment they slammed into the ground, he squeezed her snug against him and curled the pair of them into as tight a ball as possible.
Debris rained all around them. He grunted as painful blows and stinging cuts pelted his back. Loud noise seemed to come at him from every angle, but he couldn’t make sense of any of it. Shattering glass? Falling ceiling? Parts of tables and chairs flying through the air only to crash to the ground? Between the roar of blood in his ears and the shrill ringing, he couldn’t tell what the hell was going on.
All he could do was cling to Jazz as she screamed below him and struggled to claw her way free. Thank God she was alive. It was all that mattered. Jazzy’s life was just beginning, with two men, both MC brothers. She didn’t deserve a tragic ending like this, and neither did her men.
Again and again, he was bombarded
with flying fragments. As a particularly sharp sting pierced between his shoulder blades, Viper groaned and squeezed Jazz tighter. The move only served to send a searing shot of pain through his system.
Fuck.
Something was wrong.
Numbness began at the tips of his fingers and traveled up his arms but never seemed to make it to the throbbing area in his upper back.
Hard as it was to process his surroundings with the noises, intense smell of smoke, and Jazz freaking out below him, Viper felt the warm flow of blood spreading across his back.
Fuck. He opened his mouth to ask Jazz if she was okay just as a blow to the back of his head rendered him speechless. He went slack, his weight crushing into Jazz. His dead weight probably smothered the poor kid beneath him. He’d move if he could, but none of his limbs obeyed the screaming commands of his mind.
“Viper!” she screamed.
He heard it. And he wanted to respond. Tried to respond. He really did, but the words wouldn’t come. Hell, he couldn’t even blink to let her know he was fine.
Though he was starting to think he was pretty far from fine.
Blackness began to take over his vision, starting at the edges and encroaching on the center.
“Viper!” she screamed again, fighting like a madwoman to move him off her. He could offer no assistance.
He couldn’t see any longer, and Jazz’s voice grew more muffled by the second as she screamed at him. He needed to make sure Jazz wasn’t injured. Needed to call her men to come for her, and then he needed to call Copper. Most importantly, he needed to see his Cassie one last time…
But none of that would happen if he couldn’t even make a sound.
The experience wasn’t anything like he’d expected dying would be. The pain faded to a dull, nearly insignificant ache.
He wasn’t afraid either.
