Viper's Kiss

by London Casey

  “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 asshole.

  Then came the other women. Lena knew about at least three. An elderly man in the family, a guy they called Uncle Tony, pulled Lena aside one night in a smoke filled room to explain to her that all men had needs that went beyond one woman. There was a woman to love. There was a woman to care for. There was a woman to show off. And there was a woman to fuck. All of which had different purposes.

  Lena had enough. And whatever came after enough was when she heard whispering that Victor was pissed at her for getting upset about his choice of women. Truth was, Lena didn’t know a thing about the other women Victor was fucking, but she wasn’t going to share. That’s not how it went. Plus, she didn’t love Victor. She didn’t like him. She wanted out.

  And she wanted to kill him. She wanted to stab Victor and flee. Run like hell and be gone because it was the only way to escape. She couldn’t break away from him. She had to get rid of him. Would that make everyone in the family want to retaliate against her? Yeah, it would.

  Lena knew the stupidity and the risk of it all, but she couldn’t help herself. She wanted Victor to be stopped, at all costs. Because if she killed Victor… and they caught her, they would just kill her then. They wouldn’t torture her like Victor would have.

  Or the way Victor was torturing her right now.

  Annie had a cat clock on the wall in the dining room. Lena nursed a crappy cup of coffee and looked at the clock. The cat’s eyes and tail moved in opposite directions, the clicks of the seconds slowly moving time along. The last hour with Annie was the longest. Especially tonight, because Lena was told - not asked, but told or else she’d pay a fucking price - to meet with Victor near an old warehouse in Frelen. Those were the scariest places for Lena to go to. That’s where they all did business. Not usually in Frelen because of a motorcycle club that ruled the town. But that didn’t mean the family didn’t have pull within the city. Victor had told Lena that the motorcycle club was nothing but punk losers. They went by the name Back Down Devil MC. They bullied everyone in Frelen and held tight to law enforcement and had no real power.

  Lena could always see the look in Victor’s eyes when he spoke like that. He hinted that he wanted to gather up some guys and start a war. The word was horrifying to Lena because Victor was always very serious. Drunk, sober, whatever, he meant what he said.

  A nurse showed up ten minutes early. Lena reviewed the day with her. Everything was normal. Well, as normal as could be for an elderly woman waiting to pass on. Annie had no real family and never would. Everything she had was tied to the family and they wanted her fortune.

  Lena left the house and started to drive into Frelen. Her mind and heart raced on what to do and how to do it. Just pull out a knife and stab someone? It seemed insane. Hell, it was insane. Lena began to wonder if this activity in Frelen had something to do with the motorcycle club. Or maybe Victor was setting her up. Maybe Victor just knew… knew the knife was in her bag… knew her intentions…

  By the time Lena arrived to the warehouse, she was scared shitless. She got out of her car and two men rushed from the building. They were big, in black suits, and they rushed right to Lena. They grabbed her by the arms and lifted her right off the ground. Lena wanted to scream but knew better. If she screamed, she would be shut up. Either something stuffed in her mouth, her mouth taped shut, or she’d get hit.

  The two men carried her to the side of the building where she spotted Victor standing next to a black car. His back was towards Lena.

  “Mr. Victor,” one of the men said.

  When Victor turned around, there was blood on his hands. He was wiping the blood off with a towel. His face was evil looking. Lena noticed a couple spots of blood on his left cheek.

  “Lena,” he said. “Look at you. Always floating for me.”

  “I can walk on my own,” she said. “I don’t understand this.”

  “Put her down,” Victor said.

  The two men put her down. She shook away from their strong holds, and when her right hand touched her bag, she remembered what she had in there. That big knife from Annie’s kitchen. Her body instantly stiffened with fear. Victor with blood on him. Lena being taken from her car. Nothing would ever go smoothly for her in life. Ever.

  “You look worried,” Victor said. “Feel like sharing something?”

  “I had a long day,” Lena said. “A very long day. And I came here to meet you,
like you told me to do, and now…”

  “You know the fucking life I live,” Victor bellowed. He moved at me. “You want to fucking act like a bitch right now? Treat me like a fucking criminal. For the work I put in for our life.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lena said, going right for the easiest escape. Just apologize. Always apologize. Always take the fall. “I’m sorry. Here, let me…”

  Lena reached forward with caution. Victor was a violent man by nature, but in the heat of the battle, he was even worse. She gingerly touched his hand and took the towel from him. She folded it up to a clean spot and lifted it to his cheek. She wiped the spot of blood off his cheek and smiled.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  “For now,” Victor said. “I’m planning. I needed you with me. I want to see something. To understand what I’m doing in this town.”

  Lena nodded. She needed to just go with the flow of things.

  The side door to the building opened and two more men came out. They had another man with them. He was completely lifeless, his feet dragging on the ground. The two men tossed the guy to the ground like he was a bag of trash.

  “Owes me money,” Victor said. “Always pay up. Always.” He touched Lena’s cheek. “Never fuck with me, right?”

  “Right,” Lena said.

  Victor looked over Lena’s shoulder. “Jakey, take Lena’s car. Get it the fuck out of here. Out of town. We don’t need it anymore.”

  “What?” Lena asked. “My car…”

  “What’s wrong?” Victor asked. He grabbed Lena’s arm. “Something wrong?”

  “No,” Lena said. “Not at all. Where is he taking my car?”

  “When I want you to know, you’ll know,” Victor said.

  Panic flooded Lena’s body.

  I’m screwed. He knows everything. I’m going to die.

  One of the big men took her keys and left. Lena now had no vehicle. She had no chance of escape right now. So even if she stabbed Victor, what the fuck was she supposed to do?

  Victor held her arm tight. “Let’s go for a walk. Let’s chat a bit about things. I want to know how Annie is feeling. And perhaps we should discuss speeding time up a little for her.”

  “What?” Lena asked.

  “You heard me,” Victor growled. “That old bitch needs to go. It’s costing too much to keep her around.”

  “What are you going to do, kill her?”

  Lena realized the error of her question a second before the back of Victor’s hand connected with her face. She spun around and fell forward, right into the next big guy. He kept her standing and shoved her away.

  “Don’t fucking touch her, Danny!” Victor yelled. “I’ll gut you, you fuck.”

  Lena touched her cheek and backed up. She kept moving and suddenly had the idea to just run. To fucking run through the back alleys and streets of Frelen in the dark. Maybe one of the motorcycle club guys would find her. Help her.

  Victor was charging toward her.

  “Mr. Victor, we have a problem,” another man said. “We’re getting interception of police activity. Some kind of disturbance near by. We should exit.”

  “Fuck that,” Victor said. “We have to see Angelo first. I have to take care of him.” He pointed to Lena. “Let’s go, right now. Get in the fucking car.”

  “No,” Lena said.

  She turned and actually started to run. It was the dumbest mistake of her life and she knew it. As dumb as the time a black car rolled up to her with a handsome man in the backseat, telling her that her ass was perfect, her smile was pretty, and he wanted to buy her dinner. In that moment, Lena thought it was some fairy tale romance thing. But now, years later, she was running from the nightmare she had welcomed into her life.

  With no knowledge of Frelen, Lena took the chance of darting in and out of streets, hoping to not get hit and killed by a car. Her body shook with intense fear. There was one way out of this. Maybe. Lena reached into her bag and found the knife. She took it out and made a right turn. To her complete shock, she spotted a few motorcycles. They were parked out back of what was a bar or restaurant. The smell of grease lingered in the air.

  Lena slowly turned and saw both Victor and the big man running at her. She put the knife out and started to cut at the air.

  “Jesus fuck,” Victor said. “Are you fucking stupid? What are you going to do? Kill me?”

  “Yes,” Lena said. “I’m going to…”

  “Get her,” Victor said to the big guy. “Knock her the fuck out.”

  Lena was in total fight or flight mode in that moment. She kept stabbing at the air but was moving backwards too. She danced around, keeping distance between herself and the paid chunk of muscle that was ordered to hurt her.

  There was a small opening between Victor, the guy, and the motorcycles. Lena tried to run and that opening closed up fast. It was Victor who darted to the right, thinking he could grab her and subdue her. But Lena was ready. She was fucking ready.

  Lena thrust forward with the knife and felt it slide into Victor’s body. Right at his left side. She then let the knife go and tried to scream. But she had no breath. Victor grabbed her and hugged her, a few seconds needed to settle in before he realized he was stabbed. Lena kicked and punched, breaking away from Victor. She looked down at herself and saw blood all over her.

  Victor touched the knife and growled. He looked at the big guy. “We have to go. I have to get this cleaned up. We have to see Angelo. Fuck…”

  “Mr. Victor…”

  “I told you what to do to her,” Victor growled. He then looked at Lena. “I’ll come back for you. I’m going to wait for you to wake up, Lena. Then I’m going to torture you… in ways you never thought possible…”

  Lena opened her mouth and never had a chance to speak. She had pain, then darkness.

  four.

  Jett put the woman on the bed. She was still out cold. A few times she tried to come to, her thin lips fluttering, but she made no sound other than a deep, sighing breath. But at least she was in the clubhouse. She was protected. Jett wasn’t even sure if she should have been protected or not. But the chick had been draped over his fucking motorcycle. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was a message from someone else.

  “Check her bag,” Jett said. “Get a name or something.”

  “Good call,” Jace said.

  Jett stood from the bed and tried to figure out what to do. The blood on her shirt wasn’t hers. Gently, Jett lifted the woman’s shirt and found soft, smooth, clean skin.

  “Lena,” Jace said. “I’ve got a note written to her. Handwritten note.”

  “License?” Jett asked. “Address? Cell?”

  “I don’t see a license. She has a wallet. Credit cards, some cash… lots of junk.”

  “Typical chick,” Blaine said.

  “What do we do now?” Jace asked.

  “I’m going to get her out of these clothes,” Jett said.

  “Fuck yeah,” Blaine said. “Let’s get her naked, man.”

  Jett looked back and curled his lip. “Bro, no. It’s not that. That’s not how it works. Okay?”

  “To me it does,” Blaine said. He rubbed his hands together and smiled.

  Jace put a hand to Blaine’s chest. “Why don’t you go get a drink and a blowjob?”

  “I can do that,” Blaine said.

  “Why don’t you both go blow each other?” Jett asked.

  Jace pushed at Jett’s back. “Fuck you, man.”

  Jett spun around, fist cocked. Blaine jumped in and stopped the two hot heads from tearing each other up.

  “Whoa,” Blaine said. “Deep breaths, guys.”

  “Fuck him,” Jett said.

  “Fuck you right back,” Jace spat. “I’d tell you to come to the table and talk to Miller but you’re not welcome there, are you?”

  Jett gritted his teeth. “Get out of here.”

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jace asked.

  “She was on my ride,” Jett said
. “Was that a message to me? To the club? And whose blood is on her? Let me clean the chick up and see if she wakes up. If not, we have to get her to a hospital.”

  “Fuck that,” Jace said.

  “Listen,” Blaine said. “We’ll talk to Miller. We’ll talk to Chief Jerry if we have to. Nobody is getting in trouble for this shit.”

  “Just give me a minute,” Jett said. “Alone.”

  Blaine and Jace left.

  Jett shook his head and took a deep breath. He threw the middle finger at the closed door, then set his sights back to the woman on the bed.

  Lena.

  That was her name.

  “Lena,” Jett said. He touched her cheek. “Can you hear me? My name is Jett. I’m going to get you out of these bloody clothes. I’m not going to do anything to you, I promise. I need you to listen to me and maybe wake the fuck up.”

  There was no response nor movement from Lena.

  Jett reached down and slipped his hand to the back of her neck. He slowly lifted her, sitting her up. He crouched down and let Lena fall against him. He grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted. Working it up and then carefully pulling each arm through, Jett couldn’t remember the last time he was even this tender with a woman, or taking her clothing off.

  It pissed him off that he felt like this right now. Taking a bloody shirt off a pretty woman and he was getting hot and bothered by it. Things had just spiraled that far out of control for him lately. Ever since Ada had been murdered, things were just off. Not that he loved Ada. Or even cared about her. Fuck, he only missed her pussy. But there was plenty of that out in the clubhouse.

  Jett cradled the back of Lena’s head, fingers dug into her hair as he worked her shirt over her head. Just in case there was something wrong with her neck he didn’t want to add to it. Logic had him reversing all these decisions and just taking the chick to the hospital. But history provided Jett with something else. Doctors, lawyers, judges, police, it was all the same bullshit. Life was easier to just figure it out on your own.

  Still holding Lena’s head in his left hand, he pulled her toward his chest. With his right hand he balled up the shirt and dropped it to the floor. He touched her side - bare skin - and eased her back to the bed. His fingertips tingled at her warm touch. Her bra was solid black, her breasts looking full and even delicious in it.