Twisted Devil (Vicious Vipers MC Book 4)

by Lynn Burke

  Dasia pulled out her cell and called, but it went straight to voicemail. “Hey, Stacey, it’s me. Give me a call when you get this.” She hung up, her hands shaking. “You don’t think...”

  Another tremble swept over her, and I leaned back in my chair, pulling her in tight again, my lips on the top of her head. “At this point, I don’t know what to think, but we’re sending all this shit I got on those boys into the FBI, Dasia. Hopefully, in a few days we’ll start hearing of arrests.”

  “And until then?” she whispered, fear evident in her shaking voice.

  “Until then, you and I are heading into the club, and we’ll keep trying to get in touch with your friend. Vigil wants to meet with all the officers and make a final decision on anonymously handing this compiled evidence over.”

  Dasia pulled back and searched my face. “This is what you’ve been doing since you met me, isn’t it? Hacking and...” She waved her hand at my desk.

  “Yeah.”

  “Why? What do you stand to gain?”

  “Your safety.” I tucked some of the hair that escaped her braid behind her ear. “Your freedom.”

  Her lower lip trembled as she peered at me, tears welling in her eyes. “You didn’t even know me.”

  “Something inside me knew you the second I saw you at the Vipers’ gate, Dasia. Knew you were meant to be in my life. I promised I would keep you safe, and I meant it.”

  Tears slid down her cheeks as she leaned forward and pressed her lips softly against mine. “Thank you.”

  “I’d do anything for you, pussy cat. Surely you must know that by now.”

  Another kiss—and another.

  Ten minutes passed before she climbed off my lap and I gave her ass a gentle swat. “Let me get my shit together, then we’re heading to the club.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Dasia

  Ryker and Pia hadn’t arrived at the club by the time we got there. A woman I’d seen at the two parties came out of the kitchen area with a big plate of bacon and a carton of orange juice. A stack of plates and plastic forks sat on the unmanned bar’s edge.

  “Hey, Devil,” she said with a smirk before checking me out real quick as I moved alongside him, her smile fading a little bit.

  “Tina, have you met Dasia?” Adrian asked her.

  “No, but I’ve seen her around.” She snipped the words but set the bacon on the bar and came over, offering her hand. “Don’t worry,” she said, glancing at Adrian again before turning back to me, “I won’t try to steal your man.”

  “My man?” A light laugh escaped me, but neither one of them smiled.

  “I’m a club whore,” she said, and I stared, processing. “And I swear there’s something in the air lately, all these brothers finding their old ladies. Fuck.” She propped her hands on her hips, lips pressing in a tight line for a few seconds before turning away. “I’m making a mess of pancakes for all your horny asses!” she called before disappearing into the kitchen again.

  Adrian chuckled and tugged me toward the office door which stood open.

  “Hey, little girl,” Vigil said when we walked in after Adrian knocked on the door jam. “His ass treating you good?”

  Heat flushed my face, and I shoved my hands in my jeans’ pockets with a shrug as Adrian released my hand to put his computer bag on Vigil’s desk. “Yeah. He’s doing alright.”

  “Alright?” Vigil barked a laugh, his wide shoulders shaking and pale eyes actually showing a bit of humor for the first time since I’d met him. “If he’s only doing alright, you ought to think about finding yourself a real man.”

  “Vigil.” Adrian’s tone came out low—almost a growl, jerking my focus toward him. He glared at his club’s president, hands fisting at his sides.

  “Cool your ass, boy,” Vigil said with a chuckle, motioning toward a shabby couch to our left. “Sit down and relax, little girl. Everyone else is running late.”

  “Stone’s outside with Greed.”

  The front door slammed, and Tina’s purr and Greed’s, “Hey, sweet thing” floated through the office door we’d left open.

  Vigil rolled his eyes. “Fucker ought to just claim the woman and get it over with. Damn woman has been salivating over him ever since Shaun took Warden off the market.”

  I glanced at Adrian.

  “Might have been some jealousy there,” he said with a wink. “Go on. Sit. I’m going to get my shit out.”

  I sat, keeping my hands from touching the filthy, rough-looking material stretched thin over the old couch. God knew how much bodily fluids that thing had ground into it.

  Stone sauntered in and took one of the chairs in front of Vigil’s desk. Adrian finally took the other, scooting close to Vigil’s desk where he’d set up his laptop. He clicked away while Vigil and Stone bullshitted for a few minutes—and heavy clomps sounded outside the door.

  “’Bout fucking time you get your lazy ass down here,” Vigil told his brother.

  Ricky flicked him off and slumped into a chair against the wall, his eyes bleary. He nodded at me, but didn’t speak a word. While not as big as his brother, the two could have easily passed for twins with their reddish hair and blue eyes.

  I texted Stacey and waited a few minutes before shoving my cell back in my pocket again, nerves like piranhas eating away at my stomach.

  The front door opened out in the club, and the sound of Pia’s voice eased some of the tension in my shoulders. Finally, another woman. She laughed, and someone answered—Giada, I recognized her voice, too.

  Ryker filled the office doorway, his gaze swinging to find me. “Dasia.”

  He didn’t toss out a question, but I’d gotten to know him enough to see it in his cold eyes.

  I smiled and nodded, letting him know I was just fine.

  “Why don’t you head on out with Pia and have some breakfast while the men chat,” he said.

  I hopped up, happy to be off the gross couch, and gave him a real quick hug before scuttling past. “Thanks, Ryk.”

  Vigil chuckled and mumbled something about “softie” but I shut the door behind me so as not to embarrass my friend.

  Pia eyed me as I hurried toward her sitting at the bar’s end in front of the bacon. “How are you?” she asked, sliding off the stool to hug me.

  “Good.” I hugged her tight, loving how her arms felt like what I imagined a real mom did. “Doing really good.”

  She held me at arm’s length and studied my face. Giada sitting on her other side laughed around a mouthful of bacon. “I wondered if that pretty boy geek was any good in bed,” she said. “Your face says it all.”

  “Oh, come on!” Greed said from a few stools away where he shoveled pancakes into his mouth. “I’m trying to eat over here!”

  Heat flooded up my face, and Pia shushed Giada while gesturing for me to sit.

  “Spill,” Giada whispered at the same time Pia asked me about my night.

  I wasn’t about to give details to a woman I hardly knew and another I considered more a mom than friend, never mind the cute Viper brother within ear shot. Sticking to the details—bike ride, hot chocolate, staying a night at the inn, driving back in the freaking cold morning, having to sit on Vigil’s couch—only earned me a couple of frowns.

  “Tight lipped little bitch,” Giada said while smiling. “We aren’t going to get shit out of you, are we?”

  I shook my head, grabbed a piece of cold bacon, and shoved it into my mouth.

  “At least tell us if he’s as big as the rumors?”

  A bit of bacon went down the wrong tube, and I coughed as Greed shot to his feet. “That’s it, I’m out!” he strolled through to the kitchen where Tina’s purr greeted him.

  “Well?” Giada pressed.

  “Well what?” I feigned innocence.

  “Bitch,” Giada said with a laugh.

  Even though a pile of shit surrounded my life, caused a mess outside the club, I found myself completely at ease. Even when Tina came out of the kitchen with Greed
in tow to join us a half hour or so later, both flushed and hair mussed, I felt accepted.

  Had the whore ridden Adrian’s dick? Probably. The thought irked me, but that was the past, I told myself, and we had a future. Besides, she was all over Greed, her legs propped across his and rubbing against the bulge in his leathers.

  “Probably should have waited to make all this until after church,” Tina muttered, eyeing the stack of pancakes she’d brought out on a sheet pan.

  “Church?” I asked while pouring myself some orange juice.

  “That.” Tina pointed over her shoulder at the closed office door. “The officers meeting.”

  Pia shrugged when I glanced her way. “I don’t get it.”

  I imagined what Adrian thought of using that word for their meetings, but shrugged it off. It obviously didn’t bother him enough to make him want to skip out.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Devil

  “I put together a nice little breadcrumb trail,” I tried explaining for the second time.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you just toss all the evidence into one email?” Ryker asked, arms crossed and scowling from where he stood leaning against the office wall.

  “Just trying to make sure none of this shit can come up as inadmissible in court. It’s gotta be authentic.”

  “They’re the fucking FBI,” Ryker argued. “They can pretty much do anything. No goddamn court will argue with them if they don’t want ‘em to.”

  “If that was the case,” Ricky muttered from his chair, eyes closed and head tipped back against the wall, “then they wouldn’t even need this evidence, now, would they?”

  “Just send it,” Vigil said, his tone firm. “Let’s get this fucking ball rolling.”

  I hit the send button, the tension in my shoulders lessening enough I felt I could breathe easier. “Done.”

  “Dasia is staying at the club until this shit is over,” Vigil said, his stare on me.

  “Then I’m staying, too.” The side of my face burned beneath Ryker’s stare. I turned to find him scowling at me exactly as I’d expected. “Something on your mind?”

  His beard twitched as though he clenched his jaw.

  “She’s mine,” I stated with zero question in my head, heart, or voice. “Mine to protect, mine to fuck. And I won’t share, either.” I glanced at Ricky since we’d done that very thing a time or two. “Anyone touches her, and they’re dead.”

  “She’s a little young,” Vigil said, drawing my focus off his brother who ignored me.

  “Fuck you.”

  He chuckled but slapped his palm on his desk. “Devil is claiming Dasia. Anyone got a problem with that?” Turning toward Ryker, he lifted an eyebrow, and I did the same.

  Ryker kept his glare on me rather than our president. I would fight whoever thought to keep me from her and wasn’t about to back down to his scary as hell scowl.

  The fucker nodded.

  I heaved an exhale at having his blessing I’d never expected to get. Yeah, he’d given permission for me to take her on the back of my bike, but to claim the young woman? Hell, no.

  “You’ve got security on his house?” Vigil asked me, pulling me back to business.

  “He doesn’t have jack shit,” I said, remembering my night time stroll to his back porch without notice.

  “You’re moving in here, too,” Vigil told Ryker. “Somehow those fuckers knew Dasia was with us—that means they know about Pia.”

  “We’re not staying here,” Ryker muttered.

  “Then Greed gets your guest room until this shit is sorted out. Stone?” Vigil turned toward him beside me. “Want to make sure Warden’s okay with Ryker stealing his employee?”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem. Haven’t had any big security jobs since the Burtonelli case.”

  “You and Giada want to stay here?”

  “Fuck no,” Stone said. “Devil has my place buttoned up like a goddamn penitentiary. We’re good.”

  “Sully can move in here, too, and we’ll take turns having two men guard the gate house and man the security system. Pull in Hammer and Crow—those fuckers know how to fight.”

  Everyone agreed with nods, and Vigil slapped his desk again. “This meeting is fucking adjourned. Let’s eat. I’m fucking starved.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Dasia

  The men came out, a boisterous bunch except for Ricky who stumbled back up the stairs he must have come down earlier.

  “Night, night, sleeping beauty!” Greed hollered his way—and got the bird in response. “Grumpy fucker needs to get laid.”

  “Telling me to go get busy?” Tina asked him, tapping a red fingernail against his cut.

  “Fuck no.” Greed clasped a hand on her thigh, keeping her close. “You keep that sweet ass right there and keep rubbing against my dick.”

  Giada made a gagging noise, and I burst into laughter as Pia’s face turned beet red.

  The men sprawled at one of the tables behind us, and Pia slid off her stool, grabbing the plates and forks. “Foods cold,” she said, “but I’ll heat it up if you want—”

  “Don’t bother,” Vigil told her while Giada grabbed what was left of the bacon and I gathered up the juice and cups. “I need some goddamn food now.”

  While they ate, I tried Stacey again—went straight to voicemail. Adrian caught my eye, and I shook my head, my stomach churning.

  The men scarfed down the food, and Pia, Giada, and I ended up on laps once they finished. Ryker eyed Adrian for a solid minute after tugging me close against his front, but didn’t say a word about his hold on me.

  One look at my smile, and Ryker heaved a sigh, turning away.

  I laid my head on Adrian’s shoulder while everyone chatted. “Did you send it?” I asked quietly.

  “Yeah, baby.”

  I let out a heavy breath I hadn’t even realized I‘d been holding while taking in the group around the table. Had I found my family? Had I found my place, or would this, too, be ripped from me?

  “Have you heard from Stacey yet?”

  “No.”

  He huffed a heavy breath but squeezed my ass. “We’re going to be staying here at the club until the ring is taken down.”

  “Here?” I sat up, glancing around the huge room with its silent sound system, pool tables, and well-loved dart boards against the far wall. Almost empty—for now—but I’d seen how packed and loud the club could get. At least I’d grown used to the underlying stench of stale cigarette smoke and beer that seemed to be baked into the walls and chairs.

  “There’s a few rooms upstairs,” he said, searching my face. “Nothing fancy, but secure as hell. Nothing and no one gets past the front gate without permission. I’ve got a full security system set up. Cameras in every corner.”

  “Every corner?” I asked, popping an eyebrow up.

  He chuckled and squeezed my ass again, the curve of his lower lip sending a warm tingle through me. “Not in every corner, no. There’s privacy upstairs if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “Good.”

  “Why?” His eyes twinkled. “Planning on having your wicked way with me?”

  “The other way around, nerd boy.”

  “You did not just call me that.”

  I laughed and threw my arms around his neck, seeing only him, losing myself in his narrowed gaze. “Nerd boy,” I whispered.

  “Pussy cat...” he murmured back, sending a riot of butterflies to flight in my stomach.

  “You’re hot as fuck. Those dreamy eyes, that sensual mouth … your rock hard body.” I pretended to shiver even though he already had me going.

  He groaned and shifted me on his lap, making me aware of the thickness growing against my thigh.

  I cocked a smirk of my own. “Something wrong?”

  “Something needs some lovin’ is more like it.”

  I laughed and pecked his lips.

  Someone cleared their throat, and I turned around again. Everyone sat watching us. Warmth rushed to
my cheeks. “What?”

  Vigil glanced at Ryker who stared at Adrian.

  “What?” I asked again, and Ryker let out a grumbled curse or two.

  Vigil chuckled, drawing his glare. “Don’t say a fucking word,” Ryker grunted at Vigil.

  “Told you he was a changed man,” Pia told the table with a dazzling smile, both dimples flashing.

  “I could still rip a fucker’s throat to shreds with my bare hands,” Ryker muttered, peering down at his calloused palms.

  While I knew he didn’t like touching people, I didn’t doubt the sincerity of his words—and I felt safer for it.

  ****

  Pia and Ryker left, Greed on their heels. They had refused to stay at the club, so Vigil ordered Greed stay with them in the event any of the Russians came looking for me at their house.

  Stone and Giada moseyed out a little after them, leaving the two of us with Vigil who worked on like his fifth or so cup of coffee. Tina had disappeared not long after the men had sat down to eat. Probably snuck up to visit the grumpy Ricky that Greed had said needed to get laid.

  I pulled out my cell while Adrian and Vigil talked quietly, mostly guesstimating how long until the shit hit the fan and the mafia had a run in with the FBI.

  “Stacey still hasn’t returned my call or texts,” I said, glancing up from the cell that had zero notifications. “Do you think you can work your magic and somehow check on her? I’d call her parents, but I don’t know their number.”

  “Sure thing, pussy cat.” Adrian set me on my feet and laced his fingers through mine. “She on social media?”

  “She’s a social media hussie, but keeps her profiles private or I’d check on her myself,” I said, sitting at one of the two chairs in front of Vigil’s desk. “Ryker recommended my staying offline, so I don’t even have any apps downloaded on my new cell.”

  Lips pressed tight, Devil stared at his screen, his fingers flying over the keys. “What does she go by?”

  “Her real name...” I pointed as her avatar popped up on her favorite site. “That’s her.”

  Devil pulled her profile up and scrolled down.