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Viper was starting to catch on. “What do you have on the lawyer?”

She gave him a sly grin. “Stuff.” She winked, flirting with him by showing off that she could be the bad girl and blackmail a lawyer into doing her bidding.

“You are so not what you seem.” He let her think he was impressed. “I mean, you were taking care of that kidnapped baby not that long ago, but you had all this other stuff going on, too.”

“One has nothing to do with the other. I wanted to keep that baby. Lord knows I’d be a better parent than her father any day. Beating up women just because you’re stronger doesn’t make you right. But Cyn, the baby’s aunt, was tied to that cop, Hunt, so I couldn’t hold on to the baby. Maybe I’ll have one of my own.” She held his gaze.

He did not respond to that in any way and dumped the suggestion in the never-going-to-happen bin in his mind. Not with her. With Lyric? Whole other story.

She kept talking. “And Officer Hunt Wilde... he’s tied to the Wildes that run the Dark Horse Dive Bar. One of your favorite haunts.”

He didn’t even try to deny it. “Good food. Good music. Lots of women. What’s not to like?”

“Oh, I think there’s one particular woman you like most.”

He did not like where this was going. “If that was true, I wouldn’t be sleeping alone.”

“Really? Because I’ve heard you have a thing for this particular dark-haired Wilde chef.” The intensity of her gaze warned him to tread carefully.

“You should always appreciate a woman who can cook. But that one wants nothing to do with me.” The lie tasted sour on his tongue. But he had to protect Lyric at all costs.

Her gaze sharpened. “But you want her.”

“I’m not looking for anything serious. And that woman is a wedding gown, picket fence, and babies waiting to happen.” God, how he wanted a life with her.

“And you’re just a lone wolf.”

He didn’t even blink. “I like it that way.”

“Me, too.” She seemed to relax. “But a warm body in bed doesn’t hurt once in a while. Unless I want it to,” she added, letting him know she was up for some kinky shit if he was into it.

“Live and let live.”

“Which is why I’m here.”

He raised a brow. “What did you have in mind?” He could lead her on and hope she confided more of her dirty secrets to him. He preferred the illegal ones over sexcapades, but he’d take what he could get right now if it got him what he ultimately wanted down the road.

“You. Me. A rope.”

He maintained his neutral tone. “Go on.”

Her sultry gaze didn’t quit. “I have a job. If you’re interested.”

“It’s never a chore,” he teased, keeping the innuendo going, so she’d have to spell it out for him.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I mean a job like I gave to Spike.”

He paused, so she’d think he considered it for a moment. “Exactly what areyouandmedoing with arope?”

“Enough of the games, Viper. Flirting with you is fun, but this is business.” The steel in her voice showed him exactly why the others followed her down this dark road. She drew them in with sex appeal and held them in her grasp with her strength and their shared misdeeds that could take them all down. She also had thethreat of taking them out and using one of the others to eliminate them if they got out of line.

He bet Spike was sitting in a cell right now wondering if she’d kill him for getting caught. Through the MC and her brother, there were contacts and connections to be made in the jails and prison. It was a matter of knowing the right person and having the money to pay them off.

He let her catch a glimpse of his annoyance. “Then, stop teasing and show me the goods.”

Approval lit her eyes. “The job is simple. Go to the address I provide at the time I say. You’ll find your target and hang them in the garage, making it look like a suicide. I can give you tips for this. I’ll pay you two grand.”

“Spike’s job came with a twenty-grand payday. I do the job, take all the risk, and you want ninety percent of the take. You can fuck off with that bullshit.”