Page 56 of Dangerous Men (Fortune City Mafia #1)

VIPER

I’m not upset that my brothers lied to me.

But isn’t it so interesting that they tried?

Anthony has been a low-level pain in Alec’s ass for over a year now, and there’s no reason at all he’d suddenly jump to the front of the queue and need my attention. No reason at all unless the reason was to keep me occupied.

So very interesting.

It took me a day to find Anthony. And even less time than that to break him and dispose of the body.

Now Anthony is at the bottom of the Fortune City River, weighed down with concrete, and I have all the time in the world to find out why my brothers wanted me occupied .

The answer is a surprise. She’s not what I expected to find.

For all his paranoia and perception, Sebastian is an easy mark to follow. When you think you’re untouchable, you let yourself relax, let your guard down. Doc should know better than that, but it’s okay. Maybe this is just what he needs to learn that little lesson.

No one’s untouchable .

Not Alec. Not Sebastian.

And not the woman they tried to keep from me.

“So very interesting,” I murmur, pressing her against the brick wall of the alley with my body. She trembles like a rabbit as she stares up at me, eyes blown wide with fear.

I take a moment to appreciate how she looks, with her soft brown curls and her big brown eyes. She wants to run, run far away, my little rabbit, but she’s frozen in place, trapped in her fear. Frozen at the sight of a predator.

“What do they see in you, little rabbit?” I ask, pressing the blade of my knife against her neck. Not enough to cut her, oh no. But she flinches away as if it hurts.

She doesn’t know real pain. Not yet.

The rabbit doesn’t answer me, so I drag the knife tip up to her chin, forcing her head up. She’s pretty, so very pretty, but who gives a shit about pretty?

She’s soft.

I run my other hand up her leg and grab her hip, gripping hard enough to make her cry out. So very soft.

I want to touch more of her. I need to touch more.

I flick my knife closed, sliding it back in my pocket for now, and run my other hand up her leg. She’s wearing a flowy little dress, a modest cut to the knee, and it offers so little resistance when I slip my hand under there, up the smooth skin of her outer thigh.

She’s tense under my touch, soft, scared little thing. Her body goes stiff, muscles rigid, and I’m distracted enough by her soft skin that I don’t notice the danger in it. Not until she shifts her weight to one foot and slams her knee between my legs with all her strength.

For a few seconds, all I can see are stars. The pain is electric. It knocks the air right out of me, my body curling over itself as I dry heave .

So many stars.

Our little rabbit takes advantage of the moment, scrambling away, but the second the initial wave of pain passes, I erupt with laughter.

The rabbit has claws.

Oh, what fun .

It gets even better. Groaning, I straighten back up, reaching down to grip myself and make sure everything is still there, and I notice our rabbit isn’t running back to the safety of her warren, or out of the alley to get help.

No. She runs to a pile of trashed furniture abandoned in the alley and grabs a broken table leg, brandishing it at me like a baseball bat.

“Don’t come any closer,” she warns. She gives the piece of debris a test swing, threatening me with it.

Fuck . This time, I’m not gripping myself to check for damage at all. I stroke myself through the fabric of my jeans as I walk forward, letting her see me do it. Her eyes dart down to watch me, face going tense. She raises her makeshift weapon higher, ready to strike.

It takes nothing more than a flick of my wrist to yank it out of her hands.

I toss it away, down the alley, watching her face fall as it clatters over the pavement.

Maybe I should have let her hit me with it.

It’s nothing more than cheap plywood, probably wouldn’t have left a bruise, and it would have shown her exactly how pointless it is to fight me.

Now, she’s terrified.

“I see it now,” I console her, still laughing. She backs up until she hits the brick wall, and I’m right there with her, pressing her hard against it, feeling her body tense against mine.

Hands on the backs of her thighs, I lift her up, spreading her wide enough to fit myself right up against her. I don’t want her to run, not again. And I want her to feel what her little outburst did to me.

I roll my hips, pressing my hard cock into her center. She trembles so deliciously against me.

She’s not going anywhere, not when I have her pinned between me and the wall. I reach my hand up to cup her face, staring into those soft brown eyes.

“I see what they see,” I tell her, running my thumb over her sweet, red lips. I expect to see a smear of lipstick, but that’s all her. All that plump, delicious color.

I groan, bending down to take her bottom lip between my teeth. She makes the most wonderful sounds as I bite down.

When I let go, there’s a nice juicy red drop of blood sliding down her chin, and that’s so much better than any smeared lipstick.

Her breathing is fast and erratic, heart pounding in her chest. She’s scared, sure, there’s no question about that.

But one look in her eyes, at those dark liquid pupils, and I know she’s feeling something much sweeter than just fear.

I roll my hips again, and the little whimper she gives me in answer is sweet enough to almost make me come.

“What…what do you want from me?” she asks, trembling.

I laugh, hard enough my shoulders and chest shake with it. What do I want? What do I want?

I press her harder against the wall, ducking my head so I can nuzzle into the soft, vulnerable skin of her neck.

“ Everything ,” I hiss.

The sound she makes in response could be from either pleasure or fear. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the same to me.

Fuck, her skin is so soft. I bite down on her neck, wanting to taste her blood, wanting to know what her fear tastes like on my tongue .

Sebastian’s voice is loud as a gunshot in the quiet of the alley.

“Let her go,” he says, an undercurrent of barely controlled rage in his voice.

Tasting her will have to wait. I sigh, deflating against her body.

I glance over my shoulder, and there he is, my little brother. I’m not surprised he caught me, not surprised he’s upset. The only surprise is the gun clenched in his hands, pointed at the ground.

I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen Sebastian draw his gun.

Turning back to our rabbit, I see she’s looking at him, her eyes flickering between the two of us.

“Of course he’s watching. Doc loves to watch,” I tell her. I don’t like the way she’s looking at him, like she expects to be saved. Gripping her jaw, I turn her back to me, so I have her full attention again. “Has he told you that yet?”

She blinks those big brown eyes at me and doesn’t answer. I don’t think she’s understood a single word I’ve said. But that’s okay. There’s plenty of time to make her understand.

Such a pretty little rabbit.

I run my thumb up to her lips, collecting that drop of blood and sliding it into her mouth. She shudders, trying to yank her head back.

But just for a second, I feel her tongue slip over the pad of my thumb, tasting that blood.

“That’s it,” I tell her, pressing my hips harder against her. Her mouth parts in a little gasp. “Tell me how it tastes, little rabbit.”

The sound of Sebastian flipping off the safety switch on his gun is an unexpected shock.

My shoulders tense.

I can count on just one finger the number of times Sebastian has shot someone. That’s the only time he’s ever needed to.

“Last warning, Viper,” Sebastian tells me, meeting my gaze without a hint of fear when I turn to glare at him. “Let her go.”

I drop my thumb from her lips just in time to see her mouth the word Viper , her face going pale.

So, our little rabbit knows who I am. That’s very interesting.

Almost as interesting as the gun Sebastian has pointed at me, ready to fire.

It would kill him to have to shoot me. That more than anything is the reason I let go, stepping back and letting our rabbit drop to the ground.

The second her feet are back on land, she bolts straight for the door she came out of, not even sparing Sebastian a glance as she runs inside.

Run, little rabbit, run.

I don’t mind a little chase. And I’m going to have so much fun with this one when I get her down in our wet lab to play.