Page 24 of Quadruplets for the Vipers (Never Just One #3)

Leah

A bout two-thirds through my performance, a couple of big, burly security guards quietly approach Rider and say something to him.

Immediately, I’m on high alert, trying to watch what is going on without the audience noticing I’m distracted.

Rider doesn’t seem overly concerned, which helps keep me calm.

He nods and gestures for the men to lead the way before looking up and catching my eye.

He gives me a small, reassuring smile and holds up his hand, fingers splayed wide to show he’ll be back in five minutes before he follows the men across the room and through a door that’s marked ‘staff only’.

I manage to make it through the next couple of songs, assuming that perhaps he needed to move the car or something. But the longer he’s gone, the more worried I’m getting. The second I finish my set, I hurriedly pack up my equipment and beeline in the direction Rider went.

“Excuse me, Miss, the owner would like a word with you,” a formidable security guard says, blocking my path.

I’m torn. I’m worried about Rider, but I could be overreacting, and he’s perfectly capable of handling himself. While I want to find him, I also don’t want to jeopardize my career by pissing off the boss. I reason that I can ask about Rider, say a quick hello, and then make my excuses.

“Right, yes, of course. I don’t suppose you happen to know where your colleagues escorted my friend to? The tall gentleman with the scar on his cheek?”

“No, sorry.” He doesn’t sound particularly sorry.

“I really need to—”

The words die on my lips, and I forget what I was saying as we near the VIP table. Seated behind a pillar where I couldn’t see him, but had a perfect view of the stage, is the one person I hope I’d never have to see again.

His name falls from my lips in hushed disbelief. “Tony.”

My ex.

My legs turn to jelly, and I freeze. The bouncer firmly grips my elbow and steers me toward the table. I can’t run.

“Leah, long time no see. Please, sit,” Tony says, his voice cordial but firm. “Please, hand over your purse and phone to my colleague here, he’ll look after them for you.”

There’s no point in refusing him. He always gets what he wants, one way or another. He used to relish telling me how I’d chosen the hard way.

“Where is Rider? What have you done with him?” I demand, forcing myself to look into his reptilian eyes.

“Sit,” he says, his voice cold and firm.

The brute of a bouncer moves toward me, and I quickly sit before he can put his hands on me and force me to.

Tony nods approvingly, seeming pleased that I’ve not forgotten his ‘lessons’.

Tony dismisses the rest of the people at the table with a disdainful flick of his wrist. The two scantily clad young women shoot daggers at me as they leave.

I want to tell them that they’re welcome to him, or that they should run now while they have the chance, but I don’t.

“Where is he?”

“Your grotesque friend was putting my customers off and making the place look bad, so I had my men escort him somewhere private.”

Fury boils in my veins. I refuse to rise to his taunting, defending Rider’s looks will only serve to anger him or make him resort to even crueler remarks.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I’ll have my men take you to him shortly. But first, I wanted us to catch up. It’s been too long. It took me a long time to find you. Where have you been hiding?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“Well, now, that’s not strictly true, is it? After all, I’m your employer currently. I’d say I have a right to know about your previous employment, don’t I?”

I snort at him with derision. “If I’d known this was your club, I wouldn’t have accepted the gig. I certainly won’t be working for you again. Now, where is my friend?”

Tony sighs as if I’m a particularly irritating child who won’t do as I’m told. “He’s fine. I’m trying to have a conversation with you, Leah. Can we not obsess over this nobody, who is he to you? You’re not sleeping with him, are you?”

“That’s none of your business.” I fold my arms, stubbornly refusing to play his game.

“You’re beginning to sound like a broken record, Leah. If it weren’t for the fact that I know my girl better, I’d be concerned that you’re romantically involved with this disgusting loser. But of course, that would be ridiculous since you’re mine.”

I almost blurt out everything about my relationship with the guys just to see the look on his face, but I hold myself back.

Tony is wildly possessive, jealous, and dangerous.

Who knows how he’d react? Until I know where Rider is, I can’t risk angering him.

I need to find out how Tony found me and how much he knows about my relationship with the Steel Vipers.

“If I thought that this… man,” he sniffs as if Rider barely qualifies as human in his eyes, “had any romantic intentions toward you, I’d have to make an example of him. People need to know what happens if they touch what’s mine.”

“No. No, he’s just a friend,” I stammer.

Tony once blinded a man for looking at me the wrong way.

I can’t let myself forget how cruel and dangerous he is.

He’s also good at reading me, and I’m thankful that I haven’t slept with Rider, because I think if I had, then neither of us would be safe.

He nods, seemingly happy to accept it, at least for now.

I dread to think what might have happened if one of the others had come with me. Tony is so shallow that it wouldn’t occur to him that I’d be attracted to a man with a scar. One look at any of the others and he’d fly into a jealous rage.

“Let’s cut the crap, shall we, Leah?”

I nod, not trusting myself to speak. This pleases him, mistaking my silence for compliance.

“That’s enough running around now. You’ve had your space, and you’ve gotten yourself in trouble. I know all about the people you’ve been hanging around with. They’re not the sort of people a person like you should be associating with. You’re mine. It’s time to come home.”

I want to laugh at how deluded he is. Does he really think I’m going to come back to him? I don’t bother to tell him that I don’t want to be with him. Anything negative I say about him will fall on deaf ears.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I will help my new dogs destroy the Steel Vipers, starting with your new friend, Rider.”

I don’t doubt that Tony is deadly serious.

His family is the largest crime family in LA.

If he wants to destroy the Steel Vipers, he can easily do it.

The mention of ‘dogs’ makes my heart drop as I realize what this could mean.

Is Tony working with the Hellhounds? I feel sick to my stomach at the thought that he might have been involved in Zeus and Donna’s deaths.

Could the real reason they were killed be because of me?

But if that’s the case, surely that must mean he knows about the baby.

There’s no way Tony would tolerate me being pregnant with another man’s child, even if that man is dead and never laid a finger on me.

I have to pray that he doesn’t know about the baby yet.

I push my concerns to the back of my mind.

Right now, I need to focus on getting Rider out of here.

If he doesn’t leave this building with me now, he never will.

If Tony kills Rider and takes me captive now, it won’t take him long to figure out I’m pregnant.

I don’t allow myself to think about what he will do when he finds out.

“Alright, let’s say I agree to come back. I need you to make me some promises so we can do this the easy way,” I say, using his own words against him.

He raises an eyebrow in amusement. Thankfully, he decides to humor me. “Go on…”

“Let me and Rider go now. I need to leave to get my things and say goodbye to my friends and quit my job at the Steel Vipers club.” Before he can refuse, I quickly explain.

“If I don’t go home tonight, they’ll think I’ve been taken against my will, and Rider won’t leave without me.

You’d have to kill him or keep him captive.

The Steel Vipers are bound to come for us both.

If you’ve killed one of theirs, they’ll want revenge.

It will be messy, and people will get hurt.

But if you let us go now. I can quit my job and tell them I’m leaving.

If I go of my own free will, there will be no repercussions, no one following me or causing trouble. ”

Tony considers this. For a moment, I worry that he’s going to refuse, but apparently, my logic wins out over his desire to be back immediately. “Fine, you have twenty-four hours. If you don’t come to mine by then…”

He doesn’t have to finish his sentence for his threat to be clear. It will be the hard way.

“I have to work a notice period,” I try to argue to buy more time to come up with a plan.

“No. I’ve waited too long for you. It’s been driving me crazy.

It took me months to find you, and then I found out you’d had to resort to living in that disgusting den of filth with those brutes.

I wanted to rescue you right away, but I was worried about what those monsters might do to you if my men didn’t get to you quickly enough, or that you might be caught in the crosshairs.

No, it was safer to have you come to me. ”

“How long have you known I was there?”

My mind goes back to the night that the Hellhounds broke into the house looking for me. Could Tony have sent them?

“Since you performed on open mic night with your disfigured friend. I’ve been frequenting all the disgusting, low-life wannabe musicians’ bars for months, trying to find you. I knew eventually you wouldn’t be able to resist showing off on stage again.”

A wave of relief floods through me. I’m not the reason the Hellhounds started the war.

“You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only were you parading yourself around on stage like a whore, but you’d also managed to get yourself tangled up with some motorcycle gang.

It wasn’t hard to find out about their little war with the Hellhounds and to offer my resources in exchange for their loyalty. ”

However, I am the reason why the Hellhounds weren’t immediately defeated. Thanks to me, the Hellhounds have gained a powerful supporter and the Steel Vipers a deadly enemy. If I do as he asks, perhaps he will lose interest in the Steel Vipers and leave them alone.

“You did all this for me?” I say, playing on his ego.

If I act like I’m impressed, as if I find his actions protective and romantic rather than controlling and evil, perhaps I can convince him that he’s winning me back.

If he has what he wants, perhaps I can keep the Steel Vipers safe and end the war.

At the very least, I can get Rider and me out of here safely so we can come up with a plan.

“I would do anything for you, Leah. You’re mine, no one else’s.” He reaches over and cups my chin in his hand, gripping it so tightly it hurts. “If you try to pull any stunts, there will be consequences. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes,” I squeak, my throat dry. I’m well aware of the lengths he will go to get what he wants.

“One day. I’ll be watching,” he promises before kissing me hard on the lips.

I struggle to hide my revulsion, keeping my expression neutral as he pulls away.

“Please take Leah to her friend and escort them out of the building,” he orders the security guard. “I’ll see you soon, my love,” I hear him say as I walk away, his words a promise.

I feel as if I’ve made a deal with the devil. What will these twenty-four hours of freedom cost me?