Page 13 of Unbound By You (The Viper’s MC #1)
HARLOW
A s I eye the garish mini mansion, I think about how I would have loved to live here as a child.
From the outside, I can imagine it’s full to the brim with the love of a caring family.
One that gets together for every birthday and holiday just to spend time with one another.
The smell of summer BBQs and laughter, as everyone jumps in the pool, plays in my head so vividly it almost makes me think I could walk around back and find it.
The reality of what I’ll find inside is much more sinister.
Kicking down my stand, I pull off my helmet and shake out my hair.
If I sit here and wait any longer, I’ll talk myself out of going in there and dealing with him.
But it’s been two weeks since I’ve seen my mother, and I know how he gets when I let it go any longer.
I hate this situation she put me in. But I struggle to stay mad at the woman when she doesn’t remember me most of the time, let alone what coming here and being around him does to me.
Ringing the bell, I step back and wait to get this over with. Another half hour and I’ll be back on my bike speeding away from this place, with another two weeks to look forward to.
“Oh, Ms. Harlow. Lovely to see you, dear. Your mother’s up in her day room. It’s a good day.”
That makes me smile, which is quickly extinguished as Macon rolls around the corner. His three-piece business suit starkly contrasts the tight black jeans and leather jacket I wear, but he wouldn’t be seen any other way.
His obsession with status screams new money, but to him, it only matters that people know he has it.
“Harlow,” his voice booms and echoes off the tall ceilings. My mother’s nurse drops her head and scuttles off. Smart woman.
“Macon.” I finally breach the threshold but keep my distance.
“Here to finally check in on your mother? She’d be so disappointed in how long you leave between your visits. It’s almost as if you don’t love her anymore.”
Great, he’s laying it on thicker than usual today.
“I’ve had some shit to deal with, Jesus. And I’d agree with you, but considering she doesn’t remember she has a daughter, I think the universe will let me off the hook.” I try to hide my sneer but simply breathing the same air as this man puts me in the worst mood.
His eyes tighten with apparent displeasure at my tone. “In my office. I have a job for you.”
He turns on his heels and makes for the back of the house, not pausing to ensure I’m following him like the good little lap dog he thinks he’s trained me to be.
His office is the one place I try to avoid whenever I’m here.
With mom as ill as she is and the staff paid to look the other way, I do my best to keep us from a situation where Macon gets a taste of the medicine he shoves me into doling out.
“I’m not in a position to take a new job right now,” I tell him, leaning against the back of one of the chairs on the opposite side of his desk. Another small act of defiance toward him.
“You’re not really in a position to deny me your services, or do I need to remind you what’s at stake if you refuse?”
I steady my twitchy fingers from reaching for my favorite blade and ending this once and for all.
But then what? I don’t have the money to take care of Mom on my own.
She needs around-the-clock care, and the state-run facilities are disgusting around here.
I couldn’t live with myself if she ended up there in her last remaining years.
“You don’t have to remind me. I’ve just got a small snag in my system.”
“Well, you better unsnag it because my associate needs this done by the end of the week.”
His associate is the one who actually holds all the power. Macon’s just the middleman. But the middleman is paid handsomely for his ability to manipulate his stepdaughter into doing the dirty work.
He drops a file on the desk between us, and I step around the chair to pick it up.
It’s filled with surveillance photos of a small group of guys unloading crates from a box truck.
I take in the details, looking at the background for street signs and the truck's license plate. Both of which don’t give me anything more to go on.
Then I notice it. The leather vests the guys wear and the patches on their backs look familiar. All too familiar.
Fuck!
I can’t take these with me now. What if Lexi finds them? I quickly scan the photos, saving them to a protected folder in my phone for later.
“What do you want me to do with this?” I shrug, playing it cool and hoping the sweat that glides down my spine isn’t showcasing along my hairline, too.
“He needs you to locate these goods.”
“What’s in the crates?” I ask.
He shakes his head and gives me a disapproving look. The kind of look you’d give a dog who didn’t follow a command. Sometimes, playing stupid gets me more intel than anyone realizes.
I try again, going for a different angle. “This isn’t much to go on. You’re telling me all your guy could get was a few lousy photos. Anything about this group?”
Macon pushes up from his chair, walking around his desk until his Italian leather loafers sit toe to toe with my boots. He reaches up, takes a stray hair that’s fallen in my face, and toys with the strands.
“You have…” but a commotion in the hallway cuts him off.
Hard footfalls rush in our direction, and a worried call of “Sir, you can’t go in there” hits my ears before a hulking frame fills the doorframe.
Macon doesn’t move, eyeing the intruder over my shoulder, but his hand drops to my waist, and my spine goes stiff at the touch. His bony fingers dig into the exposed skin above my jeans as if he’s bracing himself to use me as a human shield should things come down to it.
I wonder if he assumes I’ll step in if this becomes physical. I’d be more likely to help the intruder in that case.
“Is there a reason you’re barging into my home?” Macon asks coolly, as if this is an everyday occurrence.
Silas’s dark eyes draw down and narrow as he takes in the hand on my body. He strolls forward equally nonchalantly, closing the distance with the air of someone who’s been here a thousand times before.
“You have two seconds to remove your hand from my wife before I remove it from your body permanently.”
I scoff and find his gaze already caught on mine. “Si, what?”
“Two… one,” Silas counts down, drawing a switchblade from his back pocket.
Macon finally steps away from me, watching us with a keen eye. “You forgot to mention you got married, my dear. I didn’t see a ring on your finger.” His tone drips with venom, and I know exactly why.
Silas has no clue what he just did, striding in here and spouting some bullshit about marriage. It’s just one more thing that will need to get sorted. I shake off my confusion until I can dig into what Silas is playing at.
“Don’t pretend I keep you updated on my life, Macon. Give Mom my best. I don’t think I’ll be visiting today, after all.” A heavy arm slips around my waist, and I’m pulled flush into Si’s enormous frame.
“Another time. We’re late for an appointment anyways, wildcat,” Si announces to the room before guiding me toward the door.
He doesn’t stop until we’re outside, standing next to the bubbling fountain in the center of the circular driveway. The same fountain, my bike was parked next to before I went inside.
I push free from his grasp, even though I know we’re being watched by the cameras scattered about out here.
“What the actual fuck, Silas!?” I whisper yell at him, shoving his hard chest. “What are you doing here? What was that? And where the hell is my fucking bike? So help me, God.”
“Damn, woman.” He cuts me off. “Do you want answers, or do you just want to stand there yelling at me and making my cock hard?”
“You’re fucking unbelievable.”
A stupid smirk pulls at his lips, and my fist flies before I can talk my common sense into taking the lead. It connects with his face, and his head whips to the right. Thick tattooed fingers grip what I hope is now an aching jaw as he wiggles back and forth. A trickle of blood flows from his lip.
“Hard cock it is,” he says before I’m thrown over his shoulder and marched over to a car I don’t recognize.
I thrash wildly against his firm body, mine, unfortunately, taking notice of the nonconsensual manhandling, before I’m thrown without care into the trunk and closed inside.
Fuck my life.