Page 15 of Unbound By You (The Viper’s MC #1)

HARLOW

M y body vibrates with barely restrained anger the entire drive out to Silas’s place. Being in a cage isn’t helping the situation. I need to get on my bike and hit the open road. Blow off some steam from this shit show of a day.

We barely make it five steps through the door before I’m on him, shoving his broad frame hard against the wall.

He hits it with a heavy thud, the impact sending a picture frame clattering to the floor.

Glass shards scatter across the tile, but he doesn’t spare them a glance.

Instead, those maddeningly beautiful eyes ignite with excitement, feeding off the fury in my touch.

“You’re going to call Branson and get him to undo this,” I demand.

He rests against the wall, eyes drawing up and down my body, before his head shakes slowly. “No can do, wildcat.”

“What gives you the fucking right to force my hand, Silas. Why are you doing this?”

I charge at him, rage burning in my chest. He’s ripping another piece of my life away without my say. He wasn’t supposed to be like him . My breaths come fast and ragged as I press tightly against the calm, unshaken rise of his steady form.

His strong arm snakes around my back, anchoring me to him like he has every right.

I shouldn’t have gotten this close. There needs to be space between us.

My body’s too quick to respond to his, and I can’t afford to lose a grip on the sliver of control I still possess.

He needs to understand this isn’t something I’ll roll over and accept.

Not now. Not ever.

“This is all your fault, beautiful. Now, I’m not complaining.”

His eyes dip down to my lips and back up to my gaze. They’re full of heat and desire. His hard cock presses against my stomach, only confirming that observation.

“No sane man would. But you brought this on yourself.”

“How the hell do you figure that?” I bite back, ready to scratch and claw my way out of his grip if he doesn’t let me free soon.

“I heard from a chatty little bird that you have quite the list of bodies behind you. Now, I’m assuming, since it was the first I’d heard about it, you’ve done a great job of covering your tracks.

Well, I guess you could say my men have.

But you fucked up when you decided to wipe Evan off the map.

He’s too connected in this town, too close to you and my sister. ”

“Not this again. I told you, he’s been dealt with. It’s not going to come back on me. And it sure as shit isn’t going to come back on Lexi. Do you think I’d ever let that happen? She’s my best friend.”

My chest heaves, and my nipples tighten, grazing against the too-tight fabric of my clothes.

I need space. I shove against him again, but the band of his arm only tightens, refusing to let me move an inch.

My skin tingles at the restraint. It’s one thing when there’s a promise of an orgasm at the other end, but this is leading in a different direction, and the anxiety is about to come crashing in.

He’s infuriating. Impossible. My core heats as his fingers brush against my ass.

He’s confusing as fuck, and apparently my husband.

Fake husband. He might have the title on paper, but that paper can fuck off.

A piece of paper did nothing to protect me when I was younger and had the name of my abuser typed on it.

Why should I care that this particular one’s telling me I’m tied to this man now?

“This isn’t happening,” I whisper.

His lips graze my ear in the softest whisper of a touch. “This is happening, wildcat. And I’m not letting you go.” He pauses for a second but doesn’t pull back. “Ever.”

The chasm in my chest, stock full with anxiety, bubbles over.

“You… you can’t, Si.” My voice cracks, and every ounce of anger-powered energy drains from my body.

His forceful hold, keeping me against him, slackens, but his strength supports my dead weight as I slump into him. He notices the shift immediately and pulls back, those beautiful midnight-blue eyes searching my features.

Si draws me up into his arms, his footsteps crunching the broken glass against the hardwood, as we finally leave the entryway. He pauses in the living room before shaking his head and continuing to his bedroom. He’s quiet.

He probably thinks he’s protecting me in some macho, alpha-male way while also making this situation better for Lexi.

What he doesn’t know… could never know, is that he just painted the brightest red bullseye on the back of his cut by stomping into Macon’s home and announcing this harebrained scheme.

It also makes Lexi more enticing for the trouble to come.

But that trouble won’t come in the form of cops on Evan’s daddy’s payroll.

This trouble is the kind the boogeyman hides from at night.

The kind I’ve been carefully dancing around to avoid for the last two years.

Silas sits on the edge of the mattress, holding me close to his chest, looking me over one last time before softly saying, “Explain.”

My throat knots in self-preservation as it tries to keep the secret from spilling out.

I haven’t told a soul, not even Lexi, because I never planned on letting it get that far.

I mean, who wants to admit you were essentially sold to sweeten a business deal, and the day your usefulness with a weapon between your fingers wanes, you’ll be shipped off for what’s between your thighs?

The skin trade isn’t always sketchy alleyways and homeless youth.

Sometimes, it’s the daughter of your business partner, simply to finalize a deal.

I vowed never to let that happen. I was fine, well okay, not fine, but I’d come to terms with being Macon’s gun for hire.

I learned to turn off the side of my brain that wondered whose family member I was extinguishing from the earth.

I let myself believe that any man on Macon’s and, subsequently, his radar wasn’t worth my pity.

I never asked questions, I finished the jobs, and Mom was cared for.

That was our deal. He’d just forgotten to mention that his boss was interested in more than someone taking care of his dirty work.

He also wanted me, which wasn’t a reality until I had the dishonor of meeting the man for the first time, and I finally put a face to the name.

I shiver at the memory of that night. Firm fingers grip my chin, the rough bite of pain pulling me out from the recesses of my mind.

“Wildcat,” Silas’s steady tone demands my attention.

I hate his gaze digging into my own. It makes my skin crawl that he might see something weak reflected back in them.

I’m not weak. I haven’t been since I packed my shit the day I turned eighteen and walked out my mom’s front door.

I’d thought I’d cut her out of my life for good, finally putting myself first, when she never would.

But then that phone call came with the news that shattered my carefully constructed masterpiece protecting me from him, from them both.

Before I knew it, I was on a bus back to the place I had never wanted to step foot in again.

Back into his reach and, this time, at his mercy.

Steeling my spine, I shove off Silas’s lap, and something in the last few moments must have clicked the asshole switch off in his brain because he lets me finally have some space.

Everything in my being is telling me to run.

To not let him in on the shit that life has dumped on me.

But I can’t go back to my place with Lexi.

It’s not safe for her. I covered my tracks with Evan.

I was never worried about that coming back on us.

But the shit Silas has stirred is a dangerous storm waiting to break land.

Fuck this, it’s not my fault. This is on him. I hope he’s ready to join me in hell because we’re about to face the devil himself.