Page 120 of Viper

“A few days after my sons took you. Two to be exact.” He sees my expression, hears the disbelief in my gasp. “Rune was cleaning up quite the mess I made in his lobby.” He cocks his head to the side. “Believe it or not, it takes time to bribe police, pay off or dispose of employees who ask too many questions—”

“Dispose?” I think of the receptionists there that day, and my gut churns. I shake my head to refocus. “What did Rune say?”

“He offered me money.” A slight chuckle leaves him. Like he can’t believe my father offered to pay a ransom to kidnappers. “Rune thinks life has a price.”

“Doesn’t it?” I ask.

Those cold, ice-colored eyes assess me. “Does it? I believe life is priceless.”

“Says the man who murdered boys and sends his sons to kill and kidnap people for a hefty fee.”

His lip quirks at the corner. “I merely cash in on other’s greed.” Fallon leans back in his chair. “The people who hire me want something, and they are willing to pay for it.”

“My father wants me back, and he’s willing to pay,” I say, “so why not let him think that?”

“Is he willing, though?” Fallon asks.

“You said he contacted you, offering money.”

He makes a strange sound. “Tell me, Delilah. What’s more valuable? A mother or a child?”

“What kind of question is that?” I ask. “They are both valuable.”

“Indeed,” he agrees. “Yet if you had to choose, which one would you say is more valuable?”

“The child,” I say.

“Some would say the mother. After all, children die every day.” His strange expression creates goosebumps on my arms. “But a mother can always bear another child.”

I suck in a breath, appalled. “You’re saying to choose to kill the child because the mother could have another?”

He gives me a faint, tight smile. “Tell me then, knowing everything you know now, would you go back and choose your life over your mother’s?”

I press my lips together watching him. He’s playing some game with me, and I don’t know where he’s going with this. “If I could go back in time, I would choose neither of us.”

“Not an option, Delilah,” Fallon says. “Choose. You live, and you end up here, knowing all this, and return to kill Rune. Or you die, and you never learn what he is, and he continues.”

What he is. A rapist. A murderer.

“Have you ever considered that my mother’s death led Rune down this path?” I ask. “He went mad, just as you said.”

“I think about it every single day,” he says, hands folding in his lap. “Now, pay attention. I’m about to tell you exactly what I expect you to do when you return to Rune.”

Chapter 37

Delilah

Myheadaches.Irub my eyes, willing the tears to stop. I’ve never cried this much. Not even after I watched my mother’s casket lower into the ground and I was forced to toss dirt in her grave. Tears meant weakness, and there was no room for that. Not even for a little girl in mourning.

Since coming here, I’ve cried so many tears over all the loss. But now the tears stem from the reality that this is all true. And with the tears, anger sprouts like poisonous weeds in my chest.

Fallon answered my questions, outlining the plan before telling me I could walk freely around, but to keep close to the house if I went outside, and never, never wander past the gardens alone.

Of course, I came out here, to Cora’s little garden with the herbs and half-dead plants, to digest what he told me.

While their plan seems complex, it’s quite simple. I return and do what I’ve always done. Set up sales, hide money, andmeet with clients. Give Rune advice. Be the daughter he taught how to be just as ruthless as him.

Be ready to do whatever he asks.