Page 190 of Viper

Viper refuses to talk about what he saw that day so many years ago. Hunter told me bits, and what he witnessed changed him. My brother was never the same after that.

“He made a copy?” I ask. “Send the file over.”

I wait while he plugs in the USB and sends the file. The secure drive chimes a minute later, indicating the zip-file transferred. I click download, and settle back in my seat to wait while it downloads. I’m not even going to pretend to know how Breaker keeps our devices secure, but I’m glad he does. Because I have a feeling that what I’m about to open would make what hackers find on the dark web look tame.

“Tell me what the file contains once you view it,” Father says, glancing at the stacks files. He pulls a face, then returns the stack to the folder and leans back in his seat.

When the file downloads, I reach for the mouse to open the file, but hesitate.

My throat tightens, my eyes fixing on the black ink skull on my finger. The one with the red slash over it. A tremor runs through my hand, and I curl my fingers into a fist, dropping my hand to my lap.

I have no idea what I’m going to see when I view the files Rune’s kept locked away all these years. There could be images, video footage of what Rune does to his victims. What he did to my brother.

Hunter could be on there.

I take a deep breath to clear my head. “The file’s corrupted,” I say, rolling my shoulders to ease the tension in them. “I’ll try again later.”

Father nods slightly, more than likely knowing I’m lying. If he’s too cowardly to view it, how does he expect me to? Rune didn’t just kill Fallon’s son. He tortured him. Sent body parts to us. He ripped my brother apart, and in turn, ripped me apart.

No, Rune didn’t just kill my brother; he destroyed part of me.

He decimated my other half.

And he knew it. That was his intention.

And five years later, I’m finally going to pay him back.

“We will make him pay, son.” Father’s words rip through my thoughts and for once, I’m grateful to hear his voice. Hear the softer tone. The pain that lines each word reminds me that the man who reared me really did love us.

Does.

He does. Present tense.

My father loves us enough to take four years meticulously planning revenge on the man who murdered his son.

“Get the girl. Take her to the estate. Break her down. I’ll meet you there in a few days to assist in her—”

“No,” I say, cutting him off, my stomach souring at the thought of him anywhere near her. She’s too delicate to be touched by him. To be touched by me, even though that’s all I want to do. Touch and take and fuck that pretty little kitten until she belongs to me.

To all of us.

I know my brothers feel the same, hot need that I do. Breaker is so in love with Cora, with them both, I know the mission will never go according to plan. We’re in too deep. Viper talks incessantly about them, and between the two of them, they have every detail of their lives memorized. Striker is better at keeping himself in check, but I’ve seen the way he looks at the girls.

Hungry.

Starved for everything we never had.

“You know this is the only way,” Father says. “We will use Rune’s daughter to destroy him.”

Blood for blood.

I kick away from the row of monitors and roll my chair across the room, plucking an image of the girls off the wall. My heart does that damn flip thing again. The one that tells me I’m just as fucked as my brothers, if not more so.

They are so sweet. So vibrant.

Delilah is just a victim of Rune. The thought of her light dimming, training her as brutally as we’ve been trained, twists a knife in my chest. It’s what we planned, what I spent years planning. Take her and whittle her down with zero remorse. Rip her to shreds and then form a whole new person who will crave my every command like it’s the purest, sweetest air.

Then I saw her.