Page 191 of Viper

Remembered her.

And I know, as much as I want to remove every fragment of Rune from this earth, I can’t destroy something so purely innocent.

Not the way Father wants me to.

My eyes slide to the picture of Delilah again. Raven black hair, a delicate body that would crumble under harsh hands. God, I would love to watch her break apart beneath me. Deconstruct her slowly, have my mouth take her apart piece by piece until she cracks open and releases all the beautiful brightness within. Then I’d lick it up, and own it.

Own her.

Own both of them.

I run my tongue over the scars on my lip, two perfect lines branded into my flesh. There are a handful of days I’ve lived through that I wish I hadn’t. The day my mother died. The day my brother died. But the day I set off on my first mission lives forever as one of the most brutal moments I’ve ever endured.

Rolling back to the desk, I snatch up the photo. My thumb skims over the picture, letting the memory of that one day in the park, that single good moment, flood my system. Let myself remember the way she looked, and how I dreamed of her for weeks afterward. How brightly she smiled, surrounded by thousands of tiny lights, and how it lit up something inside me.

Imagining her going through the hell we endured tarnishes the brilliance she embedded in me that day.

I shake my head and set the picture aside.

“I have another idea,” I say, bracing my hands on the table. I meet my father’s eyes. “Do you trust me?”

Father cocks his head to the side. I hate it when he gets that look. It reminds me of Hunter. Calculating, assessing me. Seeing if I stack up and am worthy of his time.

Hunter would always give me that look and usually find me lacking.

I don’t know how. What he felt was missing from me would have been missing from him too.

We shared the exact same DNA.

“I trust you to complete this mission,” Father says carefully. I swear he knows what I’m thinking. Like he can read my mind and every vile thing that’s running through it. “How you go about it, I’ll leave up to you. As long as the girl is compliant, trained, and trustworthy by the time you’re done with her. Take her, do with her as you please, just make sure she’s ready.”

“She will be.”

I’m going to make damn sure she is.

Some call it manipulation. I call it improvising.

“Carrington,” I say, shifting my gaze to my father’s assistant as he steps back into my view. “I need you to arrange delivery of a few things to the estate by tonight.”

“Like?” Father asks.

“Things wom— a woman needs.” Fuck, I almost said women.

“Send me a list, and it will be done.” With a curt nod, and a wink, Carrington leaves, shutting the door behind him.

“Reaper,” Father says, his voice a clear warning, “don’t lose sight of the goal.”

I huff out a bitter laugh. “No need to worry. Rune will go down even if it means I strap C-4 to my chest and walk into his lodge, a ticking bomb.”

His face turns hard.

“Which I won’t,” I say. “Who else would test you as much as your favoritesyn?”

He purses his lips and leans forward. “One last thing,” he says. “Remember our agreement.”

My stomach drops.

The agreement. The one I never actually agreed to.