Page 5 of Viper (The Dark Angel’s MC #4)

Lake – Age Twenty Five – Present Day

I smile as I take a sip of my coffee while Ivy bounces Hudson on her lap opposite me. His chubby hands are gripping hold of his mama’s hair while he babbles away happily, making my heart soar.

The boy is a living, breathing miracle, and I couldn’t be any happier for my friend who has been through a hell of a lot over the past several months.

From agreeing to marrying the asshat leader of the Hyenas for her mama who lied about having cancer and needing the money for her treatment despite knowing she was pregnant with Psycho's baby. To nearly losing Hudson who was born twenty weeks early and shouldn’t have survived and Psycho taking a bullet for her from a crazy clubwhore who was obsessed with him and being in a coma for months.

He woke up with five years of his life missing, not remembering he had a baby and that he had Ivy.

Thankfully, Hudson has been discharged from the hospital with a clean bill of health, and Psycho has regained the most important parts of his memory – Hudson and Ivy. However, things have been hard for her, that is for sure.

Though I am surprised Psycho hasn’t shown up yet. The man doesn’t like to be far from his little family, and I don’t blame him.

Hudson who is now six months old but is about size of a newborn, coos at his mama and I grin wide before taking a sip of my coffee.

Callum flirts with some woman whose passing through town at the counter before we get called out again because apparently he doesn’t get enough ‘action’ – his words not mine.

“Have you spoken to Viper?” Ivy asks, trying to get my attention off her little cutie of a son, and I try not to tense as I shake my head, not taking my eyes off Huddy so she can’t see my pain.

Jaylen curls his lip and sneers, “So you’re the patch chaser, huh? Was this what this was? Did you seek me out on purpose?”

I try not to flinch at the memory from a month ago, his words still haunting me, the anger I feel towards him intensifying.

For nearly a year, we had been dating, and everything was perfect, so perfect, in fact, that I was ready to introduce him to my dad and the girls but before I could, I came in here for a coffee break. I found Ivy with Raya and Hudson, a few weeks after he was released.

I took the little cutie off a pouting Raya and began dancing with him, but accidentally bumped into someone, no, not someone, Viper , the man I gave my heart to, the man who lied to me, then tried gaslighting me.

“Shorty?” Jaylen says in shock, and I freeze with Hudson in my arms, and pain seeing the cut on my boyfriend's shoulders absolutely destroys me, and I stutter, “Jaylen? What are you… A-are you a brother?”

He told me that he loved me, but he couldn’t have if he lied to me, or omitted the truth, I guess. He did tell me he worked at a strip club, he just left out that it was at Dark Angel’s Girls, where I know Cherri likes to work sometimes, the same Cherri, Viper admitted to screwing.

My boyfriend has screwed my mother, and all he could focus on was the fact that I didn’t tell him she was part of a club I had no idea he was a part of.

“Did you… have you slept with Cherri?” I stammer, pain, so much pain filling me.

Please, please, please, don’t tell me he has, please.

“Now, how would you know her, huh?” he demands more forcefully, and I snap, “Have you slept with her?!”

I need to know the love of my life hasn’t hurt me that way, please...

His jaw ticks and he snaps back, “She’s a clubwhore, of course I fucking have, every brother has,” and I turn my head away as pure agony takes hold and he growls, “Now why don’t you answer my fucking question Lake instead of trying to make out like I’m sort of cheater!”

All he cared about was wanting to know how I knew Ivy.

He didn’t care that he’d just torn my heart out.

All he cared about was himself, allowing his own fears to take over.

Now, well, now we aren’t together and can barely be in the same room without arguing.

Not long ago, Skylar informed me that he had made out with Caitlyn, her old receptionist whom she had to fire at Angel’s Accountants, tearing me in two.

As I said, he clearly didn’t love me, and honestly, if I had known he was a brother, I wouldn’t have asked him out for drinks.

“What about your dad?” Ivy asks over Hudson’s coos, and I swallow hard.

Dad found me in tears when I didn’t answer his calls and he came looking for me at my place, and obviously I couldn’t lie to him. He quit his job after punching Viper in the face.

“He’s only willing to help at the garage until Mama Lopez is mended, allowing Blade to be with his mama, then he’s going back to Gary’s motors,” I admit, and Ivy sighs with disappointment.

She’s supposed to be starting at the garage soon after quitting Gary’s Motors when Hudson was in the hospital.

She was hoping my dad would stay on with the club, especially considering that, along with her grandfather, who was killed last year, my dad taught her everything she knows about mechanics.

Unfortunately, too much crap has gone down with Viper.

Damn, I hate calling him Viper.

I give her a sad smile when she complains, “But Mama Lopez is nearly there!”

Mama Lopez got stabbed protecting Skylar. Lacey, Tate’s biological mother, had kidnapped the girl and demanded Sky show up alone. Despite knowing it was a trap, she, along with Mama Lopez, went after informing the club where Tate was being held, and crap went down.

Lacey ran for Sky with a knife when she was focused on grabbing an unconscious Tate, and Mama Lopez jumped in front of her, getting stabbed.

The knife nicked her lung and while she was in surgery, an emotional Sky decided to admit to Brick and Blade that Mama Lopez not only had been bringing her up since she was eight after finding out she had a family but that Mama Lopez was raped and didn’t cheat liked the club believed.

Brick begged for forgiveness when Mama Lopez was in the hospital, and she agreed as long as Skylar gets to know Brick and Blade, something she was reluctant to do because of how they treated Mama Lopez. I don’t really blame her. I haven’t spoken one word to them, and I won’t.

Mama Lopez was always there for me, and they’re idiots.

Sky is giving the men a chance while she and Fury are becoming closer, so close, it wouldn’t surprise me if he proposes as soon as he helps Tate with her fear of the brothers.

A prospect was the one who drugged her, and now she fears the cuts, only allowing Blade, Brick, and her daddy near her while wearing them.

I sigh and I say, “I’ve tried to speak to Dad, but he’s digging his heels in.” I swallow hard and look at her, and I admit, “Viper’s been accusing him of setting him up.”

Ivy frowns and asks, “What do you mean?”

I wince, “Apparently, in Viper’s head, Dad set it up so he’d meet me and I could take his precious leather and all his money.”

Ivy’s cheeks redden as she growls, “Are you kidding me?!”

I shake my head while taking a sip of my drink before I reply, “Nope, though I would love to know how Dad could have arranged our accidental meeting. I was working and wasn’t even looking at him when I nearly crashed into him, and honestly, if he had his cut on, I would have apologized and continued on my merry way. ”

Ivy sits back in her chair, rubbing Hudson’s back as she huffs, “He’s letting his fears of women only wanting his cut to take over. I mean, it would make sense, his mama was a club girl only wanting a patch.”

I shrug, “It doesn’t matter, though, does it? He said I was his forever and all he’s done is tear my heart out, calling me a whore when he knows he’s my only.”

“I’m in love with you, Lake,” Jaylen whispers and my eyes tear as I wrap my arms around his neck, my legs tightening around his waist and as my heart pounds in my chest knowing what I’m about to give him, I admit on a whisper, “I’m in love with you too.”

He places his forehead against mine and murmurs, “Are you ready?”

I nod without hesitation, and without breaking eye contact, he thrusts forward.

I gasp as a sharp shooting pain fills me as he tears through my virginity, and he slams his lips against mine, swallowing the sound as he bottoms out but freezes while I tense.

I kiss him back, hoping it’ll distract me from the pain, and he pushes his tongue into my mouth that I open instantly, tangling my tongue with his, in a slow, deep kiss that makes my clit pulse…

He lied, he didn’t love me because if he did, he wouldn’t have reacted how he did. He wouldn’t have torn my heart out and accused me of things I haven’t done.

Months he spent with me, and not once did he let slip that he was a brother.

“Is there any coming back from this for you two?” Ivy asks quietly, and I swallow hard, the lump forming in my throat difficult to swallow over.

“I don’t think there is,” I admit with sorrow, my heart breaking, “There’s too much hurt and pain between us and the anger that’s inside me, it isn’t worth trying to rekindle things because we’ll turn toxic.”

Ivy sighs as she turns her head and kisses her son, and I look down, hoping my tears disappear instead of falling.

I hate him, I really, really hate him. My anger is overwhelming.

It’s consuming, and right now I need to focus on school.

I’m already a year in, and with my shifts it’s hard, so I can’t fall apart and have it out with Viper.

I can’t let this anger go and allow the pain to come out, pain I know will destroy me.

He left me, he made up crap about me in his head, and ran with it, and in my mind, there is no coming back.

My work pager beeps, I check it before wincing, seeing it’s an overdose five minutes from my location.

I quickly grab my receiver on my top and state, “This is 8921, we’re now enroute, ETA six minutes,” as I stand and quickly round the table, kissing Ivy’s cheek, then Hudson’s as Ivy asks, “An emergency?”

I nod and reply, “Yeah, I’ll message you,” as I quickly run out of the door with Callum right behind me, the woman he was chatting up shouting, “Call me!”

This, this is what my main focus needs to be on, not a man who broke my heart and gaslit me, and hopefully, the anger will disappear in the future without the pain coming out.