“And we need to kill Bianchi?”
“We do if I want to have a life.”
Pepper sat back. “Wait, I can be seen in public, right? My death has to be of natural causes.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Why don’t I just go home?”
She saw she had confused him.
“Think about it. I could go home. No one knows where I’ve been. We can go public, and I can tell them that I had married you.” The more she thought about it, the more she liked it.
“Pepper—”
“That company is mine, Viper. Every single part of it. I can just go and take it. I don’t need to be on the run. We can kill two birds with one stone.”
She watched as he started to tap the steering wheel.
“It’ll get us closer to my stepfather.”
“How do you say you met me?” he asked.
“Simple. You’re my bodyguard. One thing led to another, and we’ve been locked away on some island off the coast or something. No television, no nothing but our romance. We can make this work. People make this kind of stuff work all of the time.” Silence met her plan. Pepper was excited. “The sooner we get to my stepfather, the sooner we can end this. Bianchi wouldn’t be able to take you out being in the public eye, right? It would offer you some form of protection, too.”
“I’m not good for being broadcast. My scars.”
“Everyone loves a bad boy. Come on, Viper, this is a really good idea.” She touched his arm, excited to even be thinking about it.
“I’m going to need to run it by Boss first.”
Pepper patted her thighs. “How about we phone him now?”
“Just calm down. I want time to think about this.”
Once again silence filled the car, and she couldn’t take it anymore. After the night they’d had, she didn’t want there to be any more silence.
“I think it’s a great idea. We can say that I had an argument with my mom, which isn’t a lie really. We did argue, and I’d had enough. I couldn’t handle the pain that he inflicted on me, so I ran. You followed me, took care of me, and during that time we fell in love, got married.”
“I’ve been consoling you ever since?” he asked.
“Yes, exactly. We can pull this off, right? Wait, we can’t get married.”
“Boss can get the relevant paperwork, and at a later date we can use a priest if we decide to keep it going.”
She liked that. He was planning for a future with her. Or so she hoped. They may not be on the best speaking terms, but she liked this plan a hell of a lot.
The drive to Boss’s secret house took far too long for her, but she stayed quiet so that Viper could think.
When they got there, a large hulk of a man was already waiting. He had dark hair that was down to his shoulders, and two scars down his eye.
“Viper,” he said.
“Boss. Pepper, this is Boss. Boss, this is Pepper.”
“Nice to meet you at last.”
He was so big, so scary that it made her swallow. Her heart started to race, and she glanced at Viper, seeing he wasn’t afraid.