“Your stepfather wants you dead. You know why?”
“He only wants my family’s money and inheritance. Both my parents were wealthy, and their company became unstoppable. My dad died in a boating accident about five years ago.” She shrugged. “Then that monster arrived, and everything changed. My mom just wanted someone to love and to have someone to love her. It doesn’t matter. You probably think it’s stupid.”
He did. That was the worst thing about the entire situation. He didn’t give a shit about why she was here, but he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you.”
Silence fell between them. He liked silence. When there was stillness it allowed him to control everything, and when he was the one in charge, nothing bad happened. In his mind, he started to count. It was the only thing he had. Counting was something he was allowed to do, what he’d been trained to do. Without the ability to do math, he couldn’t guarantee that he’d been paid right.
Why the fuck are you thinking about this shit?
Target.
Kill.
Money.
Move on.
It was the life he’d been leading for a long time now, and one he wasn’t willing to give up on. Not even for a curvy blonde with shocking blue eyes filled with so much pain. If he focused too much on that pain, he had a desire to find the bastard responsible and kill him. He was an expert in torture, and could come up with many ways of keeping someone a
live while he tormented them.
****
Pepper wiped her tears away. The pain in her head was excruciating. Until her stepfather had arrived, life seemed to have moved on, to be the same. It had always been her, her mother, and father. Then when he died, it had just been her and her mom.
The beatings, the cruelty, that hadn’t started until her mother had become weak. One day her mother had this ethereal beauty. She was a sweet, charismatic, and beautiful soul. The next day she seemed unable to form simple sentences, becoming weak, frail, and a complete shell of her former self. Little by little, Pepper had watched her become lifeless. With her mother bedbound, it had given that monster a chance to hurt Pepper in every possible way but one. He’d never raped her, and for that she was thankful. From the way he looked at her though, she knew he didn’t like her that way. She was too big, too much of a woman for him as far as she was concerned. With her mother gone, she wasn’t going to let anyone else rule or control her.
She had to fight back.
Barter with Viper.
Everyone had probably been able to do this, and yeah, she was going to be another one.
“How much did my stepfather pay you?”
“Does that really matter?” Viper asked. His back was to her and he held a gun in his hand, ready to do business whenever he needed to. She had watched him snap a guy’s neck. He really didn’t need the gun.
“Well, I’m just thinking. He needs me dead to inherit my family’s fortune, right? So I’m like, in charge of it. I know it’s a lot because I’m one of the wealthiest heiresses out there. It said so on the television.”
“What are you getting at?”
She licked her lips, and took a deep breath. “I want to pay you twice as much as him to keep me alive.”
Viper threw back his head and laughed. “Yeah, right. As soon as I get the call from Boss, you’re dead.”
“Really? Do you think a man with absolutely no money to his name can pay your fee?” she asked. “Think about it, Viper. You’re clever, right? He’s nobody. He married and killed by mother. No second spouse can inherit. That fortune is mine. Everything belongs to me, unless I die. He’s living in my family’s house with a few grand they keep out of the safe. Even if she gave him the bank details to her money, he couldn’t access it. It changes, and I have all the necessary codes to get it.”
When her father had explained how they kept the fortune safe, she hadn’t believed it. Everything seemed a little farfetched, but then again, it was a modern-day world. She had the codes and the means of getting money. It was why she could go on the run. She knew all she had to do was go into any bank, to get what she needed. “Why don’t you call your friend back? See if the funds have cleared, and if I’m lying.”
She rested her head against the wall as he did exactly that.
You cannot be attracted to him.
He’s a monster just like the man you ran from.
Fight this.