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His thin smile grew into a mocking grin.
“It’s interesting to see who my daughter chose to fall in love with.”
“Your daughter?” I heard myself say.
I knew Sofia’s parents were dead, and I knew that someone had been pretending to be her mother. But I had never expectedthis. From the moment our eyes met, he appeared to be examining me, almost as if deciding whether or not I was worthy of being Sofia’s boyfriend. The fear and panic that had been running amok in my mind melted away with those words. A cold sense of clarity settled over me as I realized just who the man who’d captured us was, and what that meant.
I knew what would happen next—in a flash of steel, I saw my death in his eyes—but I didn’t care. I would do anything for Sofia. Anything at all.
“The Viper,” he said, suddenly back to his easy tone. “A little theatrical, but it works.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” I forced myself to say.
“See, if she’d left it alone, none of this would be happening,” he said. “I never wanted to hurt my children. Sam and Sofia didn’t need to be involved in any of this. But she just loves getting in the way. And her brother, he’s never learned to let sleeping dogs lie. They’re both so much like their mother.”
“Did you kill her?”
He laughed, his voice sending a shiver down my spine. “What do you think, Teo?” he asked. “I couldn’t take the chance of anyone finding out what I was doing. I had to get rid of her.”
I was so close to death but the thirst for vengeance was overriding my instinct for self-preservation.
“Go to hell,” I hissed, spitting at his face again. He laughed, dropping me back to the floor. He straightened, still smiling.
“I like you,” he said. “You certainly have spunk. The boys are going to love making you scream.” His dark eyes flashed with hunger as he turned around and walked out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
The sound echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls and nearly deafening me.
Fear and panic made it difficult to breathe. I couldn’t die here, not like this. Not before finding Sofia. I’d survived so much to get to this point. Everything made sense now; why this man had been so obsessed with finding Sam and Sofia, why there was a bounty on them. I didn’t know how the Viper was connected to the Strangler, but that didn’t seem important right then.
This man was beyond dangerous.
Come what may, I wasn’t going to break down. There were things that had to be done; I wasn’t going to sacrifice myself for nothing. First of all, I needed to find some way out of these restraints. Though my wrists were raw from struggling against them, they weren’t completely useless yet. Perhaps there was still a chance that I could get out of there and save Sofia from her crazy father.
I didn’t know how long he’d be gone, but each second felt like an eternity. I struggled against the restraints, trying desperately to get out of them. Unfortunately, they were much too tight to get a grip on the edges to rip them apart. I needed leverage; anything that could give me enough power to break free. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, I realized the chair in front of me might be the perfect tool for getting rid of these fucking restraints.
The chair hadn’t been nailed down. It had wheels carved from the same wood as the chair itself, but it was heavy enough that it remained in place. I struggled against my bonds as I reached for the back of the chair —my fingers closed around a leg and pulled. Gripping the back of the chair was easier said than done, but finally, my limbs were stretched close enough to grab onto something sturdy.
Something sturdy enough to break the restraints that kept my arms bound to each other.
I clenched my teeth and pulled back against my restraints, harder this time. I tried to position myself closer to the back of the chair, knowing I needed to pull all the way without letting go.
With one hand on the makeshift lever, I used the other hand to pull hard and arch my body up. This time, there was something else pulling against me as well. The rope broke, and my arms were freed from each other. I had to be quick to make sure the chair wouldn’t fall on the floor next to me. I didn’t want to attract the Viper’s attention. Finally, I was able to work on my restraints. It was much easier to pull with slack, so I moved quickly. The ropes were made of rough, thick cotton; when the first rope snapped apart, I jumped. The sound had echoed everywhere around me, and I prayed that the Viper hadn’t heard it.
I didn’t want to stick around to find out. I looked around the living room for a makeshift weapon to defend myself if one of his men caught me.
I didn’t find anything quickly enough.
Everything hurt, but there were no other options. I was going to have to run.
The Everglades Viper I
Iftheyhadleftme alone, I would have happily done the same thing.
But they didn’t leave me alone.
First Detective Archer Holden and now my own fucking kids. The reason I made my way south was so that people would stop bothering me. But it doesn’t matter what I do or what I say, they’re always going to follow me around.
So I thought I would get ahead of them by all means necessary.
