AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But as we approached the hidden entrance, a loud creaking sound echoed through the stillness.
And the ground beneath us started to give way.
Sam II
Isucked in a humid breath, the Everglades air thick enough to chew. In front of me, the cabin loomed—a grotesque stage where Miranda’s final act played out, and Teo nearly met his end. This was it, the moment to face him, the Viper. My father.
“Okay, Sam,” I muttered under my breath, “you can do this.” But as I braced to knock on the warped wood of the door, a sharp crack echoed from behind. I spun around, my heart pounding a brutal tempo against my ribs. Just a branch, or him, watching? Waiting?
The trees swayed with secrets, their leaves whispering warnings. Spanish moss draped like ghostly shawls over the gnarled limbs, and somewhere beyond my view, an alligator slid noiselessly into murky water. The Everglades didn’t care about human squabbles; it could swallow you whole—leave you sinking slowly, while the world above carried on, undisturbed.
“Sammy boy, always jumping at shadows. You should know better by now,” I chided myself, fighting back the prickling fear. It was just a rabbit, maybe, or a snake—fitting, given who I was here to see.
The path to the cabin was a minefield of roots and muddy pits. Each step felt like wading through the past, heavy and resistant. Every snapped twig underfoot was a reminder—this place was alive, and it didn’t take kindly to strangers, even those with blood ties to its most venomous inhabitant.
Especially those.
“Focus,” I whispered, eyes scanning the tangle of greenery that could conceal anything—or anyone. Dad knew these swamps better than anyone, and he had turned them into his very own viper’s nest.
“Come on, Sam. Stop buying into his bullshit,” I said, my voice foreign to my own ears in the empty space of the Everglades. “He’s just a man. A man you’re going to bring down.”
A dragonfly zipped past, its wings a blur of iridescence against the backdrop of decay. Even here, beauty thrived amidst danger. Probably one of the reasons my father so heavily loved this place.
I raised a fist to the door but halted. What was I walking into? A trap? An ambush? Or was the old man really sitting inside, oblivious to the storm coming for him?
He didn’t know I was coming. There was no way he could know.
And even if he did…it didn’t matter, I decided quickly, steeling my resolve. “This ends today. For Mom. For Sof. For me.”
The door swung open before my knuckles could rap a second time.
And there he was.
My father.
Alive.
In the flesh.
And deadlier than ever.
Chapter Fourteen: Victor
The earth crumbled beneath us, letting out a guttural cry as we plummeted into the unknown depths. I found myself in freefall alongside Grayson and Teo, barely picking up my head in time to see that Sofia was holding onto Teo, who had grabbed her by the waist.
We hit the bottom with a jarring thud that rattled my teeth and sent pain rocketing through every bone in my body. Dust motes danced in the sliver of light that had betrayed us, the pit’s concealed mouth now a mocking grin from above.
We coughed, and sputtered, and we all muttered something as we dusted ourselves off. “Everyone okay?” Teo asked as he got to his feet. He looked down at Sofia for a second, checking her over himself, shining his phone’s light on her.
“Fine,” she replied. “Just a little shaken. What the hell was that?”
“A trap,” Teo said. “We seem to have gotten in the habit of falling into them. Isn’t this your op, Grayson?”
“Yeah, I’m sorry I didn’t see a concealed trap in the middle of the jungle,” Grayson replied, not sounding sorry at all. “Like you’ve never led us into a trap.”
I wanted to tell them that this was enough, but my throat felt clogged with the dense, humid air of the island. They wouldn’t have listened anyway, too caught up in their own pissing contest. Trust was bleeding out fast, and it was a damn foolish thing to lose when the Everglades Viper was playing puppet master.
But I wasn’t going to tell Teo that.
