 by C.M. Steele.jpg)
Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27743 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 139(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
My first kill was for her.
From that day on, I knew I’d always protect my dangerous little viper. However, I didn’t understand how violently those protective instincts would change the day she turned sixteen. From then on, I protected not only her but our future. Vivian belonged to me and no one else. If you touched her, you’d pay.
I killed for her again, but it was one of my own this time.
And today, I crossed a line that solidified our fate and forced my hand, or so I made her believe. Sometimes, you have to subdue beautiful but deadly creatures.
Vivian
How can you love and hate the same man with the same breath? He’s powerful, handsome, dangerous, and evil. Everything women in our world crave. When I was young, I wanted to be just like him. Then, as I grew, I wanted to be just with him, but I’m not that girl. He sees me as a menace, underhanded, and a venomous animal. Not his future. Unfortunately, I forced his hand, intertwining our fates.
And to save face and to protect us, he’s doing the unthinkable — making me his wife.
I have to get away.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Prologue
Matteo
“Don’t fucking speak.” She opens her mouth, letting out the slightest curse, and my hand pinches her mouth shut. “I said shut the fuck up, Viper.” What was she thinking? My chest pounds out of control.
My pulse doubled the second I felt her presence in the area. It’s normal when she’s around, there’s this feeling that’s grown over the past few months, shifted is more like it. After all, I’ve known Vivian her entire life. Still, the sight of her here sends my body into adrenaline overload.
It’s my fault for not keeping a better eye on her, and it won’t happen again. For all that Enrico is—our enforcer and much more—he sure as fuck dropped the ball when it came to his psycho princess. From the day she was born, they knew she was trouble, and since then, she hasn’t stopped being a menace. Sixteen years, and Vivian has only gotten smarter, slyer, tougher, and more enchanting.
“Stay close, and don’t move out of my protection,” I warn her.
She pins me with a deadly glare, but I’m not intimidated. This is no place for her to be tonight. We’re in the middle of a mob war with the Moreno Family. They want our area and are killing our people, stealing our shipments, and boldly threatening to kill our loved ones. We have no choice but to go bold.
Having Vivian here is the worst thing for us. If they get a hold of her, she could be used against us. Or worse, if something happens to her, I’ll show no mercy on every Moreno.
With my eyes locked on hers, I growl out, “Are you listening?” Her throat muscles move and her pulse increases before she finally gives me the slightest nod. I want to release her and replace my hand with my mouth, but that’s too damn wrong. Neither of us are ready for those repercussions.
“Vivian,” Enrico hisses behind me so low we can just hear him.
I released my hand from over her mouth, hoping she doesn’t go off the handle, but with her dad here to tame her ass, maybe she’ll behave for a minute and understand the consequences. “She fucking followed you,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Stay close to Matteo. Both of you need to be safe. You’re the next generation,” he reminds us. Damn right we are and one day we’ll be creating his grandbabies, so I need her safe and sound while trying to keeping my head in the game so I can stay alive long enough to do just that.
“Daddy, you need to be careful,” she pleads, her voice so tender and sweet. Something about it touches me in a way I hadn’t expected.
Fuck me; her worry hits me square in the chest, and that’s why she can’t be here. All of us will be worried about protecting her. Still, now isn’t the time to get sentimental. It’s time to get deadly.
We break off into groups. I keep Vivian close, but as I move to take out a round of guys, she dips off in another direction. Gunfire erupts and I’m fucking losing it, unable to find Vivian anywhere. I’ve dropped nearly a dozen guys, and she’s nowhere to be found. The next room is where there’s a hailstorm of gunfire, so I duck behind and go around back, and that’s when I see the horror.
I run back to find her too-careless ass and see my father clutching his arm and my woman having put one in the back of a Moreno hitman. She’s shaking with the gun in her hand. I’m almost to her when I see a fucker come out of the darkness behind her. I’m inches away with my gun out, and she freaks—like I’d ever harm her.
“I didn’t shoot your dad,” she squeals.
“Move,” I bark out. The bastard slices his knife in the air, swiping her skin as I let a bullet rip through the chamber that enters his head. He falls back and I rush to Vivian, whose eyes flutter and face pales. She’s going to start freaking out, so I cover her mouth and drag her to the side up against a stack of pallets where it’s safe for the moment.
When I see that she’s finally learned to be quiet, I pull my hand off her lips—soft, pouty lips that hate me with a new, profound disgust that she would love to tell me all about, but she knows I’m at my wit’s end.
I pull off my long-sleeved shirt and wrap it over her shoulder. “You shouldn’t have been here.”
“If I hadn’t…” I shake my head while pressing my shirt to her wound. Shit, it’s about a three-inch gash that’s about a eighth of an inch deep, but it’s bleeding pretty heavily.
I slam my eyes shut and then let them fly open to stare at my pain in the ass. “Yes, I know, Viper, but this is a war that’s not meant for little girls trying to be big boys.”