Bianca wanted to ask questions about her, but her gut told her to just listen, because at that moment, Viper needed a sympathetic ear.
“She was just beautiful and gorgeous in every which way. Did you go into my room?”
“No.” She shook her head.
“I still to this day have a beautiful picture of her hanging on my wall. I don’t care who I’m with. I will never take it down.”
“Come on, now,” she said. “We going to work on that, but go ahead.”
“She made all of my wrongdoings in the street right. She took my dirty money and made it clean by doing right by the children and doing work in the community. Just an all-out good soul.”
“So what happened to her?” Bianca asked.
Viper was silent for a few beats, and then he shook his head. Bianca looked at him with much compassion, and then he spoke. “With having so many options, I don’t know.... One night, my girl was out of the country, one of those fashion weeks—I think Paris.” He stared off into space.
Bianca just waited for him to continue.
“So, I was out drinking, drunk as a skunk, horny as fuck, and I met this girl. We got a room, and she gave the most amazing head. Best head I ever had in my life. The sex was out of this world.”
“Okay,” Bianca said. “All men cheat. What’s new?”
“Didn’t have any indications it was a guy until the next morning, when I walked in and he was in the shower.”
“Get the fuck outta here!” She was stunned.
“I said the same shit too.”
“What did you do?”
“I dragged that nigga out of the shower and beat the living shit outta his ass.”
“God damn, brother. But how you didn’t know?” she questioned.
“’Cause he put my dick in, and I was drunk, and he just got away with that shit. Long story short, I liked it.”
“So you’re bi now?” she questioned.
“That’s another story.”
“Well, that’s different, but a lot of people are.”
“But you haven’t heard the worst,” he said.
“I’m listening.”
“So, shit got crazy. I started working with her brothers, and I was getting so much money. Way more than I was getting before, which allowed her to travel around the world with no limits. Me and her brother worked hand in hand, and one night we used X, and then we started fucking around.”
“What? You mean . . . ?”
“Yup! You heard me! Shit got cold-blooded!”
Bianca sat in disbelief as Viper told her the rest of the story about how the girl ended up dead. It was like something from a movie or a book.
She gave him a hug. “Brother, well, it’s a lot, but you must face your demons, as you call them. You can’t keep using drugs to escape everything. You need counseling, like some real intensive therapy, as well as rehab, because you, too, are running from your demons.”
“You’re right.” He nodded.
“I know you a hardcore kind of guy and think help and therapy is a joke, but it really works.”
“You speaking from experience?”
“Shiiiiit! Hell, naw! I need it too.” She laughed. “I do need therapy to work through my family issues. I really do,” she admitted.
“So you going to share your demons after I done gave you my deepest, darkest secrets?”
“Next time. I promise, next time!” She got up and looked at her phone. “I hate to break this up, but I got a date. Remember how I told you I had to be in and out? We’ve been here for two hours now.”
“A date with who, sis? You know I gotta approve.”
“Well, I will tell you everything next time. I’m massively late now! I enjoyed the bonding time, but I gotta go, big brother.” She kissed him on the cheek and headed out.
“You know I owe you.”
“One word—five letters!” she said as she left out of the door. “Rehab!”
CHAPTER 27
As soon as Bianca left Viper’s house, Fitz called.
“Hi, honey.” She was extra nice because she knew that she was extra late.
“I been calling you. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, just had the scare of my life. Went to my friend’s house and he had OD’ed and all this craziness. Had to put ice on his balls, and then we had a heart-to-heart. You know, just another day in my world.”
“Really?”
“Yup, so, baby, please forgive me. I had to save a life. You know that’s the only reason why I would be late when it’s concerning you,” she joked.
“Stroking my ego will get you everywhere,” he joked back.
“I’m gon’ keep that in mind.”
“So, where are we off to? What should I wear? What do you have planned?”
“Nice sundress and bathing suit.”
“I can handle that.”
“How long before you’ll be to the hotel? I’m here waiting,” he said.
“No, honey, I moved. Let me give you the new address.”
“Oh, you moved, huh?”
“Yes, nothing big, just a little place so I don’t have to live in the Marriott anymore. Can you pick me up from there in like thirty minutes?”
“Yes.”
Fitz was impressed at how in a week’s time, Bianca had pulled herself and everything together. She had gotten a place, a cute BMW, and had his money straight. “You are a real go-getter. I can’t lie. I did underestimate you.”
“Most people do.”
“Well, I won’t.” He kissed her on the cheek as he drove to Key Biscayne, where he parked his car and they boarded a seaplane. “I wanted you to see how beautiful the coast and the water is, so I thought I’d take you to have some conch in that little place I told you about in the Bahamas.”
She put the
