“I used to want a family and have kids. I used to want to travel the world and not be so lonely.”
“Oh. I never pegged you for someone who wanted the family life.”
“It’s a pipe dream.”
She shakes her head. “No one’s dream is ‘pipe.’ You could still do it. Have a family, travel. We can start traveling together.”
Sometimes, I try to convince myself it’s possible that I can travel and have a family, but it’s not going to happen. Not with my lifestyle, not with the many people I killed. I’m so deep into this, and I don’t know if I can live a normal life, and honestly, I don’t want to give it up.
“My lifestyle isn’t simple, angel. If people know who I am, they will kill me. Any one from my past can pop up.”
She sighs. “I get what you’re saying. Being with you puts me in danger too.”
“It does.”
She intertwines her fingers with mine.
“Is that why you are called Viper?”
I shake my head.
“Why are you called that?”
I bring the back of her hand to my lips, and kiss it. “Do you really want to know?”
“Of course.”
“Because I killed a man with a bunch of snakes.”
“What do you mean?”
“This guy owed me money, and he didn’t pay up. He had a fear of snakes, so I pushed him into a snake pit I built to kill him.”
“That’s horrible.”
“I can be a horrible man.”
“My father used to push people into corrosive acids so the policemen wouldn’t identify the body. I read his journal, the one the cops never found. My mother used to lure women and men for my dad so he could kill them. Sometimes, she used to participate in the killing. It was strange, you know? Learning about your parents being the notorious killers in the early 2000s.”
Exhaling, I say, “I only kill someone if they don’t pay me my money. They know this before they hire me. I took an oath that I wouldn’t kill someone unless I felt like I had to or someone was harming me, but they literally have to put a gun or a knife to my throat.”
“Good. I don’t want to be with someone who is like my parents. Media paints them as monsters, but to me they are my parents, and I still love them. My aunt Savannah said my mom was always happy and smiling, but she was brainwashed by my dad. She and my mom are sisters. And my dad had a drinking problem. She never said much about him.”
“I’m sorry you were born with shitty parents,” I say honestly.
She deserves better in her life because she’s a good person.
“Thanks. It means a lot because people tend to be judgmental assholes.”
I don’t respond as I stroke her arm.
“I want a farmhouse and maybe two to three kids running around. I want to provide my family with whatever I didn’t have growing up in the next ten years.” She sighs, but her eyes shine like stars in the sky.
She wants the same thing I want but further down the line. She’s been conditioned to get a career and not look for love because of her parents, and it saddens me.
Her eyes grow intense. “Can I ask you a question and you promise you won’t get mad?”
“I could never get mad at you for asking a question, angel.”
