The Viper's POV
I looked at everyone round the ball room, fury burned in my veins. I hated Ryan Redland with my entire being. He worked for nothing through the years but has everything at his disposal.
"Do you need anything, Sir?" A server asked me. I shook my head and headed towards the bar.
"Anything, Sir?" The female bartender gave me a seductive look, licking her lips.
"Give me the strongest thing you have."
She nodded and gave me a smile, getting to work.
I peered at the tension going on at the table, where Ryan sat down, with a pretty stranger I do not recognise.
I need to create chaos. I took out my phone and rang my second in command. I've been gaining ground on the streets as the latest competition to Ryan's underground weapon smuggling business. But, I've been unable to remove him completely.
"Yes, Boss." Gunner answered the phone.
"I need you to send some men in, cause a little bit of skirmish and drop hints that Ryan is living a double life of crime."
"We will do that, Boss."
I cut the phone just when Charles Thorn, a powerful godfather in the city took the microphone. "Listen up, everyone. I'd like to make an announcement."
He walked up the stage with a wide smile on his lips. He may look like a jolly good fellow but he is extremely conniving and dangerous.
"As you all know, I have just one child. Who has grown to be a beautiful young woman. She is the light in my very dark world." He stared at the beautiful woman who was unknown to me earlier.
"Get done with the speech, old man." I kissed my teeth.
"I'd like to announce her engagement to the most eligible bachelor in New York City. Ryan Redland."
My heart dropped at this. The entire place erupted with cheers to which he smiled ruefully.
It would seem like the bitch I sent to sneak into his life again is irrelevant to me.
Gunshots and screams pulled me from my wicked thoughts as a smile played on my lips, as my boys barged in. Shooting at guards, left, right and centre.
"Get down! Get down!" They screamed in the faces of unsuspected guests.
I peered around from beneath the table where I took "cover" and I saw the idiot using himself as a human shield for Thorn's daughter. He sure wanted to get on the old man's good side.
"We are in search of the King of the Underworld, Ryan Redland. Give him to us and we will let everything slide." Gunner said with a loud voice.
Everyone remained silent, Gunner motioned for the boys to stay in place as he walked round the place. He soon got the bastard and raised him to his feet.
Surprisingly, blood dripped from his shirt. A bullet had hit him. A smile made its way to my face but in seconds, Ryan had collected Gunner's gun and hit him hard on the head.
"Shit!" I muttered under my breath.
He hit each and everyone of my boys like some flipping sniper. He then made a hand gesture and guards materialized from nowhere and whisked my boys away.
"Sorry for any inconvenience, please everyone can walk out with no qualms at all. Another dinner will be organised and sent to each and everyone of you." The bastard, Ryan said and motioned everyone to go out.
Charles Thorn's daughter stood up with a shivering body.
I WANT HER!!!
She looks so beautiful with tears coating her soft cheeks. How did he bag an engagement to this goddess so early. Her father did a good job keeping her away from the press.
Ryan motioned at his guards and they led her outside.
"Are you good, Sir?" A random guard asked me. I nodded and got out from beneath the table and sat on a chair.
I need to leave before any of those fools make them find me. I followed into the crowd and walked out of the god forsaken event.
I soon reached my car across the street and drove off.
Soon enough I got to my apartment, and kept my keys on the counter.
"Freaking bastard! I had him so close and he just slipped right through my fingers."
Cold feminine hands wrapped around my torso. "What do you want, Monalisa? I want to be alone!"
I shoved her hand off me and took a swing of my glass of whisky. "Don't get so worked up, sweetie. We can come up with a better plan to bring him down."
I threw her a glare. "We both know you want him for yourself. You just prefer him on his knees because he humiliated you and took everything away from you."
"Same thing, I will help you so I can have him all to myself. Our little affair is just a cherry on top."
"How did it go trying to ruin his conversation with Charles' daughter?"
"The fool completely humiliated and dismissed me. Like I wasn't even there, after he got over his initial shock of me being there."
"You're proving to be very useless to me, right now. His engagement to that brat is a major setback for us. Now he has the automatic backing of a godfather. In fact the most powerful one behind him. How didn't I know?"
"This is a crucial move, Charles is a smart man and knows that leaving his business with Ryan is a smart move. He is probably guarding his empire." Her calculated voice attempts to sooth me.
"What if those two always knew each other? I don't know how I missed it."
"It's not the time to mope around, Viper. We need to put our heads together and restrategize again. Something bigger that will definitely bring him down."
I stayed silent for sometime racking my brain over it. "We will lay low on going after him for now. Till everything dies down, then we will strike when he least expects us to."
"You almost make me choose you sometimes. But I want him and no one else." She gave me a sly smile and took out a pack of cigarettes. "I never thought that Ryan could do that which he did to me and my entire family because of my betrayal."
"We will bring him down, it's just a matter of time."