The Cobra

Chapter 3

The harsh morning light floods into my room, waking me from my dreamless sleep. Content in the lack of dreams or nightmares a smile slowly spreads across my face as I rise from my bed.

Percy is still in his bed (aka my pillow) sleeping peacefully I can't help but smile at the small animal.

I find it adorable that he despises anything cat bed related and much prefers to sleep on any and every surface that's...

Number one: soft

Number two: smells like me

Number tree: has good biscuit making quality

I've found him wrapped up in my favorite blankets, hoodies, sweatpants....really anything you can think of that would carry my scent the most.

He was a birthday present from my brothers 4 years ago on my 19th birthday. I've always had a love for animals, but Percy holds a special place in my heart. Aries said they found him at a shelter and even though he was a kitten he wasn't getting adopted by anyone because of the superstition of black cats, and Percy's hostility towards people.

Arlo said he hissed at anyone that would pass, and he 'just knew we would be perfect for each other.'

That little shit.

But he was right, Percy and I took a liking to each other right away. His once sour attitude was now sweet and caring with his selective people. He's a little sweetheart for me but only tolerates Arlo and Aries. He's taken a small liking to Damon but stays away from Callum entirely.

Looking at him now, sprawled out on the pillow, belly up with the sun beaming on him, I'm happy to have him.

I get dressed for the day, my black jeans hold tight to my body accentuating my muscular legs. The knife holster strapped to my thigh, securing my intricate custom-made knife tightly between the fabric. A tight black long sleeve with light blue stitching clings to my top and holding tight around my breast. I leave my hair down for the day and venture out my room.

As I make my way downstairs to the kitchen, I'm stopped in my place by Aries' loud voice coming through his office door. He sounds tense. I move closer hoping to hear some of the conversation. "No Arlo, I'm not putting her in that position, he's dangerous."

Who is dangerous?

The only person I can think about is Victor but if that's the case then why aren't they having this conversation with me? I reach for the door to communicate my exact thoughts to my brother, but his next sentence stops me. "I don't care if he's your boss" a short pause "No, he doesn't need to find out that Cobra's a woman, the fact that they think it's a male keeps her safe and id like to keep it that way."

Arlo's boss?

Arlo's always been secretive of who he does work for, not wanting us to be caught in the crossfire if something were to go wrong, but more recently he's been working for the same person.

All I know about the man is that he's an influential dangerous man, but Arlo wouldn't tell me or Aries anymore information. Well, I guess just me now since it seems Aries is quite aware of who our brothers working for.

I frown at the realization that my brothers are keeping something from me. We're supposed to be a family, and family doesn't lie.

Aries' voice booms again "why does he need Cobra? Tell him he can have me instead." The offer in itself tells me Arlo's boss is probably in need of an assassin, as both Aries and me are.

Although I tend to specialize in knives and gruesome deaths. Aries specializes in guns, he's a great shot and sniper but there's two sides to his coin, his quick deaths with a gun shot wound to the head from 2,000 feet away or the gruesome torture in which he subjects his victims to, stringing their deaths along until he's satisfied.

He matches his underworld name as python, his large bulky structure already imitating his serpent counterpart as well as his need for hands on torture and physically feeling the life fade from his victims.

We're both well known in the underworld, both heavily feared. Arlo's position in the underworld is also scary, but not as much as Aries and me. Arlo specializes in tech he hacks into databases and throws people off, he takes pride in it and doesn't like to get his hands dirty.

On the rare occasion he does find himself wanting to kill, its controlled. He's not a fan of blood and gore like Aries and I, but does share the same fascination in seeing peoples lives fade as Aries does, resulting in his love for poisons.

He experiments and injects his victims like a mad scientist and watches as they die. He goes by Viper. Arlo may seem like the sweetest of the bunch, but he himself is still very feared and someone you never want to cross, his intelligence playing a large part in that.

Arlo and Aries continue to argue on the phone. "What the hell do you mean he doesn't want me? What ever the job he needs done I'm sure I can do it we don't need Amaya involved." This is starting to piss me off why is he so concerned about a job, especially if its for a man Arlo already works for. I'm not some fucking damsel that needs his protection.

Having had enough I decide to make my presence known, I do my best to release the scowl on my face and knock twice on the door before opening it. When I peak my head in Aries is now whispering into the phone frantically before he abruptly hangs up.

Interesting.

He turns toward me "who was that?" I point to the phone in his hand.

"Arlo"

I nod, keeping my expression passive "anything interesting?"

Shaking his head, "no we were just talking more on the information with peter."

So, he wants to play it like this? Fine we'll play this game.

I nod my head at him hiding my scowl caused by him lying to me, we don't lie to each other. I nod my head towards the door "I'm heading down for some breakfast. Are you coming?"

He shakes his head, "you head down I have some work to do."

Of course, you do.

I turn around and leave the room. Once I exit, I release the breath that I'm holding, a scowl forming on my face. I hate being lied to and the fact its by my own brother just makes the anger worse. Breakfast being forgotten I head back to my room.

Gathering the information I need and changing outfits to match the occasion I head out the door. Ready to take my anger out elsewhere.