I don’t blame Eli anymore. I don’t blame anyone anymore. Dad died. It was terrible and it was awful, but it just happened. He’s dead and I’m still alive. I breathe out with the floating feeling of release.
“Do you blame us?” Skull asks.
Not really. Not anymore, but I have a hunch a man like this doesn’t understand letting things go. “Yes, but I blame Eli more.”
And I treated him badly for it. I treated the club badly for it. What’s worse is that I broke Chevy’s heart. That, I regret. I lower my head but then lift it back up. What I don’t regret is standing up for myself. Don’t regret becoming my own person. I don’t regret at all who I am.
I am my father’s daughter and I will end this war between the Riot and the Terror here and now. “Explain to me again what you’re doing and I will give you the account numbers. By doing this, you agree to a lifetime of peace with the Terror, you stop watching me and my family and you will no longer hurt people I love. Do you understand?”
Skull’s studying me and I’m studying him right back. He expects me to flinch under his scrutiny, but he’s fucking with the wrong girl.
“I could have Justin pin you down and I could just take the numbers.”
My fear. “You could try, but you’d be screwed considering they’re in my head.” A lie.
Skull relaxes back in his chair and gives a laugh that causes me to want to run screaming to the nearest hot shower and scrub my skin off with steel wool. “I agree to your terms because I like you.”
At least somebody does.
“We’re going to use the account numbers to frame Eli. Put money where it doesn’t belong. Take money away from people who will be pissed it’s missing. We will destroy his reputation with his clients, his friends, his club and his family. He will go to jail, and once in there, he will belong to me.”
I swallow the knot in my throat. Eli survived prison once before, but he has a lot of scars due to his stay that he doesn’t discuss. I thread my fingers through my hair and comb the tangles as I sort through as quickly as possible whether I have everything the detective needs, but there’s this sense of urgency that’s causing me to inch to the edge of the chair.
I’ve been in here for too long and my luck and their patience are about to run thin. Abruptly, I stand and it startles both men. With my hand in the pocket of my jeans, I take two steps back until my other hand hits the doorknob. “This is how it’s going to work. I’m going to give you the account numbers and then I’m going to leave. You aren’t going to follow. You are not going to follow me anymore.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Skull picks up a pen. “Give me the account numbers.”
I turn the knob, and when it gives, I yank the piece of paper containing the numbers out of my back pocket and toss it onto the desk. “I not only memorized the account numbers, but I also wrote them down.”
The door is open, I’m slipping past, Justin is on his feet, Skull is opening the paper, my heart is pounding in my chest, in my ears, a pulse that’s dominating and shaking my entire frame. I’m running down the hallway, but the emergency exit is blocked with boxes and I skid to a stop so I can escape through the store. Then there’s a hand on my wrist and Justin glares down at me. “You’re not leaving yet.”
CHEVY
THE DETECTIVE IS waiting for an answer on where the Riot is positioned, Razor and Oz are blowing up my phone, but the only thing I hear is what the detective said to me moments before... Trust her.
Trust Violet.
It’s what she wants. Violet wants me to trust her choices, her decisions, to back her up when no one else will. She is smart, she is capable, but how can she not understand this overwhelming need I have to protect her, to keep her safe, to keep her locked away in a bubble...to keep her confined in what she’d only see as a prison.
I slide my fingers across the cell, but this time put it to my ear. Oz answers halfway through the first ring. “Tell me you want us to move on this.”
“You’re not moving. She didn’t even want you in this. I brought you in. Violet trusts the police, so we need to trust the police. I need you to get off the phone with me and text me every single Riot you see, what they’re wearing and their location. That is how we’re going to help Violet.”
I hang up and toss my cell to the detective. It begins blowing up again, and after a few beats, he reads the texts aloud on his radio. Exact positions, what the Riot are wearing and people are answering back that they’re moving to avoid detection.
Collapsing back against the wall, I bang my head twice, preferring the physical pain to the emotional.
“You’re saving her life.” The detective pauses while more texts from Oz and Razor come in. “You’re doing the right thing.”
God, I hope so, because I’m nothing without her.
Violet
BILE RISES UP my throat and sweat breaks out along my hairline. Justin’s going to kill me. I know too much, he’s figured out I’m recording them and they never intended to let me leave. “I gave you the account numbers. I did what you asked, now you uphold your end of the agreement.”
Skull steps into the hallway and he’s deadly serious. “She did what we asked. The numbers are legit.”
Legit? My head flinches back. “You already had the numbers?”
“Some of them, but we couldn’t get them all. That’s why we involved you, but knowing a few of the account numbers lets me know if you were giving me bogus information or not.”
Screw this. I kick Justin’s kneecap, his body jerks and he loosens his grip on me and I yank away from him, then draw back. Like my father taught me, I keep my thumb tucked outside my fist and I punch the son of a bitch in the nose. Blood squirts everywhere and he yells out a curse. “What did you do that for?”
His words catch me off guard and I blink as I try to catch my breath. “You weren’t letting me go.”
Justin straightens as he pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and holds it to his nose. “I was going to get you a fish to take home. Jesus, women are crazy.”
Little dots appear in my eyesight and I sway with the fuzziness in my head, but then I laugh. A loud laugh. A weird laugh. A crazy laugh. A fish. He stopped me to give me a fish.
“Follow me.” Justin goes out into the store as he continues to apply pressure to his nose.
Skull appraises me, and while I expect him to give me crap for hitting his son, he merely says, “Your father would be proud of you today—working to bring peace to your club.”
“Yeah, he would be proud.” But not for what he thinks. And with that, I leave.
CHEVY
MY BODY IS on fire. The blood pulsating through my veins is liquid fire. Violet is in my arms and she’s soft and warm and smells so damn good I’m about ready to explode. While on my lap, she gives me this smoldering, under-the-eyelash look of seduction as her fingers playfully wander under my shirt.
She’s going to kill me.
I lower my head, lightly brush my lips against hers, and when she gently presses back, my hands curl into her waist. Soft giggles from her and my temptress pulls back once again. “We have company.”