Ray lifts his chin and stares her in the face with a glare. He glares at her not like his heart is breaking, it’s like he’s turning to stone. He wants to hurt her, and the expression on his face, the curl in his lip, the way his fists are clenched has me ready to rip his fucking head off.
I reach up for my gun and am about to pull it from the strap, but Violet’s voice interrupts me.
“Killian? Can we end this now, please?”
My eyes meet hers and I see how ready she is to be done with this. My eyes move to Iadanza.
“You paid me, Ass-wipe. You’re off that hook with me. But she doesn’t wanna be with you; you need to respect that. You be gone from her apartment tomorrow and you stay outta her life. You don’t, I’ll make you sorry. You leave her be or I’ll be your worst nightmare.”
He bares his teeth, but his eyes are aimed at her, not me.
Fucking piece of shit.
I raise my voice. “Think of me as Violet’s attack dog. One word from her or the barest notion you’ve fucked with her, I attack. Anything happens to her, I attack. Tell me you get me, or I attack here and now.”
“Yeah. I get you.” He stomps out but looks over his shoulder at her with a hateful glare that chills my blood. The hate coming at her surprises me. That he would look at her like that? I know what she’s said about him, but to see him react like that with her? I really don’t fucking like the way it makes my gut feel. And there’s another thing that’s crystal-clear right now. Iadanza is not afraid; he’s got some false confidence right now.
Tony jerks his chin at me from the hall.
“Shut the door; I’m good,” I say and give him a hand signal I know he’ll recognize.
He nods and closes the door.
Violet tries to get up off my lap, but I grab her and hang on.
“It’s over. Yeah? It’s all good.”
She begins shaking.
“You did good, baby. I’m proud of you.”
She starts bawling; she buries her face in my neck and I wrap my arms tight around her, smelling her hair, feeling the tears hit the hollow of my throat.
“It’s okay. I’ll take you home, run you a bath, and you call in sick to work tomorrow, okay, Violet? You did so good, baby. You were strong. You are strong, yeah?” My voice has gone gruff.
She nods and burrows in deeper to me. And the feeling in my chest, it’s powerful.
“You probably only let him have 10% of what he deserved but it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to waste your breath on somebody who no longer factors for you. Right?” I drop a kiss on her head.
She nods and rests her head on my shoulder, letting out a shudder. Fuck me, but it feels good the way she’s melting into me.
I’d prefer to carry her to the car, have someone drive us home so I can keep her attached to me just like this. But she pulls free of me and lifts her chin up, grabs a Kleenex from a box on my credenza, and dabs her eyes. She squares her shoulders and it makes me even more proud of her. She’s about to head through the club, but I grab her hand and redirect her out the back door, so she doesn’t have to see more people than necessary. I put her in my car and start it up.
“One second, Violet,” I say and then I tap out a text to Wes.
“He delivered the cash and left. Follow him tonight and tomorrow. You’re on the job for another day or two at least. Possibly longer. Figure out the old lady situation and trace the money.”
I wait as I see he’s read the message and is responding.
Wes: “Got it. He’s in a cab now. I’m tailing.”
I start the car up.
“You just left that money on your desk,” she whispers.
She’s dabbing her eyes with the Kleenex.
“Like the fourteen thousand dollars didn’t even matter.” She looks at me with confusion.
“It doesn’t. Not really,” I say.
She studies me like I’ve just given her a riddle. A riddle I don’t think she’s ready to unscramble.
“My staff’ll take care of it,” I say quickly. “Tony knows it’s there. He’ll either lock my office or he’ll give it to Alana. Not a worry.”
“You would’ve given him a hundred thousand dollars to go away?”
“No. I read the situation, his confidence, body language. It was just part of the game, baby.”
“Thank you,” she says.
“Thank you?” I query.
“If it weren’t for you, I don’t think I’d have had the guts to let him have it like that. I’d have run away and hid. Or tried to do it gently and have him just bulldoze over what I want to get what he wants. Or something equally pathetic. Thanks to you, I had the courage to do that. I knew I could safely do it.”
“You’re welcome, Violet.” I reach over and squeeze her knee.
“I can’t believe it’s over. He’s… God, I hope he just goes and never bothers me again. Could it really be this easy? I mean it hasn’t been easy. It really, really hasn’t. But could it really be over? I’m having trouble wrapping my brain around that.”
I say nothing, because I know she’s processing and needs to just babble after all that, the build-up, and the shock of him showing up with that money tonight.
But he won’t be bothering her again; I know that much.
Because from here on in, she’s mine.
And nobody fucks with what’s mine.
And also, nobody tries to fuck me over without feeling my wrath.
He thinks he got off easy. Is probably thinking I’m too legit now to fuck him up, that the legends are fake or that I no longer play dirty. That I’d offer him a fat wad of cash to leave her alone – because I’m weak?
No. He has no fucking idea who he’s dealing with.
45
Violet
I’m all jittery. I think it’s adrenaline. The fear of what was coming in 24 hours, the shock that it was coming to a head early. The astoundment at Ray coming up with over fourteen thousand dollars. And then getting to let him have it verbally. Getting to tell him we’re over. Doing it from Killian’s lap, of all places, was strange, but the way I saw it, he was making a statement that he was protecting me.
Or maybe he wanted Ray to think he and I were something – I don’t know, I haven’t been able to translate all my feelings into coherent thoughts quite yet.
But I had the strength to really, absolutely, make sure Ray knows. We are done.
I’m single.
I’m officially single.
No more limbo. It’s done.
Tomorrow, I can go home. Start my life over.
Finish healing. I finally feel like I’ve already made a good start.
I look at Killian as he pulls into the underground of his condo.
“I couldn’t have done this alone. If you hadn’t sent him to Atlantic City in the first place, it would not have been easy to get rid of him. I probably would’ve had to run and hide or file a restraining order. I maybe would’ve even ended up dead. Because he was at the end of his rope with the debt he had with the other guy and things were sketchy there for a bit. Really sketchy. He was really, I think, near the end of his rope. Thank you for helping me. I know you probably feel like you got stuck helping me, but-”