I hear Violet shouting behind me just seconds before I hear her running down the driveway.
I turn to face the door and am greeted with flying auburn hair. Violet charges at me full speed, leaps into my arms, and wraps her legs around my waist. Tears streak her face as she kisses me, all the while cursing and asking if I’m okay.
“Shadow, oh my God. Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” She holds my face and looks me over.
“I’m fine,” I tell her. “But I can’t say as much for the prospect who let you out of the compound.”
I glare past her, untangling her limbs from mine and setting her on her feet. “How much did you see?”
“Don’t blame him,” she says in a rush. “I may have threatened him. I think he’s a little afraid of me.”
I lift a brow and put a pin in it. For now, everything is handled. Violet is safe. Clive is going away for a long time.
“He’s not going to bother you again,” I tell her.
“Did you break his nose?” she asks quietly.
“Probably. The cops will make sure he gets medical attention. If he needs it.” I’m sure I did break his nose, but it’s only a fraction of what that needledick deserves.
“What happens now?” Violet’s eyes are wide, and she looks to Phantom and Viper. “Thank you,” she says. “And I’m sorry? I don’t even…”
Phantom claps me on the shoulder. “We’ll leave you to talk.” Then he and Viper head back into the compound.
We walk past the drops of Clive’s blood staining the gravel. “The club’ll press charges,” I tell her. “Trespassing, assault. Since we have video and proof of him trying to track you down, you’ll probably want to go make a police report about the tracker. They may be able to nail him on stalking. But that’s the minor shit. Clive’s in a lot of trouble, sweetheart. He’s not going to be a problem for you anymore.”
The death investigation was probably one of the reasons the asshat was so anxious to get back together with Violet. Maybe he did love her, but I see the need for legal expenses and a ready alibi as a hell of a lot more likely. A guy like him might want to control a woman like Violet, but I refuse to believe he truly loved her. The thought of him even touching her makes me wish I could have landed a couple more blows to his face.
I’m happy I got the one in. We planned exactly how to set him up so he couldn’t claim he was jumped or threatened. Even if he was trespassing, he was outnumbered and definitely outsized by me alone—forget about my brothers if they’d come out. The security footage tells the story. My hands were up and out. I was being threatened. I did everything right. Even if I wish I’d smashed his skull in before the cops made it here.
“What if he makes bail, though? He could be out tonight and just come back. He knows where we are now.”
I grin and shake my head. “The club has friends in high places. We were the victims here. We did everything right. He ain’t getting out. I don’t think a single judge in the county’s gonna grant that fucker bail.”
I tell her what we learned about the fire up in Valdosta, Georgia. The woman who hired Clive right after Violet dumped him. Offered him a cut of the insurance money if he’d make sure her house burned down.
Greedy little fuck was happy to put his business on the line for a little green. Too bad that bitch didn’t tell him she planned to have her husband doped up on sleeping pills so he slept through the fire. Murder charges, fraud, stalking, arson… “I think you can sleep soundly from now on.”
Violet laces her fingers through mine and kisses the back of my hand. “I’m so sorry I brought this to your door,” she says. “Shadow, how can I ever thank the club? How can I ever repay you for this?”
I pull my hand away and swat her on the ass. “That fucker came to my house,” I tell her. “He threatened me, my brothers, you, on club property. This is club business now. No matter how it became our business, we handled it. We take care of our own.”
I leave that out there—our own—because, yeah, I’m including her in that. Whether she’s mine for a weekend, a week, or something else, while she’s under my roof and in my bed, her business is my business.
“It’s handled,” I tell her. “Now, let’s go eat.”
14
Violet
Dinner is lively tonight, and to my relief, no one talks about Clive and what happened. Maybe it’s part of some unspoken code here. I don’t know.
The only way I can stop my hands from shaking and myself from feeling sick is to repeat in my head over and over that I’m safe for now. I had no idea Clive could be capable of really hurting anyone—let alone tracking me down and showing up with a baseball bat studded with nails. Who does that?
I must be staring into space because Jackie shouts over the conversations at the table. “Hey, nerd girl! You wanna pass that salad you spent so much time on?”
I reach for the salad bowl and send it down the table. Tonight, most of the guys are sitting on the couches, drinking and watching college sports. They’re eating together with plates on their laps, and just the women are at the table.
It hits me that this is my last meal here. The last time I can look over and see Cammy laughing her butt off. The last time Stella will grab my sleeve to whisper some hilarious detail about a running joke that I’m too new to understand. This is the last time I will follow Shadow’s massive arms and shoulders with my eyes as he jokes around with his biker brothers.
