“It was shit. He doesn’t want to forgive me, blah fucking blah,” he informs me. “We’re moving on to more important things now.”
“Anyone ever tell you how unmistakably rude you can be?”
“One of my finer traits,” he dryly jokes with a straight face, cigarette between his lips.
“I’m not just going to run to him because you say I need to. I can’t do that anymore. You need to respect that.”
He grabs my arm, plucking his cigarette out of his mouth. When the smoke from it billows between us, my face screws into a grimace. “He had a goddamn panic attack, Violet, so can you drop the prissy preppy act for one fucking minute and listen to what I have to say before you write him off?”
Unease flows through me. I choose to ignore his insult and land on Colson letting his anxiety get the best of him. “What caused it? Was it his injuries? Is he okay?”
“Physically, he’s fine, but…” Two girls walk around us, and he pulls me closer to the side of the walkway. He lowers his voice and says, “A few of Tommy’s guys showed up when I was there. A bunch of Russian dudes who just strode right in and held us up with guns.”
My eyes go wide. “Oh, my God.”
“They didn’t stick around, but long story short?”
I nod, eagerly wanting details. “Yes, what is going on?”
“Tommy put a hit out on Colson because he threw a fight and lost him a shit load of money.”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head. Colson wouldn’t do something like that without a solid reason. “Why would he do that?”
“For our dad.”
Where does he come into the fighting picture? I rattle my brain with the knowledge I have. It feels like there’s something missing, something I don’t know.
“Colson made a deal with him for his mom’s house. Agreed to lose one of his fights so Clyde could bet and win a truckload. He has bad blood with Tommy and wanted revenge.”
“So, he used Colson to get back at him.”
“Essentially. No one thought Tommy would find out, except Colson didn’t exactly know who he was making a deal with. Our dad turned around and went back on their deal but that’s not all.”
I motion for him to get on with it. “What else?”
“Clyde told Tommy about it. Probably bragged over getting his ass back after all these years. Tommy knew Colson betrayed him with the fight. The hit-and-run wasn’t a coincidence.”
All the air leaves my lungs. I feel my face go pale with shock. “The accident was intentional?”
“‘Fraid so.” He drops his cigarette on the ground and snuffs it out with his boot. “They want the money back that Colson lost them.”
“How much is it?”
“More than either of us carries around.”
My eyes glance between Finn’s. “And if he doesn’t have it? If he doesn’t pay it back?”
“They’re going to make right on that hit. Finish what the accident failed to do. They left and not a full minute later Colson got this glassy look in his eye and zoned the fuck out. The nursehad to come in and give him meds. His heart rate machine kept going off. Fuck, I can still hear the incessant beeping.”
“He’s going to be okay, though, right? Did he calm down?”
Finn shrugs. “I don’t know. The nurse kicked me out, saying he needed rest. I think she thinks I’m the reason he freaked. But it wasthem. Those Russian fucking bastards. They waltzed in like they owned the goddamn place, Violet. And Tommy…he takes another go at Colson?—”
“Just…calm down. When does he need the money? Did you tell his aunt?”
So many thoughts zip through my head it’s hard to hold onto one for long.
“You saw the way she was sizing me up in the waiting room. I go and tell her, and she’ll blame me. Who the hell knows if she even knows what Colson has been up to all this time.”
