“That’s fair, so when do they want it by?” I ask again.
“Tomorrow,” he answers grimly.
“Can’t he go to the cops?”
“Sure,” Finn shrugs. “If he wants to speed up getting one right between the eyes,” he says sarcastically while tapping a knuckle between his eyebrows.
“Tommy wouldn’t do that, would he?”
He gives me a look as if I’m dumb and haven’t heard anything he's said. “Is the grass green, Violet?” He looks away then back at me. “The fucker paid someone to crash into him to teach him a lesson.Yes,I fucking think he’d go that far. Not to mention he sent three of his douchebag bodyguards into a hospitalfully strapped. I told you this was going to happen if he wasn’t careful.”
I mull over all possible outcomes.
Colson not paying him back because he’s stuck in the hospital. Him answering to Tommy’s wrath. Him ending up in far worse condition than he is now.
I can’t see that.
I cannot walk into that hospital and see him with more injuries.
Finn is already looking at me when my gaze slides back to him. Colson can’t leave the hospital to tie up these loose ends with Tommy, and we’re the only ones who know about it.
“We need to get Tommy that money,” I tell Finn.
“Fucking right we do.”
My focus wanders to Chathum U’s campus. It may be the middle of winter and the chilliest it’ll be all year, but students still mill around, walking from one building to the next, finishing assignments on benches, and overlooking the quad from within the campus buildings. “You’re going to tell me you have an idea now, right?”
Finn looks both ways then gets right into it. “You’re not going to do anything but walk your ass back into that hospital and stay by his side.”
My expression falls. Putting myself back into Colson’s orbit is dangerous. As much as I want him to be okay,Iwant to be okay, too.
“What about the money?” I ask. I don’t have thousands of dollars to hand over, and if I ask my parents, they’ll lose their minds.
“I’ll handle that. I assume those guys are going to show back up at the hospital tomorrow to get it from him. I’ll get what he needs and drop it off in a duffel bag. We can’t leave it alone and no one else can know about it.”
I nod. “Okay.” I can do that.
He gives me a look. “I’m serious, Violet. No one can know what kind of shit Colson is in. That car accident is nothing compared to what guys like him will pull to make sure people know he’s not one to fuck with.”
“I won’t say a word. I’ll stay with him as much as my schedule allows. You’ll have to fill in the gaps in between.”
“You’re going to have to skip a class or something. This situation is too sensitive, and I can’t risk Colson throwing me out of his room before they get there. He likes you a whole lot more than me. Besides, if that nurse sees me, she might not let me back in.”
I don’t respond right away, and my name falls from his lips. “Violet?” The way he says it tells me he’s not kidding. This is how it has to be if Colson is going to be safe. “Can you handle this?”
“Yes.I’ll show up and stay with him.”
He narrows his gaze, rolling his tongue over his lip ring. It gently tugs back and forth. “What’s the deal between you two, anyway? Anyone with eyes can see how much you fucking care for each other. He’d sell a kidney to save you. You’re willing to do this to save him, and yet you’re holding him at arm’s length. Why?”
He lights up another cigarette, ignoring a dirty look from a guy who walks by. I don’t mention how he wasted half of his last one by stomping on it. I deduce that it’s more of a nervous tick than anything.
“It’s not that simple,” I mutter. Nothing with Colson in the last month has been easy.
“The fuck it isn’t. If you love each other, what the fuck else matters?” he questions, but then he walks off without letting me get an answer in.
I think he does it on purpose.
FIFTY-EIGHT
