“No.” I shake my head, my attention dropping to the tray propped in front of me. I reach for my ginger ale to soothe the nauseous fit that’s starting. I say it again. “No. Absolutely not.”
“That the only word you know these days?” He tips his chin at Vi. “Talk some sense into him before they come back and paint the wall with his goddamn brains.”
“Colson—”
“No, Violet. I’m not taking money from him.”
“He wants to help you,” she tells me. I don’t know what he did to manipulate her into thinking he’s one of the good guys when, in reality, he’s only a step down from Tommy.
“The hell he does.” I look back at him when she stands and comes to my side, swinging her leg up onto the mattress. Like yesterday, my hand finds her thigh, and I knead my fingers into her, my frustrations slowly easing just from the touch. “He wants to rope me into another deal with the Lincolns, and I’mnot doing it. I told him I was donewith him.” I turn my words on him. “Remember that? When I said I was finished doing business with you.”
“I’m not sparking up a deal with you, idiot,” Finn insults. “I’m getting those burly fucks off your back.”
“Exactly, and then I’ll owe you. Fuck that.”
I’m not doing it.
Violet’s hand comes up to my neck. She gently runs her fingers across the portion of my collarbone that isn’t fucked. Her skin on mine calms the fiery tips burning a path through my body. It’s soothing.Tranquilizing.
“I never said a word about you owing me shit. In case you haven’t seen yourself lately, you’re tied to that goddamn bed. There’s no way you’re going to get up and get them what they need by, let’s see,today.”
Yeah, well that’s a given considering I can’t walk without assistance. But he’s the last person I want in my corner helping me.
“Let him do this for you,” Violet murmurs, trying to get me to look into her eyes.
“Violet, I know you might think you know who Finn is, but I’m telling you, you don’t. He’s no better than Tommy and these guys.” I pause for effect, slicing my eyes to Finn. “He broke my finger without blinking twice about it.”
“How long is it going to take you to move on from the past?” Finn huffs out.
“An entire goddamn lifetime.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer,” Finn asserts. “Consider it a peace offering. A different way of saying sorry for all the shit you won’t let go.”
“I’m not taking a cent from you.”
Finn growls, twisting the bag down his arm and flinging it into the wall on the opposite side of the room. “They’re goingto come back, Colson. Those fucking guys, did they seem like they were just chitchatting yesterday for the hell of wasting their breath?” He lifts his index finger to his temple. “They had a fucking gun pressed to my head just because I was in the sameroomas you.Youscrewed Tommy over, and they want blood,but they’re giving you the chance to settle it with money. When are you going to learn to read between the words people say?”
“I did listen, but there’s nothing for me to do about it. The money I do have is stuck in a house your father took from me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s long gone by now. I’m not a fucking idiot. Well aware that I’m a sitting duck, but I have no other option than to take my chances and hope Tommy steps off his high horse and forgets about it.”
Finn spits out an obnoxious laugh. “You think he’s going toforget?” He grasps his jaw and spins around, eyes right back on me in the next second. “Real shame for you, Violet. You’re in love with a goddamn dumbass.”
“We don’t want to see you hurting more than you already are,” my girl says, her brown eyes full of worry.
“He doesn’t want me hurt so he can manipulate me into paying him back, and who the hell knows what else.”
“This isn’t then,” Violet tries to assure me. I can’t stop wondering if her care for me travels deeper than her sitting on the edge of my hospital bed looking at me like she is. She said before that she loves me, but would she be utterly wrecked if Tommy came back around and took more of me?
I try to think about what I’d do if I were her and she was me. If she made a series of bad choices that led to her being confined to a hospital bed with an underground fighting lord up her ass, would I tell her to take Finn’s money?
My jaw clenches, and I look over at the man who’s desperately trying to push his way into my life. “What do you want from me?”
“Fucking nothing,” Finn says straightaway, conviction behind every word. “Not a penny. You want me to write that down and get it notarized?”
What’s his angle? He has to have one.
But as I watch him, hands on his hips with a look of resignation on his face and like he might actually care, I wonder, for the first time, if maybe there isn’t an underlying scheme planned.
What if Finn is being real with me?
