They fed her addiction. Put it right in her hands when she was weak and needed help. They took advantage of her, and all it gave her was a one-way ticket to the afterlife. “And that’s noteven the best part,” I add on. “His dad got drugs into Harrison County Jail through some contact he knew when she was an inmate. Kept her addiction going behind bars. He’s the one who killed her.”
Violet takes a step back.
Finally, she realizes that she’s in a room with two people she doesn’t know, and her lips part to say something. But nothing comes out. She’s speechless, and if I know my girl at all, she’s questioning why the hell she came with Finn in the first place. Why she’s fighting for a man she’s not sure she knows. We’re all a little too fucked up to be fixed.
The angel on my shoulder wants me to reach out and curl my hand into hers and convince her that I’m not the person she’s making me out to be in her head. That despite saving my mom and working with Finn to get her out of the hole she ended up in, I’m a good person.
“Those things happened, but it’s not everything we are,” Finn claims. He doesn’t stop trying to convince us that it isn’t as bad as it sounds. He can eat dog shit. “Our dirty laundry is in the past.”
“What?” I ask. “Don’t like the smell of yours? Can’t bear to talk about it?”
His gaze narrows on me. “I don’t give a shit what you say about me or who you say it to. I won’t apologize for the shit I’ve done, for the deals, for the way I make my ends meet. We both know you didn’t tell her because you didn’t want her seeing you in a different light. She’s not here because she trusts me. She came foryou, but you want her to believe you don’t deserve each other. For fucking what? Who the fuck cares about what happened in the past?”
“If it doesn’t matter then why the hell are you here?” I challenge.
I’d ask how he gained access to the warehouse. How he even knew I was fighting and where to find me, but we all know Finn. He either tailed me or knows someone who knows someone.
His jaw clenches. “To save my idiot brother.”
It’s almost laughable. Really. He came to save me. Now that’s something.
“Where was the hero act when you pressed that cigarette into my neck or when you broke my finger?”
“Oh, my God,” Violet murmurs. “You told me the bandage on your neck was from cardboard and…and your finger was because you didn’t use your gloves.”
It turns my stomach knowing it’s all hitting her at once when I had the advantage of dealing with it as it came.
“I don’t want your goddamn help, nor do I need it,” I tell Finn. “In fact, I want nothing to do with you. How many times must I say it?”
“I was there, too,” he says as Violet turns on her heel and runs her hands over her face again. She’s gone mostly quiet since we dropped our truths, distancing herself, and I know why. She’s having a hard time wrapping her mind around the lies and secrets and omissions. I get it because I’ve been there. Iamthere.
Finn continues to yammer on. I look at him, but my focus is leaned more toward the girl on the other side of the room.
Fuck, does she even know how beautiful she is?
Even now, like this, I want to run my hands through her hair and bruise her lips with mine.
“I had no fucking clue that he was hiding his marriage to your mom or that we’re brothers. The asshole never said a goddamn word.” He grimaces like he’s working through his own internal conflict. “I wouldn’t have?—”
“Save it,” I quip.
“Don’t punish me for his fuck-ups.”
A dry laugh comes from me. “Oh, believe me. I’m not. I’m punishing you foryourfuck-ups. The ones you apparently want to forget exist. Didn’t take you for the kind of person who doesn’t want to take accountability for his actions, then again, you are a piece of shit, so I’m not surprised.”
His jaw tenses. “You know what, fine. You want nothing to do with me…” He raises his hands in surrender but then they come down hard at his sides. “Heard you loud and fucking clear, but just so you’re aware,your boss out there?”
I cross my arms. “Tommy?”
“Yeah, you think paying us back was bad? He’s going to get you for a lot more. You think you’re going to be able to show up for a few fights and then,” he brushes his palms together as if he’s wiping crumbs off them, “that’s it? When you want out, he’s not going to let you leave unless you give him what he wants. He’ll cinch that rope around your neck and hang you for every cent you have. And if you don’t have the money, he’s not the kind of guy who’s opposed to taking something a whole lot more precious.”
Violet whips around at the sound of that. “Please tell me you’re just joking and saying that to get under his skin.”
He levels her with a look, his eyes narrowing and his lips pursing. “Why do you think I brought you here? For shits and giggles? I told you he was getting himself into some serious shit.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I tell him. Tommy may be a particular kind of guy, but I doubt he’d string me up like a piñata if things went sideways. Not so long as he got his money.
“You sure about that, Moore? Last time I checked, I was the alleged criminal, and you were the goody two-shoes trying to fight for his druggie mom.”
