Second Chance by Fate (Fated Apex Mates #3)

5. Violet

Chapter 5

Violet

T hey’re all looking at me strangely now, even Jax, and I can’t blame them. If the roles were reversed, I’d be looking at me weird, too. Nothing I can tell them will put their minds at ease, not without endangering all of us more. But they deserve answers, especially after Steele was spying on me.

I eye my former lover, wondering how it went so wrong with us. Once upon a time, I was the only woman he trusted. Now, he looks at me like I’m his enemy.

The SUV pulls up to the edge of the territory, and my heart sinks. The smell of death already permeates the air before we stop. Something else lingers beneath the surface, though, something evil that gives me shivers.

“Oh, my gods…” Jax mutters, jumping out before the vehicle comes to a complete stop.

The massacre in the pack house was clearly a surprise—the victims had been caught unaware, still in their chairs and unable to defend themselves before they were attacked.

Several Apex shifters wander around collecting evidence, but they’re shaken and pale by the violence. For all their training, they are not used to such a sight. I want to hide myself away in the car. Suddenly, I wish I’d taken Steele’s advice and stayed at the estate alone, but the truth is, I don’t feel comfortable there, not anymore.

“Any indication of who did this?” Enzo asks the lead investigator.

“N-no,” he stutters, looking as if he might vomit.

I don’t blame him at all. This is outrageous. Someone is trying to make a distinct point, and they’ve done it.

“Someone will want to take credit for this!” Enzo rages, fury coloring his sooty eyes.

Pity for him floods me as I catch his pack members eying him. It doesn’t take me long to understand the look they’re giving him.

They’re questioning his leadership. They’ve been questioning his leadership for a long time, even before I left.

I reach out to touch Enzo’s arm, expecting him to shake me off, but he doesn’t. Instead, he offers me a helpless look, and I steer him away from the horrible scene, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“You should let them do their job and collect evidence,” I suggest. “You’re too close to all this to see clearly.”

“And they aren’t?” he scoffs.

“Maybe they are, too,” I agree. “But someone has to collect what they can, and you’re far too mad about it.”

He studies me suspiciously. “Do you know something about this? About who did this?”

Lowering my eyes, I shake my head. It’s partially true. I can’t be sure, but I have my list of suspects rolling around in the back of my head. “No. I don’t.”

“Another Apex group looking to infringe would want to stake their claim,” Steele growls, interrupting. I tense at his nearness, but I have to agree with his assessment. I cast him a sidelong look. He always was the best at deducing what was going on. “This is the work of something else, isn’t it, Violet?”

I don’t meet his eyes. He doesn’t understand, but I can’t tell him anything. If I do, we’re all screwed.

“Violet!”

“I don’t know for sure!” I yell. “I don’t!”

“Leave her alone,” Jax growls, pulling me away from his brothers. “This isn’t helping.” He half-drags me back toward the car and plops me down in the backseat. “You know you’re only antagonizing them both by being here and not saying anything if you know something.”

I drop my head back against the seat and stare up at the roof. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know, Jax. I wasn’t here, and I don’t know the kinds of issues you have with the packs under your control and the packs from other states.”

“You know full well that our powers have been suffering for years. Maybe I don’t believe you’re directly involved, but I do believe you know more than you’re letting on.”

I press my lips together so hard, I’m sure they’re going to bruise.

“You know why!” Jax barks.

“You’re cursed!” I blurt out. Instantly, blood drains out of my face, and my head whips around, as if I expect lightning to strike me dead.

“What?”

“Never mind,” I mutter, pushing him out of the car. “Go and deal with this. I… I don’t know anything about it.”

“No!” Jax hisses, climbing in behind me and closing the door. “What do you mean, we’re cursed? You cursed us?!”

“No! Not me! I would never—you know me better than that!”

“I thought I did.” He glances out the window, his golden eyes darkening as his brothers stalk by the SUV, their upset palpable. “But we’re dealing with a war here, Violet, one that only seems to get worse when you’re around.”

“I didn’t do anything to you, and I’m getting a little tired of defending myself.”

“Then how do you know we’re cursed?” he presses.

I hang my head. “I’ve already said more than I should, Jax, and I will end up cursed, too, if I say any more than I have.”

He scowls, his anger matching Steele’s. “That sounds like a copout to me.”

“You have to trust that I’m here to help you,” I plead as he reaches for the door, but he doesn’t look at me.

“I don’t,” he retorts. “I’m starting to understand why my brothers see you as a problem.”

The door slams, and I gulp back, the stone forming in my throat.

That was really close and really stupid, Violet, I chide myself. I’m not sure if I didn’t already say too much. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

No one speaks to me all the way back to the estate. All three of the brothers deliberately avoid eye contact, and I’m sure they’re talking about me telepathically. Dawn creeps over the horizon by the time we arrive back in Dusty Woods, spraying brilliant sunlight over the charming little town, but there will be no peace for me this morning.

When we arrive, Enzo puts a hand out to stop me from heading upstairs, confirming what I already suspected. They had a full conversation about me in the car. Turning my eyes on them, I wait for the other shoe to drop.

“You’re going back to Sedona.”

My heart sinks, and I look desperately at Jax, who ignores my stare.

“Really?” I spit. “You could have saved me the hassle and left me there in the first place, like I intended.”

No one acknowledges my annoyances.

“You’ll have a team on you at all times,” Enzo intones. “But if I were you, Violet, I’d get out of town.”

Tears of frustration well in my eyes, but I blink them away.

“Fine,” I reply coldly. “It wasn’t my idea to come here in the first place.”

I spin around to head toward the gate, and Jax calls out to me. “Where are you going?”

“To Sedona.”

“We’ll get you a ride!”

“I don’t want one!” I shout back.

“She is such a pain in the ass,” Steele mutters.

Footsteps crunch behind me, and a strong hand curls around my forearm, spinning me around.

Steele’s hard, silver eyes bore into me. “Stop being such a drama queen and get in the car. I’m taking you to the city.”

“No,” I growl. “I don’t want to go with you. You’ll probably end up leaving me in a ditch somewhere.”

He snorts in disbelief. “We’re not the ones who hurt you. Stop making it out like we started this.”

My lips part to argue with him, but Enzo interjects.

“I’ll take her,” he grumbles, seizing my other arm.

They march me back toward the car.

“What about my stuff?” I protest.

“We’ll have it brought to you. Get in.”

Reluctantly, I look at the estate, my heart sinking more. I realize how badly I don’t want to go and almost say as much, but their distrust overrides my desire to stay. Moreover, I can feel this heaviness weighing on the estate, something that hasn’t been there before.

They’re doing me a favor. Why am I kicking and screaming?

I never wanted to be here, anyway, I try to convince myself.

“Get in!” Enzo barks again. “It was a mistake bringing you here.”

Stifling a sigh, I do as I’m told and enter the SUV with Enzo following behind me. On a whim, Steele jumps in, too. I stiffen as Enzo eyes him.

“I told you I’d take her,” he reminds his brother, but he doesn’t order him out of the vehicle.

“It’s okay. I want to hear what she has to say, too,” Steele says, slamming the door shut. “And I want to make sure she’s really out of Dusty Woods for good.”

I slump back in the seat, shaking my head. “I have nothing to say that I haven’t already said. You guys seem to have your mind made up about me.”

“I heard you,” Steele growls as the car starts to move again.

My eyes trail toward Jax, and I catch the wistful look in his honey-colored gaze.

“You heard what?” I counter sharply.

“I heard you communicating with whomever in your room last night!”

Enzo’s dark eyebrows arch upward. “Who were you talking to?”

“Myself,” I answer quickly. “I was meditating.”

“You’re lying! And then the attack happened, and the house?—”

“Calm down, Steele,” Enzo cuts him off as the SUV slips out of Dusty Woods’ city limits again and down the lonely highway leading to Sedona.

“I won’t calm down!” Steele snaps. “You brought her here.”

“And now we’re taking her back,” Enzo says calmly. “Unless you can give us a good reason not to.”

They stare at me expectantly, and I wish I could tell them everything about the events that have led us all to this place. But I literally cannot, as much as I want to. My lips are sealed.

Suddenly, Steele is in my face, his hot breath exciting me despite his anger. As I did with Jax, I suddenly have the desire to shut up his accusations with a rain of kisses, to bring him back into my fold with the tenderness he once showed me. He’s so close, his skin so touchable…

“One way or another, we’ll figure out what’s going on here. And if you have any hand in it?—”

From the front seat, the driver releases a grunt, and the vehicle swerves abruptly, crashing Steele into me. I fall against Enzo, and his arms instinctively grab to protect me. Steele covers my head to save me from the splintering glass when the SUV hits the guardrail and flips once, twice, spinning in midair.

I gasp, my eyes popping, time slowing as the final moments of my life play out around me. All I can think about are the times I’ve spent with the Alphas.

Is this really it?

And then there’s nothing but blackness around me as metal crunches and the car lands at the bottom of the dune, rendering me unconscious. I never had a chance to come clean and tell them how much I care for them all.