Chapter 23
Ford
It was my own damn fault. The second Chase said “You’re going to want to meet us at the hospital” I stopped listening.
I cut him off and interrupted him at every turn.
I knew I was being irrational, but panic had already sunk it’s claws in and I’d had tunnel vision, already bracing myself for the kind of news that could potentially rip my world to pieces.
I thought it was Violet.
By the time I reached the hospital, my adrenaline was through the roof. I spotted Chase in the lobby and immediately demanded, “Where is she?”
Chase told me the room she was in, and I didn’t even wait to hear the rest of what he said. I tore through the building like a mad man, until I reached the room and saw not Violet in the hospital bed, but her brother, Christopher.
The embarrassment hit hard. I’d jumped to conclusions. Hell, I’d practically bulldozed the hospital staff getting to her room. Violet was fine. But the sight of her brother made sense of why Chase had called me. Something serious was going on.
Still…all I could think was she’s okay. For fifteen minutes straight on the drive over, I’d entertained the worst case scenarios. That I would walk into a room and see the one thing I couldn’t survive…that I’d been too late to protect her.
I’d never known fear like that. And maybe that fear, my panic and absolute loss of control, was what broke through the last pieces of Violet’s defenses. Because when she looked at me outside that hospital room, the expression on her face nearly shattered me.
She didn’t even have to speak. I saw every vulnerable emotion. Grief, exhaustion, betrayal, heartbreak. She looked absolutely devastated. And all I wanted in that moment was to pull her into my arms and shield her from the entire damn world.
And she let me. She fucking let me. The woman who fought me on everything. The woman who guarded herself like survival depended on it. She finally stopped pushing me away and let me in.
When I said, I can’t lose you, it slipped out before I could think better of it. It wasn’t smooth. It wasn’t planned. It was the truest thing I’d ever said. Violet was prickly and complicated and she would make me earn every inch of her trust and affection. But I didn’t want easy. I wanted her.
I didn’t know exactly what happened with Christopher, but seeing him in that condition told me enough. He’d clearly been assaulted. I knew what he meant to Violet, her baby brother, her only family for so many years.
Finally, Violet pulled back, wiping at her eyes as she looked up at me. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” I said.
“No. Not of course.” She shook her head. “I know what you’ve done, how you’ve been there for me, and I don’t want you to think I took it for granted, even if I’ve struggled to accept it.”
“Violet.” My tone was gentle as I reached out, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “You don’t have to give me a big apology speech. I get it.” And I truly did.
Her eyes welled up again and she leaned in and kissed me, and I let her.
“What was that for?” I asked when she pulled back.
“Just because,” she whispered, giving me a tremulous smile before taking a steadying breath. “The guy you have at the police station, the client at the casino, it’s not him.”
I frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?” How the hell could she be so certain?
“Christopher just admitted that the attacks that have been happening to me are because of him,” she said quietly, her tone pained.
I had never heard her voice like this. I had seen her scared. I had even seen her overwhelmed with emotion and trying to keep it under control. But I hadn’t ever heard her sound so defeated. Like something inside of her had been broken.
Every muscle in my body went still. It took everything in me not to curse her brother’s name for putting Violet in the danger he had. Christopher had made poor choices before and Violet had stood by him. She’d supported and defended him. Protected him, even.
Now, it looked as though he’d proven her wrong after all. The one person she believed would never hurt her…had. I couldn’t imagine that kind of betrayal.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?” I asked her. “Details?”
Violet outlined what her brother had told her. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. I’d need to talk to him myself to get the full picture. Still, the puzzle pieces of this case finally started to click into place and make sense.
It wasn’t about Violet. It was about her brother. They were threatening Christopher through her.
They’d sideswiped her car. They’d followed her. They’d destroyed her house to prove they could reach her anytime, and next time, she might not walk away. Not unless Christopher did exactly what they wanted and helped them steal that four million dollar crown.
I took Violet gently by the shoulders. “I need you to trust me. Not just as security but as someone who cares about you. Can you do that?”
She nodded without hesitation. “Yes.”
“Then I need to talk to your brother. Alone.”
Violet glanced at the door. I could see the natural protectiveness she had for her sibling, but when she looked back at me, I could also see she was done treating Christopher with kid gloves.
“Okay,” she said.
“Thank you.” I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. The fact that she let me do it without flinching felt like I was being trusted with something priceless. Hopefully, her heart.
I walked back into the room by myself. Christopher was propped up on pillows, his face a mess of bruises and swelling. He eyed me warily as I approached. Whoever had assaulted him had certainly worked him over, but not to his breaking point. This had been a warning.
“Let me guess,” I said, dragging a chair over to the side of his bed and sitting down. “Cracked rib or two, broken nose, mostly bruising.”
Christopher nodded. “They want to keep me overnight for observation in case of a concussion, but they already checked for breaks and internal bleeding.”
“Good.” I clenched my jaw. I wanted to lay into him, but I kept my temper in check, for Violet’s sake. “Your sister is really worried about you.”
“I know.” He sounded sullen, almost childlike. Like he was waiting to be scolded for what he’d done.
I sighed. “Look, I’m going to be real with you. I’m not thrilled with you right now. But Violet says you’re a good kid who got mixed up with the wrong people and had trouble getting out. And I want to believe she’s right about you.”
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “So I’m taking that chance because she raised you. She knows you better than anyone. And your sister is not someone who trusts easily.”
Christopher let out a harsh laugh, then winced at the effort it took. “You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know she lets me get away with things she’d never tolerate from anyone else?” Guilt practically poured off him.
“And you took advantage of that trust by not telling her what was going on,” I said quietly. “Even when you knew her life was in danger.”
His shoulders hunched. “How was I supposed to tell her I fucked up again? That she was being targeted because of me? Violet is the only person who hasn’t written me off and…I didn’t want her to walk away.”
I watched him, my chest tight. He wasn’t a kid anymore.
Hell, at his age, I had been in the military for a few years.
But he also didn’t have what I did. A family who backed me even when I screwed up.
He’d only ever had Violet. She carried him through everything, and now he was terrified of losing the one person who’d never abandoned him.
“So you decided not to tell her,” I said evenly. “And tried to fix the situation yourself, even while her life was being threatened.”
He glared at me. “Well, what the fuck would you have done?”
I didn’t flinch. I could take his anger. “I would have told her the truth and warned her. I wouldn’t have let my sister walk around blind to danger, even if it meant she was pissed off at me.”
“And trust she wouldn’t just write me off and walk out of my life?”
“Exactly.” I gave him a shrewd look. “After everything Violet has done for you, you couldn’t trust that she’d stick by you?
Violet loves you and it’s obvious how much she cares.
She’s not going to abandon you, but you hurt her, badly.
You took away her ability to protect herself, and to protect you. ”
He swallowed hard and looked away.
“I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” I went on.
“It’s going to take a lot to earn back that trust after this stunt.
Not because those assholes pulled you into their bullshit.
That part? That’s on them. People like that do this all the time.
They find someone with a family or a friend or a partner—someone they love—and use them for leverage to get what they want.
I see it constantly in my line of work. It’s not uncommon. ”
Very reluctantly, Christopher glanced back at me. I could see the fight draining out of him, so I pushed on.
“The problem isn’t the criminals,” I said. “The problem is that you didn’t warn your sister. You let her, and everyone at my firm, think it was someone else targeting her. So we couldn’t keep her safe the right way.”
He scoffed defensively. “So what, you’re saying if I had just told her, everything would have magically been fine?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m saying it’s not your fault what they are doing. But you were wrong not to tell her.”
Christopher’s lips pressed together, and shame flickered in his eyes.
“I made the mistake of hanging out with those guys back in high school, and over the years they’ve turned into full-on criminals.
They figured robbing a museum is easier than robbing a bank.
They said if I helped, they’d stop hurting Violet.
But if I didn’t…she’d pay for it. When you moved her into your place, it made it harder for them to get to her.
So this morning, they jumped me. Told me it was my life on the line if I didn’t help them.
” His voice faltered. “I don’t know what to do.
They’re not going to stop until they get what they want.
They said if I went to the police, they’d find a way to hurt one of us, and not just a beating. ”
“You’re right,” I said carefully. “This needs to be handled the right way.”
Going to the police wasn’t just risky because the criminals might retaliate. It was risky because the cops would likely say nothing could be done until the crime actually happened. Without hard evidence, all we had was Christopher’s word.
“So what do you suggest?” Christopher asked, brows furrowed. “I want my sister safe. I know you might not believe me, but I don’t want Violet to get hurt because of my mistakes.”
I thought about the various options and settled on a plan. “I’m going to choose to believe you want to do better,” I told him. “And I have an idea, if you’d be willing to trust me.”
He eyed me warily. “Why should I?”
I arched a brow at him. “Because I know what the hell I’m doing and nobody cares about Violet’s safety more than I do.”
Christopher hesitated. “They might try and hurt her, just because you guys were here,” he admitted. “It’s easy enough to watch a hospital and see who shows up. They might figure out I talked.”
“Then that’s a risk we take, because I can protect your sister, especially now that I know who and what I’m up against. But I need you to tell me who these people are, what the plan is, everything, okay?”
He blew out a shaky breath, hope and relief battling in his eyes. “Okay, but you have to promise that you’ll keep Violet safe, no matter what.”
Nothing was guaranteed, I knew that, but I’d die protecting her if it ever came down to that. “Violet won’t get hurt under my watch.”
It wasn’t just a promise to Christopher. It was a promise to myself. Violet was going to be okay. I was going to make damn sure of that.