Chapter 33 Violet
VIOLET
The guys talked me out of going with them to check out the address Francine had given us and left me in the safety of the clubhouse to wait. They’d convinced me it was highly unlikely anyone would be there, and if they found a body, I wouldn’t want to see that.
I hated that my last memory of Toby was of him bleeding to death on my lap.
When they came back barely thirty minutes later, I knew they’d found nothing.
Apparently, there had been no signs of a struggle.
Just a perfectly cleaned home. The owners’ names didn’t ring any bells, and the guys had determined the house was probably unoccupied, since they hadn’t found food in the fridge or clothes in any of the upstairs rooms.
None of us had been surprised.
Whip rubbed my arm. “We knew it was a long shot. I wouldn’t hang around the scene of the crime either. It doesn’t mean she’s dead. Most kidnappers try to get their victims to a second location.”
I’d heard that in self-defense videos.
I’d also heard that if you were taken to a second location, your chances of survival drastically plummeted.
Levi shoved his hands in his pockets. “So we go to plan B. We have his email address.”
It didn’t feel like a great plan. Emails could go to spam. Maybe he wouldn’t check his inbox. Even if he did, there was no guarantee an email from me wouldn’t make him suspicious and that he wouldn’t just ignore it.
But at least it was proactive. It was better than just sitting and waiting for him to make contact with us again. Which was plan C.
I sent the email, hoping he wouldn’t question where I’d gotten the address, and stating a time and place for him to meet me. I told him I had the money he wanted from Fang, hoping that would be enough to sweeten the deal and lure him out.
Then I waited, part of me hoping he wouldn’t show. But the rest of me knowing that he would. Because he had never been able to pass up the opportunity to torment me. Not back when we were kids. And not now.
Just like that night up on the bluffs, I sat alone, this time on a park bench in the backstreets of Saint View. We weren’t far from Psychos and Clean Sweep, the trailer park just across the road. But unlike that night, this time, the shadows felt loaded.
Quiet.
Brutal.
I wasn’t really alone. X, Whip, and Levi lurked.
I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them.
It was the only thing holding me together, the weight of everything I’d realized too heavy to bear.
I didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to come face-to-face with the monster who’d trapped me in that warehouse and messed with our heads until Toby had sacrificed himself for me.
Nerves rattled my entire body. Travis had always been sneaky.
A narcissist and a manipulator, twisting words until you were so confused and back to front that you honestly believed it was you who’d done something wrong, and not him.
He was smart. Wily and ruthless. I’d already underestimated Travis once, and it had nearly cost X his life.
I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Even though X and Whip and Levi had assured me they would never be farther than a few feet away, and they would get to me before Travis could do anything, my stomach still swirled with nerves.
Beneath my purse, perched primly on my lap, I clutched the knife I’d once told X I didn’t want.
I still wasn’t sure I would be able to use it, but the feel of it between my fingers no longer terrified me, like it had that night in my bedroom. Now I clutched it like it was a lifeline.
Whip’s voice came quietly from the darkness. “Vi. Trigger just reported a white van approaching, same as the one we’ve seen before. Get ready.”
I couldn’t say anything. My mouth was too dry. I knew Trig and his crew were spread out, farther away than the three men who hid in the darkness around me. They were there as backup, but this show was mine.
The white van parked across the road. And for the longest moment, Travis and I just stared at each other.
I couldn’t see him through the van’s dark tint, but I didn’t need to.
It was just like the days I’d felt him watching me while I was showering.
I knew before I saw him that he was there, in the darkness, watching me, ready to make his move but not before I was scared and shaking.
Travis was a man who got off on fear.
He’d shown me that when we were kids, him and his friends taunting me as we walked home from school. The way he’d made up stories so our foster parents would punish me.
And he’d shown it again as adults. Trapping me and Toby in that warehouse. Rigging traps on the bluff. Sending rhyming notes that threatened everything and everyone I cared about.
All of it had been about fear. About control.
About revenge for the fact I’d cost him years of his life, when I’d backed up the claims of a girl he’d abused.
When he got out of the van, his smile was smug. Like he didn’t have a fucking care in the world because he had a gun clutched in his hand. He sauntered over to me and took up the seat beside me.
I stiffened at being so close to him.
If he noticed, he didn’t show it. “Hey, fellas?” he called into the darkness, then chuckled when there was no reply. “Levi, right? Come on, man, come out and say hi. You and I have so much in common. Shame we weren’t in the same prison. We could have been friends.”
I wanted to spit out that Levi would have never been friends with a sniveling weasel like Travis but I bit my tongue, knowing I needed to keep my cool and my head clear, no matter what he said.
“Who else is out there? Wyatt DeLeon, am I right?” He finally glanced over at me. “How does it feel to be so fucking fat and ugly that you have to settle for a man who’s been between the thighs of a thousand women?”
He didn’t bother waiting on my reply. “And Knox. I think we all know you don’t go anywhere without your guard dog, do you, Violet?
Excuse me if I don’t call them by your little code names.
I like to be more personal than that. I did my research.
I know all about Knox’s brothers and his parents and his sweet niece. ”
There was a rumble of a growl from the darkness that I knew without a doubt belonged to X.
Travis didn’t look bothered. He just pointed the gun at me and kept running his mouth. “I know all about how Levi fell on his sword for a club who doesn’t give a shit about him. And I know all about how Wyatt killed his own family with his shitty driving.”
Red-hot rage coursed through me.
Travis let out a low whistle. “You seriously know how to pick ’em, little sis.
What a fucked-up, pathetic group of men you’ve surrounded yourself with.
Though I use the term ‘men’ loosely. They’re just boys, aren’t they?
Little lost boys who couldn’t save their kids, who got screwed over by a biker gang, who have spent their entire lives pretending to be one thing because they know their family would never accept the truth.
You ever wonder why they picked you? You ever stop and think it’s ’cause they’re so fucking broken themselves that nobody wants them? ”
He finally focused on me, and the depth of his hate and revulsion hit me full force in the chest.
“And you’re just as scared and pathetic, aren’t you?”
“I’m not scared of you,” I muttered.
Travis moved fast, knocking the purse off my lap, unveiling the knife in my fingers before I could even react.
“No?” he asked. “If you’re not scared, why haven’t you plunged that knife into my neck yet?”
I wanted to. My fingers shook with the need to use it. “Where’s Nyah?”
He leaned in close, not bothering to answer my question.
“Pathetic,” he whispered in my ear. Then he stood, scooping the purse up from the grass and opening it, checking inside.
He raised an eyebrow, then closed the zipper again.
“Not going to lie, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get a cent out of you, but I’m pleasantly surprised that you’ve proved me wrong.
” He shrugged. “So you get a free pass tonight. You can go home to that shitty apartment and sleep soundly, knowing all your friends are safe in their beds at the MC compound. And for tonight at least, I’ll leave them alone. ”
He went to walk away.
I couldn’t just let him leave. “And Nyah?”
He twisted and grinned, his voice dropping to a chilling tone that almost perfectly matched the monotone, robotic one of the voice changer he’d used at both the warehouse and that night up on the bluffs.
“You followed the rhyme, you followed the thread— But you’re far too late, your girl is dead.”
They didn’t sound like the words of the boy I’d known. He’d been mean and angry. But this version of him was sharp and cruel. His laughter echoed as he walked away from me. I forced my feet not to move. Forced my entire body to stay still and not budge an inch.
He was still laughing when he got back in his van and drove away.
One by one, all three men emerged from the darkness. Levi sat beside me on the bench, and X took the knife from my hand. Whip stood, staring after Travis like he might come back at any second.
“Did you do it?” I asked, trying to ward off the violent shaking I couldn’t seem to control.
Whip turned back around and bent to brush his lips over my forehead. “You did great. Tracker is on his van.” He pulled out his phone and brought up an app. He flashed it in our direction, showing us a green dot traveling a map of the streets of Saint View.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe we should have just killed him now and been done with it?”
Levi shook his head. “No. That would have been sloppy. He had the upper hand.”
Whip’s lips flickered at the corner, though he didn’t look up. “First rule of Murder Squad, patience.”
X let out a whine. “I thought it was no witnesses? And no innocents? You guys have got to stop making up new rules! It’s very confusing!
” His eyes brightened. “But hey! You called it Murder Squad! You know what we need? A symbol. A calling card. So the cops know it was us. We could brand our kills. Ooh—maybe a duck. For Reginald.”
No one replied.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Or a cat. For Harold. Or both! We leave a feather and a furball on the body. BAM! Case closed. The Murder Squad strikes again.”
Levi squinted at him. “My killer calling card is definitely not going to be an image of your ugly cat, X.”
X side-eyed him. “Do you have a better idea?” He held up a finger. “And do not say an image of Whip’s cock. You’re the only one who wants to see that.”
“Definitely not what I was going to say…” Levi muttered.
Whip flapped a hand at the two of them to shut up. “No calling cards. That’s…so…try-hard. Makes you look like a pick-me girl. Like you’re only doing it for the fame.”
I wasn’t sure at what point in my life conversations like this had become the norm and acceptable, but pretty much nothing surprised me anymore. “Oh, right. Heaven forbid you kill for the fame. How unclassy.”
All three of them stared at me.
I raised an eyebrow in challenge.
None of them went there. I folded my arms across my chest and focused on Whip. “Where is he going anyway? Can we get this over with?”
But Whip frowned at the screen on his phone. “I think he’s stopped. Seems to be a residential house a few blocks away.”
I held my hand out for the phone. “Let me see.”
Whip handed it over, and I peered down at the address displayed on the screen.
I felt the blood drain out of my face. It was as if I’d been on the receiving end of a cold bucket of water.
“Vi?” Levi twisted to catch a glimpse of my face. “Why did you just go all stiff?”
I stared down at the blinking green dot, willing it to move. Willing it to be anywhere but there.
But it didn’t budge.
I looked up at them. “It’s the house we lived in as kids. Our foster parents’ home.”