Chapter 44 Violet #2
Lynx nodded. “I can see that.” He glanced at Levi. “Hope I’m not in the way.”
Levi’s fingers strangled the neck of his beer bottle. “You aren’t. But if we’re being honest, I am wondering what you’re doing here.”
Pink tinged Lynx’s cheeks, and he shoved his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. “Yeah, I get that.” He squinted at Levi, the blush deepening. “You know that favor you owe me?”
My stomach sank. Even though nothing about Lynx’s posture screamed a warning, him bringing up the debt that Levi owed him made me feel sick.
Clearly, it had a similar effect on Levi. He picked his words carefully. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Was hoping I could call it in,” Lynx said.
Levi just waited.
I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t tell if it was the anticipation or a sudden bout of morning sickness.
Lynx glanced around the yard full of bikers and their families and then back at Levi. “I was hoping for an introduction. Or maybe even a good word with your prez?”
Levi blinked. “Sorry, what?”
The pink in Lynx’s cheeks deepened. “I know I’d have to start at the bottom.
I don’t expect no special treatment…” He ran his hand through his hair.
“It’s just fucking shit out there, man. I’m couch surfing.
Job prospects are bleak. You know how it is, right?
I just thought maybe the club…” He shook his head.
“Sorry. This is fucking embarrassing. I shouldn’t have come and interrupted your dinner. ” He took a step backward.
Levi’s fast-spreading grin stopped him. “Hold up. You want to join the Slayers?”
Lynx shrugged. “Thought I’d start with an introduction first, but I mean, yeah? Or, I don’t know, maybe? If I’m stepping all over your territory—”
Levi slung his arm around Lynx’s shoulder, and Lynx barely missed the beer that sloshed over the lip of the bottle.
“Is that seriously all you want? An introduction and a good word put in for you?”
Lynx nodded. “I ain’t got nowhere else to go, honestly.”
Levi’s relief was palpable. He laughed; the sound filled with relief. “War! Come over here for a second, would you?”
War walked over, carrying his baby son in his arms.
I smiled as Levi introduced his old cellmate to his president. The two men shook hands, and Lynx gave baby Ridge a tiny fist bump, even though the little boy was really too young to understand what was going on.
All three men talked for a minute, Levi explaining that Lynx was interested in joining the club. War seemed open to potentially taking on a new prospect, and they set up a time for further discussions when War wasn’t needed for family duties as he was tonight.
Levi couldn’t stop smiling. To the point that both Lynx and War noticed.
War frowned at him. “Any reason you’re all Cheshire cat right now? You that excited by the idea of a new prospect to boss around?”
Levi snorted on a laugh. “No. It’s just…” He shook his head then said to Lynx, “I thought you mass murdered a bunch of innocent women. And that when you said I owed you, you were going to…” He shrugged. “You know.”
Lynx’s eyes got big. “Going to what? Ask you to kill a few more with me just for shits and giggles?”
“Or worse.” Levi’s grin returned. “Glad I was wrong though. For the record.”
Lynx glanced at War. “I don’t make a habit out of killing innocent women. Just so you know. Despite whatever this idiot thought.”
The corner of War’s mouth lifted. “Good to know. We don’t approve of that.”
Lynx nodded and then gave War a sheepish look. “Any problem with killing dumbass over here though, for thinking I’d ask him to do something like that?”
War glanced at me and Levi. “I think Violet might have some objections to that somehow.”
“Violet does indeed,” I agreed.
But it was clear to me Lynx was just as lost as Levi had been when he’d first gotten out of prison. Levi had found his way back here, to the family that lived beyond the Slayers’ gates. And now it seemed like we’d be opening them again for Lynx.
Levi elbowed him as War walked away to join his family again. “So we’re good? Debt cleared?”
Lynx jerked his head toward the ice bucket filled with drinks. “Get me a beer and we’ll call it even.”
The police came somewhere in between steaks, a text from Nyah saying she was okay and she’d see us later, and the prospects’ rowdy rendition of “Take me Home, Country Roads” that X had joined with off-key warbling.
The officer who Hawk scowled at through the wrought-iron gates was the same one who’d found me at the bottom of the hole.
Fang stood on my other side and lowered his voice so only I would hear. “You don’t want to talk to them yet, you don’t have to. In fact, you shouldn’t. I’ll call Liam, our lawyer.”
But clearly he hadn’t spoken softly enough, or maybe the officer had just dealt with my brother and his club enough times that he probably knew the gist of what Fang was whispering in my ear.
“Please don’t call Liam.” He grimaced in a way that told me he’d dealt with Liam before and didn’t particularly want the displeasure of doing it again.
“All I wanted to tell you was that you can come down to the station whenever you’re feeling up to it, but we aren’t wanting to press any charges against you.
The woman’s death was clearly self-defense, and you aren’t in any trouble.
We had a tip come through the call line about other bodies we’ve connected to her and Clean Sweep. ”
My brother nodded. “Fair enough then. But when she comes down, we’ll bring Liam anyway.”
The police officer grimaced at that but nodded. “As is your right.”
I waited until he’d driven away before I turned to Whip, Levi, and X who’d followed us up to the gates when Hawk had come to tell me the cops were up here, wanting to talk to me. “They had a tip about the other bodies?” I raised an eyebrow.
Whip shoved his hands in his pockets. “We couldn’t just leave them there. Their families deserve closure.”
I didn’t disagree, but my heartbeat sped up, knowing they weren’t the only bodies out there. Trig and X and all the guys had left evidence that could be tied back to them.
But Whip clearly saw all of that flashing like a warning light in my expression. He chuckled. “We’ve been doing this a long time, sweetheart. Don’t worry, nothing is blowing back on us, or on you. We had the place scrubbed.”
We walked back toward the clubhouse slowly, but my questions played on a silent loop in my head. I wanted to know everything about how they’d done it. How they’d covered it up. How they’d gotten rid of the bodies.
Maybe I’d watched too many true crime documentaries and needed that closure.
Maybe the part of me who had found pleasure in taking the life of people who’d hurt me was storing information for the next time I needed it.
That thought was so terrifying it stopped me dead in my tracks. “Do I need to join the Murder Squad for real?”
All three of them stared at me.
Whip raised an eyebrow. “Sweetheart. Really?”
I nodded. “What if I just start randomly killing people?”
X snorted on a laugh. “Well, that would be hot, and hey, if you need a partner, I’m your guy.”
“X!” I wailed, truly concerned I could see a future where he and I were like Batman and Robin, running around the city in bad costumes, unaliving people who had done wrong.
I might have learned to love my body a little more, since seeing it through the eyes of three men who loved me, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for full-body spandex.
Clearly, I was spiraling.
Levi took my hand and threaded his fingers through mine. “Vi, you are not a psychopath. You are just a woman who loves hard. You protected yourself. The little girl you were. Us. Nyah. I have zero concerns that we’ll need to lock you in X’s bedroom because you’re about to go on a bender.”
X shrugged. “If you want to join me when I’m going on one though, I would love the company.”
That unsettled part of me came to rest at their reassurances. “So you aren’t scared I’m going to start stabbing people?”
Whip shrugged and grinned. “I wouldn’t get between you and a boy who pulls Ari’s hair, but I think the general population is probably pretty safe.”
I elbowed him and muttered something about making sure Ari knew to kick anyone who pulled her hair, but he just chuckled like I was being cute.
We strolled back to the club, Hawk and my brother a few paces ahead of us. Drinks and food flowed inside, and we were instantly the center of attention once more. Word of my pregnancy had gotten around like wildfire, and more than one biker asked if I would name the baby after them.
But I kept glancing over at Whip and remembering the children he’d lost. And all I could think about was naming this baby after them. It’s big brother and sister, gone but never forgotten, deserved that honor.
It wasn’t my choice to make alone, of course, but it sent a warmth through me nonetheless.
Beers were passed around, and I declined them all.
Will and Ari played happily, and when they came running over at some point before midnight, with their eyes drooping but happy smiles on their faces, asking if they could sleep at Hayley Jade’s place, I glanced at Kara, and she nodded.
“We’d love to have them for the night.”
I wasn’t sure at all about letting them be away from us. But they were so insistent that I found myself nodding and saying, “We’ll be right here in Levi’s room. So if you need us in the night, just tell someone and we can come get you right away, okay?”
I really wanted them to understand that we were absolutely not abandoning them. And if they needed us, we would be there in a heartbeat.
The fact that Kara’s house was literally just a one-minute walk through the trees helped.
Ari and Will both cheered, and it looked like Kara had drawn the short straw, with half of Rebel’s and Bliss’s kids all filing out after her, their laughter and chatter trailing away as she took them all down to her place to sleep.
Grayson, Hayden, and Hawk all followed her, scooping up trailing kids.
Bliss and Rebel were left with their youngest children, and one by one they retired to their rooms here at the club.
Prospects paired up with the club girls and disappeared into bedrooms of their own.
Some of the guys moved outside and talked shit quietly in the moonlight, beers clutched in their meaty fingers.
When the club around us was finally quiet, Levi eventually reached a hand out for me. “Bed.”
I nodded, letting him pull me up.
X laid himself out on the couch. “I’ll be here if anyone needs me.”
I hated the idea of him sleeping out in the common room. But me, Whip, and Levi were going to struggle to fit in Levi’s bed as it was. There was zero chance X would fit as well.
But Levi offered X his hand. “Come on. Get up. You aren’t sleeping out here.”
X squinted at him sleepily. “No offense, but I don’t really want to sleep on your floor either. I’ve already got splinters from that tree. Don’t need any extras from your ancient floorboards.”
Levi rolled his eyes. “Just come.”
X took his hand and let Levi help him up off the couch. We all followed him into his room, but nothing was any different than the last time we’d been here.
“Levi, I—” X started to complain.
Levi bent down and peered beneath his bed.
For the first time, I noticed that there was no longer the dusty, empty space beneath the frame. He dragged out a rolling mattress, already neatly made up with sheets and blankets.
X’s eyes widened. “You bought me a bed?”
Levi pulled a spare pillow from the top of his closet, his cheeks a bit pink with embarrassment. “I bought you a mattress on wheels, but sure, if you want to call it a bed, then so be it.”
“So we can have sleepovers and braid each other’s hair? YES! Except yours is getting a little thin on top—”
Levi shot him a look.
X grinned, already plonked down on his bed and taking off his shoes. His expression turned serious, and he glanced up at Levi. “Thank you.”
Levi just nodded.
I fell in love with Levi just a little more. It was one thing for him to make room for Whip when there was an attraction between the two of them, just as strong as the one between me and Levi.
But it was next-level sweet for him to recognize X’s place in our relationship and for him to make room for it.
X’s honest thank you told me he felt it too.
We all stripped off layers, and my body ached as I crawled beneath the covers, gratefully flanked either side by Whip and Levi, not minding I had no room because there was nowhere else I wanted to be.
Silence settled over us almost immediately, and I was practically asleep when a thought splintered through my brain and my eyes flew open.
“Francine offered a reward to anyone on the list who took one of you out.” My body that had been on the verge of complete and total relaxation suddenly went into hyperdrive, muscles tensing, a sense of doom and despair floating down around me, invading the bliss bubble I’d found myself in.
My body shook at the sudden, very real notion that there were a hundred or more ex-crims out there somewhere, still all thinking they were going to get some sort of reward for hunting down the men I loved.
But X waved me off from his nest on the floor.
“We’ll make sure word gets around that the newest member of Murder Squad ended Francine. And that with her dead, there’s no reward for coming after us. That should take care of it.”
I lay back down among the blankets. I couldn’t help smiling at the ludicrous idea that men like that would be scared of someone like me.
Except, hadn’t I earned that respect? Hadn’t I done things I never thought I was capable of, all of them fueled not by hate, but by the love I had for the men surrounding me?
“You’re a badass, Violet Garrisen,” Whip whispered sleepily.
For the first time in my life, I believed it. Not because I’d killed Travis and Francine. But because I’d finally stepped out of my own way. I’d let go of the girl who’d been abandoned, overlooked, unloved. And I was finally walking in the shoes of the woman I was always meant to be.
Out of ruin and into the sun, surrounded not by the family I’d been born into, but by the one I’d created for myself.