57. Violet
FIFTY-SEVEN
VIOLET
Old text messages…
Colson: Gonna be late tonight.
Violet: Everything okay?
Colson: One of the other dudes never showed for their shift. I don’t want to leave Llewellyn on his own for the rest of the night.
Violet: That’s sweet of you.
Colson: The only sweet part about me is you, baby.
I’m halfway through the quad, walking home from my afternoon class when Finn falls into step with me.
“He needs you,” comes from his mouth so effortlessly. Like he chanted it repeatedly on his drive to Chatham Hills.
I glance up at his dark hair and even darker eyes, swirls of black ink tatted down the sides of his neck. When my eyes move back to focus on where I’m walking, I also catch ink on the back of his hand. I don’t realize he has a cigarette between his fingers until he pulls a lighter from his pocket, puts the cigarette between his lips, and lights it.
“This is a nicotine free campus, Finn. You have to put that out.”
“I either smoke this or I grab the next prepped up fucker that walks by to let out the frustration inside of me. Which will it be, Violet?”
He takes a long draw from the cigarette while I skip over his rude remark. I fix the strap of my messenger bag on my arm, not in the mood to deal with him right now. “What are you doing here?”
“Already told you,” he states, following me toward Main Street. I’m on my way back to Spring Meadows after a long morning of classes. “He needs you, so whatever you got planned, cancel it and get your ass to the hospital.”
“You can’t command me around.”
I left the hospital after I had to get back to campus for class and daycare duty. I couldn’t cancel or call off sick. Besides, it’s better Colson’s actual family is there for him as he recovers. I don’t want to make it harder for him by ripping up the memories of the end of our relationship. We’ve already been through so much, and I don’t want to make it worse. However, the way Finn’s voice sounds all hurried makes me wonder if maybe I should’ve stayed. Or at least gone back to visit again.
“Just fucking go see him, will you?” Finn barks, half of his cigarette already smoked.
I roll my eyes. “Coming from the one who was too scared to step into his room when he was recovering.”
There’s a short pause before he confirms, “I went in to see him.”
I snap my gaze to him, knowing he was worried about Colson knowing he was there. His earlier statement about him needing me gets pushed to the back burner. “And? How’d it go?”
“How do you think?” he quips, full of attitude.
God, what is his problem?
The last time I saw him he was practically on his knees, ready to beg for Colson’s forgiveness, though that vulnerability is long gone, replaced by the man I first saw outside of Spring Meadows.
“It was shit. He doesn’t want to forgive me, blah fucking blah,” he informs me. “We’re moving on to more important things now.”
“Anyone ever tell you how unmistakably rude you can be?”
“One of my finer traits,” he dryly jokes with a straight face, cigarette between his lips.
“I’m not just going to run to him because you say I need to. I can’t do that anymore. You need to respect that.”
He grabs my arm, plucking his cigarette out of his mouth. When the smoke from it billows between us, my face screws into a grimace. “He had a goddamn panic attack, Violet, so can you drop the prissy preppy act for one fucking minute and listen to what I have to say before you write him off?”
Unease flows through me. I choose to ignore his insult and land on Colson letting his anxiety get the best of him. “What caused it? Was it his injuries? Is he okay?”
“Physically, he’s fine, but…” Two girls walk around us, and he pulls me closer to the side of the walkway. He lowers his voice and says, “A few of Tommy’s guys showed up when I was there. A bunch of Russian dudes who just strode right in and held us up with guns.”
My eyes go wide. “Oh, my God.”
“They didn’t stick around, but long story short?”
I nod, eagerly wanting details. “Yes, what is going on?”
“Tommy put a hit out on Colson because he threw a fight and lost him a shit load of money.”
“I don’t understand.” I shake my head. Colson wouldn’t do something like that without a solid reason. “Why would he do that?”
“For our dad.”
Where does he come into the fighting picture? I rattle my brain with the knowledge I have. It feels like there’s something missing, something I don’t know.
“Colson made a deal with him for his mom’s house. Agreed to lose one of his fights so Clyde could bet and win a truckload. He has bad blood with Tommy and wanted revenge.”
“So, he used Colson to get back at him.”
“Essentially. No one thought Tommy would find out, except Colson didn’t exactly know who he was making a deal with. Our dad turned around and went back on their deal but that’s not all.”
I motion for him to get on with it. “What else?”
“Clyde told Tommy about it. Probably bragged over getting his ass back after all these years. Tommy knew Colson betrayed him with the fight. The hit-and-run wasn’t a coincidence.”
All the air leaves my lungs. I feel my face go pale with shock. “The accident was intentional ? ”
“‘Fraid so.” He drops his cigarette on the ground and snuffs it out with his boot. “They want the money back that Colson lost them.”
“How much is it?”
“More than either of us carries around.”
My eyes glance between Finn’s. “And if he doesn’t have it? If he doesn’t pay it back?”
“They’re going to make right on that hit. Finish what the accident failed to do. They left and not a full minute later Colson got this glassy look in his eye and zoned the fuck out. The nurse had to come in and give him meds. His heart rate machine kept going off. Fuck, I can still hear the incessant beeping.”
“He’s going to be okay, though, right? Did he calm down?”
Finn shrugs. “I don’t know. The nurse kicked me out, saying he needed rest. I think she thinks I’m the reason he freaked. But it was them . Those Russian fucking bastards. They waltzed in like they owned the goddamn place, Violet. And Tommy…he takes another go at Colson?—”
“Just…calm down. When does he need the money? Did you tell his aunt?”
So many thoughts zip through my head it’s hard to hold onto one for long.
“You saw the way she was sizing me up in the waiting room. I go and tell her, and she’ll blame me. Who the hell knows if she even knows what Colson has been up to all this time.”
“That’s fair, so when do they want it by?” I ask again.
“Tomorrow,” he answers grimly.
“Can’t he go to the cops?”
“Sure,” Finn shrugs. “If he wants to speed up getting one right between the eyes,” he says sarcastically while tapping a knuckle between his eyebrows.
“Tommy wouldn’t do that, would he?”
He gives me a look as if I’m dumb and haven’t heard anything he's said. “Is the grass green, Violet?” He looks away then back at me. “The fucker paid someone to crash into him to teach him a lesson. Yes, I fucking think he’d go that far. Not to mention he sent three of his douchebag bodyguards into a hospital fully strapped. I told you this was going to happen if he wasn’t careful.”
I mull over all possible outcomes.
Colson not paying him back because he’s stuck in the hospital. Him answering to Tommy’s wrath. Him ending up in far worse condition than he is now.
I can’t see that.
I cannot walk into that hospital and see him with more injuries.
Finn is already looking at me when my gaze slides back to him. Colson can’t leave the hospital to tie up these loose ends with Tommy, and we’re the only ones who know about it.
“We need to get Tommy that money,” I tell Finn.
“Fucking right we do.”
My focus wanders to Chathum U’s campus. It may be the middle of winter and the chilliest it’ll be all year, but students still mill around, walking from one building to the next, finishing assignments on benches, and overlooking the quad from within the campus buildings. “You’re going to tell me you have an idea now, right?”
Finn looks both ways then gets right into it. “You’re not going to do anything but walk your ass back into that hospital and stay by his side.”
My expression falls. Putting myself back into Colson’s orbit is dangerous. As much as I want him to be okay, I want to be okay, too.
“What about the money?” I ask. I don’t have thousands of dollars to hand over, and if I ask my parents, they’ll lose their minds.
“I’ll handle that. I assume those guys are going to show back up at the hospital tomorrow to get it from him. I’ll get what he needs and drop it off in a duffel bag. We can’t leave it alone and no one else can know about it.”
I nod. “Okay.” I can do that.
He gives me a look. “I’m serious, Violet. No one can know what kind of shit Colson is in. That car accident is nothing compared to what guys like him will pull to make sure people know he’s not one to fuck with.”
“I won’t say a word. I’ll stay with him as much as my schedule allows. You’ll have to fill in the gaps in between.”
“You’re going to have to skip a class or something. This situation is too sensitive, and I can’t risk Colson throwing me out of his room before they get there. He likes you a whole lot more than me. Besides, if that nurse sees me, she might not let me back in.”
I don’t respond right away, and my name falls from his lips. “Violet?” The way he says it tells me he’s not kidding. This is how it has to be if Colson is going to be safe. “Can you handle this?”
“Yes . I’ll show up and stay with him.”
He narrows his gaze, rolling his tongue over his lip ring. It gently tugs back and forth. “What’s the deal between you two, anyway? Anyone with eyes can see how much you fucking care for each other. He’d sell a kidney to save you. You’re willing to do this to save him, and yet you’re holding him at arm’s length. Why?”
He lights up another cigarette, ignoring a dirty look from a guy who walks by. I don’t mention how he wasted half of his last one by stomping on it. I deduce that it’s more of a nervous tick than anything.
“It’s not that simple,” I mutter. Nothing with Colson in the last month has been easy.
“The fuck it isn’t. If you love each other, what the fuck else matters?” he questions, but then he walks off without letting me get an answer in.
I think he does it on purpose.