by Leah Wilde
I should have felt better about what I did, but I couldn’t help but feel pretty horrible for the amount of pain my actions were going to bring Violet. She was innocent. She had done nothing to deserve what I had done to her. But that was how it worked. It wasn’t my responsibility to let her know what kind of monster her brother was or to explain to her how her relationship with him put her in danger. All of that was going to come out in the wash now. I’d pulled her into the conflict between The Hellions and Titus Darren, and it was only a matter of time before she realized her brother wasn’t a saint.
“So, was it any good?” Mason asked crudely.
I let my lips curl up in a dark grin.
“Yes, it was good,” I told him. “It’s a shame I was only doing it for work. I’d like to keep that sweet little piece around for more.” I was thankful for his question. Watching the smiles on their faces as I answered him, I remembered where my priorities were. Violet was simply just another girl, and she could have been more useful than I’d given her credit for in the beginning.
“You know,” Mason added as if reading my mind, “you could probably keep her around and use her to spy on her brother now that you’ve worked your way in far enough to sleep with her. You could probably destroy any loyalty she has for Titus.”
“He makes a good point, Rogue,” Brodie agreed.
“I think you guys are missing the point,” I told them, laughing.
“Which is?” Reese asked.
“I got some information that will help us when we crash Titus’s deal this weekend,” I told them. “Once that happens, we won’t need to keep Violet Darren around for anything else,” I added.
“Okay, well, let’s get down to business, then,” Brodie suggested.
“According to Violet, and remember, she doesn’t know a whole lot about what her brother does, she thinks he runs a legitimate business. But, she says there’s an old warehouse in the industrial district that he uses. She referred to its location as the old garment district, so that might help us identify the building where the deal is going down.” It occurred to me that I had failed to ask if she knew which old warehouse. The emotions I had allowed myself to feel had clouded my judgment, leaving me to act hastily in all of this, but that missing piece of information would be easy enough to find.
“So she didn’t know exactly where?” Brodie probed.
“Like I said, Titus hasn’t exactly been that open with her about what he does. She thinks he runs a consulting firm and they sometimes use this old garment warehouse for meetings. I don’t know if she thinks it’s still vacant or what,” I explained.
“Wait, there used to be a clothing manufacturer right across the river from my place,” Brodie chimed in quickly.
“That could be what she’s thinking about.” I laughed as I added, “She was already half asleep when she told me, so let’s take that into consideration as well.”
“Yeah, it’s still vacant, so I’m sure it’s the perfect spot for someone like Titus to arrange deals,” Brodie told us.
“Great. Now we know where it’s going to be and we can get to work shutting this fucker down once and for all.” I punched the table for emphasis.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Mason said. “Just like old times, Rogue. Glad to see you didn’t actually go soft on me, brother.” He stood up and embraced me.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I joked.
“Alright, guys, you heard him. We know where it’s going to be. We already have our assignments between now and then. Let’s get to work.” I could hear the renewed vigor in Mason’s voice. It was good to hear some of the energy and confidence returning to the MC.
“I’m thinking we call it a night and get back to it tomorrow,” Brodie said, getting up from the table and stretching.
I nodded at him and everyone else at the table, letting them know I agreed with sleep.
“We need to be prepared when we go into this,” I told them. “He’s going to be ready for us, and at this point he knows we’re not playing games. Get some sleep, guys.”
I walked out with everyone this time instead of lingering behind with Brodie like I normally did. There wasn’t anything extra to talk about. While the leadership team dispersed, I made my way upstairs to where I’d been holed up since I got out. It felt good to see that at least some good was going to come out of what I had done, even if I still had my doubts.
I had the support of the rest of my guys again, the core members of The Hellions, and in a couple of days, we were going to reclaim our position. I knew I needed to sleep the last few hours off and get my head back on straight if I was going to lead the MC into what promised to be a nasty confrontation, but I wasn’t sure if I could.
It had been five years, and it was all about to come to an end. Once it was all over between us and Titus, I had to figure out what the hell was going on in my MC. The organization I’d left behind when I went in had balls. The guys who had greeted me when I came out were not of the same caliber. I hadn’t told them everything I’d heard in prison, but even after everything that had made it to my ears, I hadn’t expected to find the core members of The Hellions practically terrified of their own shadows.
I had heard about what amounted to a mass exodus of lower level members. Many were arrested or killed for doing things they had no business doing. It was a mess. I had hoped that when I came back out, the worst would be over, and anyone who didn’t belong would have already weeded themselves out.
It seemed I was wrong. Or maybe I just needed to help the remaining members find their confidence and passion again, like with Mason. Brodie may have been my right hand man and confidant, but Mason seemed to be stepping up to the plate to help me get the spirits back in order.
I pulled off my boots and hung my vest on the back of the door before kicking back on the small bed in the room I had claimed as my own until everything passed. This wasn’t going to be easy.
I laughed to myself as I imagined the guys trying to go into the deal with Titus and his men. I could see them nervously walking in with their guns drawn. I could see them trying to intimidate Titus and his men instead of shooting them.
The thought crossed my mind to go alone. I couldn’t let them jeopardize my chance at exacting revenge on this asshole, but I also knew I didn’t stand a chance if I went in alone. If nothing else, they could at least draw fire away from me. It was horrible to think like that, but I was on a mission.
From that point forward, any losses would just be chalked up to collateral damage. I had given up a chance with someone I thought I had been developing feelings for. I gave up five years of my life. I spent my time behind bars focused on this moment, on the time when I would get to take Titus down for what he had done to me.
When I was taking the fall, I never imagined that he would have succeeded in breaking The Hellions the way he had by taking me out of the picture the way he had. I had expected the guys to step up to the challenge and handle things in my absence. What weaknesses my absence hadn’t exposed or weeded out would definitely be handled over the course of taking Titus down. Anything that managed to make it through the fight with Titus’s men would be handled afterwards.
The more I thought about the attitudes of my fellow Hellions, the more pissed off I got about the whole thing. Titus was as good as dead, but I wasn’t going to sit by and watch my MC crumble underneath the poor leadership of bumbling idiots when there were men out there who would have killed to be in their positions. Those were the men I needed in my MC, men who weren’t afraid to take matters in their own hands, men who weren’t afraid to do what needed to be done and who wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger when it needed to be pulled.
I smiled into the darkness of my room. It felt good to be back. It felt good to be working again. And it felt damn good to know that despite everything that had happened over the last five years, the MC was still standing.
We were going to ride out in a couple of days to ambush Titus�
�s men, and we were going to bring Hell with us.
Chapter 14
Violet
The golden glow of morning light came through my blinds to light up my room and wake me up. At first I thought that maybe the night before had been a dream, a very intense and realistic dream, but a dream nonetheless. It was disappointing to wake up in the bed alone after having such vivid sexual dreams of my first time with Rogue.
I rolled over and ran my hand along the sheets where he had fallen asleep in what I still believed was a dream. I remembered how real his body had felt against mine as I drifted off to sleep in his arms. Oh, how I wanted it to be real! I wanted to wake up in his arms and feel his breath on my skin. I wanted to feel those hands on me again with those strong arms wrapped around me.
I rolled out of bed, and as I stood up, I realized how sore I was. It felt like someone had stretched me out. Or like the sex hadn’t been a dream. I ached deep inside, and my muscles felt like they had been worked in unnatural ways. I crept out of my bedroom, listening for the telltale sounds of someone else in my apartment. From what I could see, I was alone.
“But he went to bed with me,” I said to myself, troubled and confused that after everything that was said, and everything that we did, he would leave me alone.
I looked on the other pillow and on the nightstand next to the bed. There was no note. I grabbed my phone and checked it. There were no texts or voicemails waiting to explain to me why he had left, but I knew. I knew deep down why he had left.
I felt like such a fool for trusting him and letting my guard down around him. He did just what my brother said he would do. He used me and threw me away. And to think I let him inside me. He took my virginity! He was the first man I ever trusted enough to sleep with, and he left me standing naked in my apartment looking for some clue to let me know he hadn’t just left for no reason at all.
There was nothing. It was like he hadn’t even been in my apartment in the first place, but I knew he had. I knew he had been in more than just my apartment. I sat on the bed and buried my face in my hands. How could I have been so stupid?
I sat like that for a long time, sobbing into my hands on the edge of the bed, but it occurred to me that I knew the perfect way to get my revenge on him. I knew someone who seemed more than willing to get Rogue back for hurting me, so I grabbed my phone and gave him a call.
“You were right,” I told my brother as he answered the phone.
“What do you mean?” he asked, not quite getting my point right off the bat.
“You were right about Rogue,” I said.
“Please tell me you didn’t let him get you into bed,” he begged. I could hear it in his voice. He wanted to hear me say that I hadn’t slept with Rogue, that he’d broken my heart some other way before it went that far. I regretted that I couldn’t tell him that.
“Yeah, I did, like an idiot,” I said, starting to tear up again.
“No, don’t talk about yourself like that,” Titus told me, his voice gentle and soothing. “He is just really good at what he does, Violet. He has been doing this for a long, long time, so don’t feel bad that he fooled you.”
“I should have listened to you, Titus,” I told him. “I should have listened.”
“Yeah, but if you did that, you wouldn’t need me around. He laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of it,” he said, his tone hardening.
“I let him take my virginity, Titus,” I sobbed. I was usually very open with my brother, and I couldn’t imagine not telling him every detail of what happened.
“That motherfucker,” he growled. “I should have handled it when I met with him the other night.”
“What?” I asked, not sure if I heard him correctly.
“I ran into him at the bar the other night, and I pulled him aside to talk to him about you,” he started explaining. “He told me everything he planned on doing to you. I warned him then that if he messed with you, I would ruin him, but I see he didn’t believe me. I should have just taken care of him right then and there so he wouldn’t have had the chance.”
“Why didn’t you tell me what he said he was planning on doing?” I asked him through my tears.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “I thought that between my conversation with him and my conversation with you, someone would have gotten the idea to step back from the situation. Honestly, I was counting on you more than I was him.”
His last statement was like a punch in the gut. I was already feeling pretty stupid for giving in like I had to Rogue’s tricks.
“Did you tell him you loved him?” Titus sighed.
“I don’t think I did,” I told him. I blushed. I couldn’t remember if I had said it or not, but I knew I had been thinking it. I had probably been thinking it hard enough that he might have heard me anyway.
“Good. Do you think you love him?” he probed.
“What difference does that make, Titus?” I pleaded with my brother. “I mean, he obviously had me feeling something or else I wouldn’t have done it.”
His silence growled over the phone. It was the roar of pure rage I heard in that moment of quiet. My brother was fuming. I couldn’t believe how angry he was. It was as if he felt that Rogue had really been trying to slight him by hurting me. Then, he said as much.
“I can’t believe he would really use you to get to me like that. He’s dead. Understand, Violet, that he is dead now,” Titus said, breaking his silence.
“How do you know each other, Titus?” I asked. I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to know why it was that my brother felt so strongly that Rogue was after him with what he’d done to me.
“Our professional paths have crossed before,” he told me.
“But how? He’s just a biker and you’re a businessman, right? So how would you two cross paths?” I asked. It just wasn’t adding up in my head how the head of a consulting firm would cross paths with the head of a motorcycle club or gang.
“We’ve had our run-ins in the past,” he said, basically just repeating himself. “He’s not exactly an upstanding member of the community, Violet. You know, regardless of what he had planned for you, you had no business messing with him to begin with.”
“I know,” I told him. It didn’t make it feel any better to know that Titus had told me all of this before—to leave him alone, that he planned to hurt me, and that this was exactly what was going to happen.
“I should have put someone in place to watch you in case he came back around after the last time you and I talked about it,” he continued. “But I’m going to handle it. Don’t you worry about it. I’m going to take care of everything.”
I didn’t like the way he was starting to sound. His take care of everything didn’t sound like he was planning on talking about it anymore. It sounded like someone wasn’t walking away after being taken care of. I wondered if that was how my brother and Rogue knew each other. I wondered if my brother had his hand in some less than upstanding business himself.
“Do you have to work today?” he asked me.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said after thinking about it for a moment.
“Okay. Get cleaned up and go to work. Try to treat today like nothing happened. The sooner you get back to normal, the sooner this will all just be a memory,” he told me, and his voice sounded hard, like it was a command instead of a suggestion.
“You’re probably right.” I felt like it was time to start listening to him the first time he told me something instead of figuring out the hard way that he’d been right all along.
“I know I’m right.”
He never asked what happened. Did he really already know? Was my phone call enough to tell him? I was simply thankful that I didn’t have to explain myself to him. I didn’t know if I could handle having to recount the whole thing to him.
“Titus?” I said feebly.
“Yeah, sis?”
“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. And thank you for looking out for me.” I was going to owe him
big time for this.
“Don’t mention it, Violet. I’m your brother. What else am I supposed to do?”
I started crying again. Titus just sat on the line and listened while I sobbed. I couldn’t say anything. I had known the minute I saw Rogue in the card shop that he was going to be trouble for me. I had known that bad things were going to come from talking to him and letting him engage me in conversation. But I had gone along with it anyway. I felt like such an idiot.