Would I have considered asking Susanna Gagne out under different circumstances? Definitely. Right now, there’s one woman on my mind, and that’s the girl I feel like I put in peril three years ago. Now that I’ve extracted her from his bullshit, it’ll be interesting to see what move he makes next.
If he’s smart, he’ll fuck off.
Sadly, Raymond Iadanza was never very smart.
I could plainly see on the morning I drove her to work that she wanted out of the relationship. I can’t read her expression right now, though.
“Pop the trunk,” I tell Violet and she leans over and hits the button on my key fob.
I put her stuff in my trunk and see that her other bag is in my back seat.
“It’s cold. Why didn’t you turn the heat on?”
She shrugs. She’s chewing her lip and looking at me with huge eyes. She doesn’t know what to make of me and all that just happened.
As we pull out, it’s obvious by her body language that she’s fretting.
“What’s on your mind?” I ask.
She shakes her head, curls bouncing. And I find it cute, but I don’t like the look of anxiety on her face.
“You can be honest with me. What’s on your mind, Violet?”
“Um, lots,” she whispers, clawing at her neck with her fingernails. I’ve seen her do this before, it’s obviously her tell about being stressed.
“Gimme the rundown.” We’re stopped at a light, so I twist slightly and my eyes move over her. She’s trembling. She’s got her eyes pointed straight ahead and she’s worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. And the trembling? It makes me wanna rip our seatbelts off and haul her onto my lap and hold her tight, so she’ll stop, so she’ll know she doesn’t have to worry.
I let the strangeness of that thought penetrate for a minute and then shake it off because it’s a weird sensation for me.
“Violet,” I bite off, and she jolts.
I didn’t intend to come across angry, I’m just reacting to the visual I just got.
She moistens her lips with her tongue, then replies. “My… car. He’ll probably try to sell it. He has a spare key for it.”
The light turns green and so I advance and then pull over as soon as there’s an opportunity. I pull my phone out of my pocket and order my assistant to get her car towed, rattling off Violet’s address and the make and color of the car. I ask Violet the license plate and Alana tells me she heard it.
“Put it in spot four in my section of the garage,” I instruct before I say goodbye to Alana and look back to Violet.
“You got keys with you for when it gets to my place?” I ask.
She nods while fiddling with her fingers in her lap.
“Good. I’ll get you a fob for the garage and that’ll get you up in the elevator to my floor. I’ll get keys cut for my condo tomorrow for you. I don’t have a spare set right now.”
This reminds me, I need my spare set of keys back from Kenya. It’s been two months and I’ve been avoiding the unpleasantness. I already disabled her access on my security system so she can’t disarm the apartment, but she can get in. I’ll have the locks changed tomorrow avoiding the possibility she decides to try.
“Okay,” Violet replies timidly.
I don’t like how timid she is with me. I need to show patience with her. She’s like a frightened rabbit.
12
Violet
“The pawn ticket,” he asks. “What is it?”
“Some jewelry.”
“You take it in to help him out of a jam?” he asks, his voice full of edginess.
I don’t know him, of course, but anyone could see his patience is in short supply. I can only imagine how annoyed he is about all of this stuff with Ray, the thousands of dollars Ray owes. Ray trying to dodge him.
And this…
This… how strange is this? It’s still penetrating. I’m a marker for Ray’s debt to Killian. I can’t let myself linger on that thought though because I’m using all my energy trying to hold myself together.
“He took it in without my permission.”
He takes a breath and nods.
“I’ll get it out for you. Add the amount to his tab. How much will it cost to get it out?”
He starts the car and holds his hand out.
“It’s not necessary to do that, Killian.”
“Give it, Violet. Please. Engagement ring in there?”
I reach into my bag and I place the ticket in his palm.
“No. I’ve never had one. Do you think I lied?”
He smiles and shakes his head. “No, baby. I don’t. My apologies.”
I try to ignore the funny feeling fluttering around in me at the endearment.
“How much?” he repeats.
“Two something,” I reply softly. “Maybe three with the storage fees.”
“Two thousand and something?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Two hundred and something.”