“Come on,” I prompt her.
She eyes me speculatively. “If you’ve brought me out here to kill me, I have news for you, Mike, I’m not easy to take out and I don’t fight fair.”
“That’s not a joke to make, Violet. There have been a few dead bodies show up here in Black Mountain, you know.”
“I didn’t know, I don’t really watch the news, Mike.”
“Vi—”
“But I wasn’t exactly kidding.”
“I won’t hurt you, Violet. I’m an asshole, but I’m not that kind of asshole. Now get out of the damn car.”
“No, you’re just the kind of asshole that blackmails people to get what you want,” she snaps, but she at least gets out of the car.
“That’s the way the entire world is, Violet. Maybe you should get used to it,” I respond, refusing to feel ashamed for taking what I want.
Especially when what I want is her.
I don’t let go of her hand. I keep it in mine as I sigh. Then I walk us toward Devil’s Tooth. Devil’s Tooth is a rock formation that juts out from Black Mountain. It connects like a bridge to the two peaks on either side that overlook the lake. It’s a climb to get there, but it’s beautiful.
I come up here to think and be alone, something that has happened more and more lately. I expected Violet to give me shit about climbing up here, but she doesn’t. She’s unusually quiet. I help her with the harder parts of the climb, and we finish our ascent in silence. When we get to the pass, I sit down and wait to see what she does. She sits down beside me and looks out over the pass that leads to the peaks.
“This is beautiful,” she murmurs, and I definitely agree. There are times when I stay up here all day. It’s probably the most peaceful place I’ve ever found.
“It is. It’s called Devil’s Tooth,” I tell her with a smile, when she spares a glance at me.
“Devil’s Tooth?” she laughs.
“Yeah, the legend is that no one has ever crossed the tooth and survived.”
“Really? I guess it is kind of narrow,” she murmurs.
“A bunch of fuckers have tried to dare one another, but even drunk, no one has been brave enough to try it.”
“Not even Big Mike Huntington?” she asks, leaning her head to the side to look at me, her hair sliding from her shoulders to fan around her face. The sun is shining on the golden strands and my damn breath catches in my throat. She’s the most gorgeous woman that I’ve ever seen in my life. I want her more than I could ever find words to explain.
“I value life,” I shrug, lying out of my ass. I just have no desire to climb out on the peak.
“Hmmm…” she hums, but she lets it drop.
“I don’t want you dancing at the Beaver, Violet,” I breathe out, preparing for a battle. I expect her to immediately begin yelling out curses that would make sailors cringe. Slapping me across the face or pushing me off the ledge were also contenders. Violet doesn’t do any of that.
She laughs.
“That’s a good one, Mikey.”
“I’m being serious with you, Violet. I don’t want you dancing there anymore.”
“You’re serious,” she says when she finally stops laughing at me.
“Deadly,” I confirm, getting agitated.
“You’re just going to have to get over it,” she exhales, and I can tell she’s upset with me, but I don’t give a damn.
“I don’t want you dancing there. I don’t want other men seeing what’s mine. I don’t want it on display for them.”
“Whoa,” she exclaims, holding her hand up as if to stop me from talking. “Are you even listening to yourself? I’m not yours. I don’t belong to anyone but myself. I sure as hell don’t belong to you. Let’s not forget what’s between us here, Mike. You’re actually blackmailing me to be with you, remember?”
“Don’t play that card, Violet. You know as well as I do that there’s more than just the blackmailing between us.”
“You’re being delusional. I wouldn’t be here right now if you weren’t threatening to expose what I do for a living. We don’t have a relationship. Heck, I’m only eighteen. I’m not ready to belong to anyone, Mike. I’m not sure I ever will be, but when I am, it would never be you.”
“What the hell do you mean, never me?”
“Exactly what I said,” she huffs. “It would never be you. We have zilch, nada, nothing in common, Mike. You know that as well as I do. You don’t even do serious relationships and I wouldn’t want anything else. No, scratch that. I don’t want a relationship, period. Relationships in my world are messy and they don’t work out. There’s nothing great about them; they’re hugely disappointing, if anything.”
“Maybe the reason you think they’re disappointing, Violet, is because you’ve only been looking in your world. Maybe you need to get into my world.”