Page 61 of Playing with Trouble

He kissed my cheek, then the other, and I realized I was crying.“You’re okay, baby,” he murmured so sweetly, his hand splaying warm and steady against my back.“It’s okay.I’ve got you.”

And for once, I didn’t argue.I let myself believe him.I buried my face against his chest, breathing him in and letting him hold me.

CHAPTER23

Ford

It was my own damn fault.The second Chase said “You’re going to want to meet us at the hospital” I stopped listening.I cut him off and interrupted him at every turn.I knew I was being irrational, but panic had already sunk it’s claws in and I’d had tunnel vision, already bracing myself for the kind of news that could potentially rip my world to pieces.

I thought it was Violet.

By the time I reached the hospital, my adrenaline was through the roof.I spotted Chase in the lobby and immediately demanded, “Where is she?”

Chase told me the room she was in, and I didn’t even wait to hear the rest of what he said.I tore through the building like a mad man, until I reached the room and saw not Violet in the hospital bed, but her brother, Christopher.

The embarrassment hit hard.I’d jumped to conclusions.Hell, I’d practically bulldozed the hospital staff getting to her room.Violet was fine.But the sight of her brother made sense of why Chase had called me.Something serious was going on.

Still…all I could think wasshe’s okay.For fifteen minutes straight on the drive over, I’d entertained the worst case scenarios.That I would walk into a room and see the one thing I couldn’t survive…that I’d been too late to protect her.

I’d never known fear like that.And maybe that fear, my panic and absolute loss of control, was what broke through the last pieces of Violet’s defenses.Because when she looked at me outside that hospital room, the expression on her face nearly shattered me.

She didn’t even have to speak.I saw every vulnerable emotion.Grief, exhaustion, betrayal, heartbreak.She looked absolutely devastated.And all I wanted in that moment was to pull her into my arms and shield her from the entire damn world.

And she let me.Shefucking let me.The woman who fought me on everything.The woman who guarded herself like survival depended on it.She finally stopped pushing me away and let me in.

When I said,I can’t lose you, it slipped out before I could think better of it.It wasn’t smooth.It wasn’t planned.It was the truest thing I’d ever said.Violet was prickly and complicated and she would make me earn every inch of her trust and affection.But I didn’t want easy.I wanted her.

I didn’t know exactly what happened with Christopher, but seeing him in that condition told me enough.He’d clearly been assaulted.I knew what he meant to Violet, her baby brother, her only family for so many years.

Finally, Violet pulled back, wiping at her eyes as she looked up at me.“Thank you.”

“Of course,” I said.

“No.Not of course.”She shook her head.“I know what you’ve done, how you’ve been there for me, and I don’t want you to think I took it for granted, even if I’ve struggled to accept it.”

“Violet.”My tone was gentle as I reached out, brushing a strand of hair from her face.“You don’t have to give me a big apology speech.I get it.”And I truly did.

Her eyes welled up again and she leaned in and kissed me, and I let her.

“What was that for?”I asked when she pulled back.

“Just because,” she whispered, giving me a tremulous smile before taking a steadying breath.“The guy you have at the police station, the client at the casino, it’s not him.”

I frowned in confusion.“What do you mean?”How the hell could she be so certain?

“Christopher just admitted that the attacks that have been happening to me are because of him,” she said quietly, her tone pained.

I had never heard her voice like this.I had seen her scared.I had even seen her overwhelmed with emotion and trying to keep it under control.But I hadn’t ever heard her sound so defeated.Like something inside of her had been broken.

Every muscle in my body went still.It took everything in me not to curse her brother’s name for putting Violet in the danger he had.Christopher had made poor choices before and Violet had stood by him.She’d supported and defended him.Protected him, even.

Now, it looked as though he’d proven her wrong after all.The one person she believed would never hurt her…had.I couldn’t imagine that kind of betrayal.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?”I asked her.“Details?”

Violet outlined what her brother had told her.It wasn’t much, but it was enough.I’d need to talk to him myself to get the full picture.Still, the puzzle pieces of this case finally started to click into place and make sense.

It wasn’t about Violet.It was about her brother.They were threatening Christopher through her.