Violet: From The Colt Universe

VIOLET

My heart was pounding like a drum as I glanced between Blade and the trapdoor.

Could I trust him? Was he really harmless?

He had just taken out a whole warehouse of Crows and possibly ignited a war between the charters for my sake. But he was also a biker.

Like my father. Like Skinner. Growing up in Destiny, I’d never met a biker who was a gentleman, even if he could pretend to be one when he wanted to get into your pants.

Damn. Time was slipping away.

I gave Blade’s worried face one last look.

There was something about him. I couldn’t ignore it. Something inside me was screaming at me to trust him.

I swallowed hard and thought, Screw it.

I dashed out of the cage and ran across the warehouse toward Blade, just as the doors of the house burst open around me and a horde of bikers stormed into the building.

I slid to a stop behind the rusty Mustang that Blade was using as a shield and felt his strong arms steady me.

He turned to face me, his expression serious.

“Alright, purple. Here’s the plan. We run.”

“Great plan,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. I thought I saw a hint of a smile on his face.

But then his hand slid down my arm, and his fingers intertwined with mine. I felt a spark of electricity shoot through my body at his touch.

“Now,” he yelled, raising his gun over his head and firing at the incoming wave of bikers. I saw him take down two men as we raced to the opposite end of the warehouse.

The door was locked with a padlock, but Blade threw his shoulder against the lock, and it shattered like driftwood.

And then we were outside in the chilly night air, running, the shouts of Crows echoing behind us.

Up ahead, Blade’s bike was parked in the shadows of another warehouse.

Without missing a beat, he picked me up and placed me on the seat.

Then he swung one leg over the beast and climbed aboard in front of me. Before his foot had even left the ground, he’d kicked the bike into gear and sped away from the scene, gravel flying.

“Get down,” Blade roared as a bullet whizzed by my cheek and smacked into the concrete wall of the warehouse.

The sound of engines behind us told me that the Crows were in pursuit.

“What do we do?” I yelled over the roar of the wind, trying to sound braver than I felt. I’d just gotten tangled up in a pretty damn complicated biker war, the likes of which Destiny hadn’t seen in years.

“We get to No Man’s Land,” Blade replied, swerving to the left as two Crows on Harleys appeared on the street in front of us.

I clung on for dear life, my cheek pressed into Blade’s leather-clad shoulder.

“But it’s all-out warfare now. You killed the Destiny VP.”

“Let me worry about that,” he growled. “Hang on tight.”

With that, he sped up, then threw his body to the right, forcing the bike to lean dangerously to the right as he took a turn with incredible force.

I could swear I felt the heat of the asphalt on my face before he pulled the bike upright again.

By the sound of it, the Crows were right on our tail, but we could see the silhouette of No Man’s Land at the end of the road.

I still wasn’t sure what Blade’s plan was.

I mean, if he had just started a war with the Crows, all treaties were off. The neutral ground would now be a battlefield.

Blade skidded to a stop in the parking lot of No Man’s Land and put down his kickstand.

Before I’d even had time to process what was happening, he’d jumped off the bike, pulling his Walther from his jeans and cocking it.

I turned to watch as a line of motorcycles rumbled slowly to a stop just outside No Man’s Land property.

Any moment now, I was sure Blade and I would be showered with bullets. I could see the rage and bloodlust in the eyes of the bikers facing off against Blade.

But, to my surprise, they were respecting the neutral ground.

“So what? You want to come get a drink?” Blade yelled at them, and I felt sick. He was practically begging for us to be killed.

I saw the anger on the faces of the Crows, but still they didn’t step onto the property.

Finally, one of the men, Reef, who had until recently been Skinner’s number two, cursed loudly.

“Turn it around, boys. The war doesn’t start tonight.”

The Crows grumbled angrily, but none of them tried to disobey. They reluctantly kicked their bikes into gear and turned around, disappearing one by one into the night.

Finally, only Reef stood there, glaring daggers at Blade.

But then, even he finally got on his bike and drove away.

“I don’t understand,” I said in confusion as Blade turned to look at me. You killed their VP. What happened?”

Blade shrugged. “Human trafficking is against the peace treaty, and they all knew it.

“Half the Crows in this town don’t even know it’s happening. If they’d have blown up the peace tonight, they’d have been dealing with civil war as well as revolution.”

He walked past me toward the locked entrance of the bar.

“So, purple, are you going to unlock this door, or do I have to break it down to get a drink?”

***

My hands were still shaking as I made us drinks.

Blade was sitting at a booth in the back of the empty bar using his leather jacket as a pillow. He seemed half-ready to fall asleep.

I was still reeling from the events of the night and had offered to make drinks because I needed to do something with my hands.

I felt jittery, like I was buzzing with energy and on the verge of passing out from sheer exhaustion at the same time.

I wasn’t even sure what sort of drink I was making until I put down the vodka and realized I’d made two Cosmos.

Oh, crap. There was no way I could take these to Blade. Bikers never drank this sweet, girly type of drink.

When I first confessed to Anna that I wanted to learn how to make a Cosmopolitan, she’d laughed so hard she could barely breathe. She’d told me she had no idea how to make “that fancy city folk sugar water.”

But for some reason, I’d always been drawn to the drink, and I’d taught myself how to make it using YouTube tutorials.

After hundreds of failed attempts and several bottles of Anna’s cheap vodka, I’d become pretty good at making it.

But right now, I needed to dump these drinks and make something simpler… probably something without sugar that a guy like Blade would drink.

“Well, what do we have here?”

I jumped, startled, and turned to see Blade leaning over the bar, a smirk on his face as he looked at the glasses of pink liquid in my hand.

“I… Nothing, I just…,” I stammered, picking up the glasses and moving to pour them down the drain.

But before I could, I felt Blade’s hand close around my wrist.

“Hold on, I want to try this pink concoction you’ve made.”

I swallowed hard. I really didn’t want him to try the drink. He already thought I was just a weak little bar girl. I didn’t want to give him more ammunition.

But the determined look in his eyes left no room for argument. Sighing, I handed him the glass.

He brought the glass to his full red lips—get a grip, Violet—and took a sip. The moment the liquid touched his lips, he nearly choked.

“Cut it out,” I muttered, my face turning red, as he put down the glass, laughing uncontrollably.

“You actually drink this?” he asked, disbelief in his voice. I glared at him.

“Yes, I do, actually. And so what? Unlike beer, it actually tastes good. Plus, it has more alcohol in it. So, it’s actually stronger than your ‘manly’ drinks.” I put my hands on my hips.

For a moment, he just looked at me, a muscle twitching in his cheek. Uh oh, was he mad now?

And then, he burst out laughing again, spilling most of his Cosmo.

“People don’t actually order this, do they?” he asked between fits of laughter. “Not in Destiny, right?”

“No,” I admitted, blushing. “I’m the only bartender here who can even make them. But I like them.”

I glared at him until he finally stopped smirking.

“Well, that seems like a very useful skill to have,” he chuckled. “I’ll just take a beer.”

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a glass and poured a pint of the worst beer we had on tap. I slid it across the bar towards him.

“Hope you choke on it,” I said, giving him the sweetest smile I could manage.

“Oh, come on,” he chuckled. “Don’t be like that. Here…cheers.”

He held out his beer to me.

In response, I grabbed my Cosmo and brought it up to his glass.

Then, at the last second, I downed the entire glass in one go, right in front of him. When I’d finished, I slammed the empty glass down on the counter and stared at him defiantly.

Several moments passed, the tension thick in the air.

And then Blade burst out laughing again. At first, I tried to keep a straight face, but soon I gave up and started laughing, too.

After that, things got easier between us. I refilled Blade’s beer a few times, switching to the better beer once he stopped being a jerk, and he gave me his unfinished Cosmo.

Soon, we were both too tipsy to stand at the bar, so we slid into opposite ends of the booth. Part of me wished he sat next to me instead, but I quickly dismissed that thought.

“So why are you here?” I asked finally, trying hard not to get lost in his captivating green eyes.

He raised an eyebrow.

“I already told you. I’m here to stop the Crows from human trafficking. They’re breaking the peace treaty and lying to their Mother Charter.”

“I don’t buy it,” I challenged. “Why would you care about your rival MC?”

He stared at me for a long moment.

“I don’t want women sold into slavery,” he said, a soft smile on his face.

“Out of the goodness of your heart? Bullshit,” I said.

He tilted his head to one side and seemed to study me. “You haven’t known many decent people, have you?”

I kept my gaze steady, even though an image of my momma flashed across my mind.

When I didn’t respond, he sighed and leaned back against the booth.

“My mother was trafficked,” he said finally. “She was taken by a van in the middle of the night, just like what almost happened to you.”

“By the Crows?” I asked, leaning forward. I never expected him to be this honest.

He shook his head and grimaced. “By the Vipers.”

“Your own club?” I was shocked. “But the Vipers are always fighting against trafficking.”

“It wasn’t always like that,” he said darkly. “My mother was one of the last they enslaved. When I took over the Oklahoma charter, I swore to put a stop to it. For good.”

He spoke calmly, but I could see a storm brewing behind his eyes.

“I’m sorry…I didn’t know,” I said quietly. He smiled sadly.

“I’ve vowed that no more women would meet their end at the hands of a sworn brother.” He leaned forward. “But what about you? Nobody as interesting as you ends up in Destiny by accident. What brought you here?”

I swallowed and looked away. Blade seemed to sense my hesitation. He sat up quickly.

“I get it,” he said. “You don’t have to say anything.”

He sat back in his seat, and I smiled gratefully at him.

After that, we settled into a comfortable silence. It was nice just sitting with him in the booth, not having to talk. It felt…normal.

After all the stress and excitement of tonight, I needed this sense of calm and relaxation.

***

I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, it was to find Blade, asleep across from me in the booth.

The first thing that caught my eye was his jawline. It was so perfectly symmetrical and defined.

The second thing I noticed was his half-drunk beer, still loosely held in his hand, threatening to crash to the floor.

I quietly got up and carefully slid the glass from his hand. He grunted in his sleep and his hand curled into a fist.

For a moment, a look of pain crossed his face. He mumbled something in his sleep.

“What was that?” I whispered.

“Elliott…please,” he whispered back.

“Elliott’s not here,” I whispered in return. As soon as the words left my mouth, his expression softened, and he slipped back into peaceful sleep.

Puzzled, I walked over to the bar and rinsed out his beer glass.

Suddenly, a tapping sound from the door caught my attention.

My mind immediately went to the Crows, coming back to finish us off. I quickly turned to look at the door.

There was a figure standing outside the bar. I could see them through the frosted-glass window, but their face was a blur.

My heart started to pound in my chest as I cautiously stepped out from behind the bar and walked over to the door.

“Who is it?” I asked, my hand hovering over the door handle.

Whoever it was, I knew it couldn’t be good.

Then I heard a familiar drunken voice, “Open up, girl. You never came home to make me dinner. I’m fucking starved.”

Shit. It’s my father.

“I…I’ll be home soon,” I replied. “I’ll bring you some food. Just go home, Dad.”

“Don’t patronize me, bitch. So help me God, you let me in right this second, or I’ll break down this door and come in anyway. And trust me, you won’t like your punishment if I do.”

My hand was still hovering over the door handle.

Should I let him in? God only knew what he’d do to me if I didn’t. But if I did let him in, in his current state, what might he do to Blade if he found him asleep in the bar with his daughter?

Shit. Shit. There was no good answer.

“I’ll give you to the count of three, girl,” my father growled through the door.

“One…Two…Three…”

DECIDE YOUR DESTINY

Should Violet let her father in or attempt to lock him out?

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