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“Never mind,” I told him as I headed for the stairs, figuring Violet was in her room.
Upstairs, I knocked on her closed door and waited for her to answer. I heard footsteps, and a moment later, Vi stood before me. Her appearance took me by surprise.
She’d changed from her school uniform into a pair of baggy sweats that practically hung off her, making me wonder how much weight she must have lost since I’d last seen her. Plus, her face seemed to have a few sharp angles to it now. Her hair was pulled into a knot on top of her head, but the strands looked dull as if they, like her eyes, had lost their shine. Dark shadows were under her purple eyes, and there was a blankness to her expression that had me lifting my hand to make sure she was real and not a beautiful mannequin that looked like sweet little Vi.
When my fingers touched her cheek, she stepped back. “Hi,” she greeted in a voice that seemed… I couldn’t put my finger on it other than it just seemed off to my ears.
“Hey.” I smiled down at her, hoping to get one in return, but she just stood there without even blinking. “Luca wanted me to check on you, make sure you’re okay. Now I can see why.”
I didn’t miss the way she flinched at the sound of her boyfriend’s name, and I knew something was seriously wrong.
“Are you two arguing?” I asked quietly, afraid to spook her. But she wasn’t talking, and I was worried about her.
“I have homework, Jags,” she murmured.
“It’s Friday,” I reminded her. “You have all weekend to get it done.” Grasping her gently by the arms, I moved her aside and stepped into her bedroom. Once I was inside with her, I closed the door and walked her over to her bed. Urging her to sit, I crouched down in front of her. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” She crossed her arms stubbornly in front of her. “If you want to hang out, that’s fine, but I’m not in the mood to talk. Especially about anything concerning Luca.”
“Okay,” I agreed with a nod. “No talking. How about I just camp out on your bed until you get sick of me?”
Her lips twitched in the first sign of emotion from her, and I grinned. “I almost killed a guy for you, Vi. I think you can spare a few hours for me.”
That had her brow scrunching up. “Who did you almost kill?”
“Cannon. Your parents didn’t tell you?” She shook her head. “Huh, I guess they didn’t want that little bit of news spreading around. But yeah, I kicked his ass and would have happily killed him if Barrick hadn’t stopped me.”
“Um…thanks?” I snorted out a laugh, and she shook her head at me. “No, really. Thank you. That makes me feel a little better. Aunt Dallas told me she was sending him to Texas, but… I don’t know…” She glanced toward the window as she lifted one of her hands to touch her mouth. “It just didn’t seem like it was all that harsh of a punishment at the time. I guess I wanted some of his blood spilled.”
“I can assure you it was. Ma said he needed stitches and I may have fractured a few ribs.” I moved to sit on the bed beside her. “Honestly, though, I’m surprised Luca didn’t hunt Cannon down in Texas and finish him off.”
She stiffened, and I could feel her withdrawing completely. Standing, she walked to the door. “I really do need to get this homework done. I have a paper due Monday.”
Sighing, I reluctantly got to my feet and walked to the door where she was waiting. “Whatever’s going on, all you have to do is tell me, and I’ll make whoever put that vacant look in your pretty eyes pay.”
She lowered her gaze to the floor for a moment before straightening her shoulders. “Thanks for stopping by.”
“Ah, Vi.” I wrapped my arms around her. After a small hesitation, she hugged me back. “I don’t like seeing you like this. Just say the word, and I’ll make it all better.”
She gave a small sniffle then stepped back. “You’re just like your mom,” she muttered. “But there are some things not even she can fix.”
I gasped in mock outrage. “Lies. Emmie Armstrong can make anything better with just a flick of her wrist.” Grinning when she rolled her eyes, I kissed her brow. “Fine, fine. I’ll let you go back to hiding behind your oh-so-important homework. I need to stop by and talk to Shaw anyway.”
By the time I got to the top of the stairs, she’d closed her door again. I stopped long enough to say goodbye to Mason and then drove over to Shaw’s. As I pulled into her driveway, nervousness attempted to flood me, but I pushed it down and walked up to her front door.
Shaw’s car was parked in the driveway where Cannon’s used to sit, and I grinned as I remembered the call I’d had with Mia only a few days after the fateful party. She’d been pissed at me, so she wanted to bitch at me for being a stupid dumbass. But then she let it slip that Uncle Ax had raged so hard over what his son had done that he’d auctioned off Cannon’s car to the highest bidder—apparently some weird stalker fan who then took pictures of himself pissing all over the inside of Cannon’s precious car.
It had been a wild story in the tabloids for all of five seconds, but Mia had screenshotted the pictures from the website and emailed them to me. I’d cracked up so hard when I saw the desecrated interior that I’d nearly bust a gut. I could imagine Cannon losing his mind if he saw those pictures, so I’d forwarded them to him just in case he hadn’t seen them yet.
I didn’t get a reply, so I didn’t know if he’d even seen my email or not, but it made me grin just thinking about how pissed my ex-best friend probably had been, and maybe even still was.
Snickering, I pushed the doorbell.
“Just a sec,” I heard Shaw call out, and I wiped the grin off my face just as the door opened.
At my first sight of her in weeks, my breath caught in my throat. Her honey-gold hair was pulled up in a messy knot on top of her head, with several strands floating around her face. She didn’t have on a drop of makeup, and she was dressed in running shorts and a sports bra.
She looked like she was about to go for a run, but I knew better. Shaw didn’t run unless someone or something was chasing her.
