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“Are you ashamed of this club?”
“No.”
“But you only want our help on your terms? Sorry to tell you, that’s not how we work.”
All or nothing. How many times has Violet said this to me? “Why can’t football belong to me?”
“It can, but you’ve been listening to Violet too much. All we want to do is help and all I hear is you pushing me away.”
“Sometimes navigating between this world and the world outside the clubhouse walls isn’t easy. Some battles I need to fight on my own.”
“You’re not the first man to say that. In fact, your father said that to me more than a few times.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
No response from Cyrus.
“Why did James go to Louisville?” I ask.
Cyrus readjusts in his chair and I will him to answer, not shut me down like he has for eighteen years. “The work he was looking for wasn’t available in Snowflake.”
“I thought he was a welder.” James went to college, worked part-time as a welder to pay his way through school, got his bachelors, but after he graduated, he kept welding.
“He was.” The answer simple.
A pit forms in my stomach. Plenty of welding jobs in the area. “Why not Bowling Green, then?”
“James wanted Louisville.”
“Why?”
“The men who kidnapped you and Violet were brought in to Louisville last night. Eli and I will be pulling the two of you out of school early and will drive you there for the lineup.”
My mind stretches in two opposite directions and it comes close to ripping my brain in half. Cyrus can talk about my father for hours when it comes to anything before his graduation from high school, but the after...he goes dead silent. The need to understand my father is overpowering, but the need to protect Violet is stronger. “Violet needs to be told.”
“You can do it if you want. Eli’s driving her back here so you can take her to school. We thought you would prefer that.”
We would. “Thanks.”
Cyrus leans forward, resting his elbows on the table. “I know you and Violet are tight again. How tight I don’t know, but I want to warn you—”
“I’m being careful,” I cut him off. “I’m not interested in hurting her.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’ve been watching Violet and something’s got her spooked. If anyone comes up on her too fast or if she’s alone, she jumps. Not a lot, but enough. And she’s watching everyone and everything. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”
I have. It’s not big enough that I would have guessed anyone else would have noticed, but Cyrus understands how to read people, too. “Maybe you missed we were kidnapped.”
“It’s more than that. She’s scared. Doesn’t trust where she’s at.”
How do I explain she doesn’t trust the club? “She’ll feel better once she sleeps in her own bed. Violet needs to feel normal again, even if normal is still far away.”
He knocks his hand twice against the table. “She’s hiding something. I know you don’t want to hear it. Know you’re too vested in things working out between the two of you, but I’ve been thinking about this kidnapping over and over again. If they wanted you, why would they be near Violet’s house? If they wanted you, why would they have stopped at her car? I saw where you were taken. Your bike was hidden behind her car from their viewpoint.”
An edginess sets into my muscles. “You think they were after Violet?”
“She was alone with them and she’s not talking about what they said. I don’t know how to protect her, you or my club when she keeps quiet. She’s close to you again, and I need you to use that. Get her to talk, and once she does talk, promise me you’ll tell me what she says.
“This isn’t football,” he continues. “This is the lives of men you consider family, friends and brothers. You want me to leave football alone, I will, but don’t let your feelings and loyalties for Violet cost me any more people I love.”
