Page 41 of The Devil's Pair

“For real.” She cleared her throat. “And you guys and Wolf will keep me in the loop about Michael?”

They nodded now, then turned away from her. She followed them to the front door, waited as they gathered up their belongings from the guest room and bathroom, then she stood in the door and watched them walk out to the van, load it up, climb in. She waved goodbye, saw a flash of hands waving back, watched the van turn the corner at the end of the street.

They were gone.

Briley shut the door, walked slowly back to the kitchen. She looked around at the ruins of what had been an amazing brunch – the cold cup of coffee, the rubbery bacon, the hardening eggs – and she sighed. Never again would she be able to stand in this room without feeling Dux’s lips on her sensitive nipples, feeling Drake’s fingers stroking her deep inside.

“OK,” she said aloud, trying to force some brightness into her voice. “Today is day one. Today is a fresh start. Come on, now. We’ve got this, girl.”

That was when Briley fully resolved to get on with her new life, whatever that looked like and how it turned out. She was ready to work as a nurse, she was ready to make this house truly hers, she was ready to find some local friends.

I'm ready for anything.

It was optimism to the point of foolishness, of course. Standing there that morning, in a bright sunbeam, Briley had no way of knowing how unready she was for what was coming – not the terribleorthe amazing.

Chapter Ten

Denver, Colorado

Satan’s Bar

Five states over, Violet was standing in the same glorious spring sun as Briley was; unlike Briley, however, she wasnotlooking forward to getting on with her new life. Not atall.

Oh, it had all started well enough of course: she’d been rescued from Gideon and the Garden by a group of terrifying-yet-stupid-hot men, who glowered the whole time that they took down the compound with bullets, but then turned gentle and careful once Violet was in the back of the van. She’d been taken aback at how kind and funny they actually were (well, except for Ice, who did nothing but strike terror in her soul every time he’d glanced in her general direction), and she’d felt hope rise in her, at least for the first few hours. Then the elation and adrenalin had all worn off – and Violet had started to look around her, to take in her new reality.

Suddenly she wasn’t so sure that she was so happy after all.

The drive back to Colorado had just been the beginning of a huge adjustment for her, for so many reasons. First, although she’d certainly signalled to Briley Cross that she’d wanted out of the Garden and away from Gideon, she hadn’treallybelieved it would ever happen, or that it was even remotelypossible. It had been like a pipe dream or a wild hope or a vacant wish – and then it had actuallycome true, and Violet still couldn’t quite get her head around that.

Second, thewaythat it had happened was still a shock that she couldn’t seem to overcome. So much noise and chaos,gunfire and blood, screams and death rattles… her terrified sisters left behind as she fled, her former Guardians scattered around the Garden, either barely breathing or not at all.

Thatwasn’t how she’d imagined it happening in her fantasies. To be fair, she wasn’t surehowshe’d imagined it, really, but in her daydreams it had been far quieter and much less bloody. Maybe it would have been Briley simply leading her out of the front gate unnoticed, or sneaking out a back way that Briley would have somehow conjured up out of thin air. Something less devastating to everyone else, something that attracted far less attention, and didn’t leave her aching and wondering who she’d left alive back there. Had any of her fellow woman-servants been killed? Violet feared some had, and if so, a portion of their blood was on her hands.

Third, this new Iris was nothing but a massive shock to her – shestillcouldn’t call the other woman Elle, not even to her smug little face. Violet had sat in the van, watching Iris drape herself all over a huge red-headed man, who’d turned out to be a doctor.HowIris had found a way to move on from Gideon so quickly was impossible for Violet to understand: it felt like a betrayal, and she found that she was fiercely angry and defensive on Gideon’s behalf, without understanding at all why she felt that way.

So here Iris was now, happily cooking and cleaning for The Road Devils for a decent wage, and living with Viking, and swanning around like she was the queen bee of the bar, exhibiting zero guilt about the devastation that she’d left behind her. No, she’d landed on her feet right into a perfect new life, and Violet wanted to tear her perfect black hair out of her head every time the perfect Viking looked at her. It was like Iris was the only woman that he actuallysawon the whole of the planet, and Violet couldn’t contain the rage and jealousy that felt like acid burning her throat and chest.

Finally – and this was surprisingly thereallybig one – Violet just couldn’t seem to embrace the world of choices and opportunities that had been opened up to her by The Road Devils. She couldn’t handle being asked to make a decision, whether big or small. It was a bewildering, overwhelming and non-stop stream of questions demanding that she answer:

Coffee or tea? Coffee with milk and sugar? What do you want to eat on your break? Which shampoo? Which hand cream? What bank do you want to open an account in? Do you want to go to the movies? What do you want to see? What are you doing on your day off? Do you want company?

And on and on and fuckingon.

Violet had been in the Garden for a long time – she wasn’t totally surehowlong, since Iris had explained that the women had been drugged, but if pushed, she’d say it was almost five years. Five years of being told exactly what to do, and every minute of her every day scheduled and supervised, and being summoned to Gideon’s room when it was her night to perform The Ritual, and not being asked to have a single thought or opinion about any of it.

It had been so,soeasy. The Garden had been predictable and settled, and Violet’s entire world had run like clockwork from the moment she’d opened her eyes at five a.m. to when she went to bed in the women’s dorm, in her pure white nightgown, surrounded by her sisters.

Her life in Denver was not like that, at all.

For starters, the scary Wolf had given her a waitressing job at Satan’s Bar. Before the Garden and what felt like a lifetime ago – when Violet had been someone else, someone whose name shestillcouldn’t bring herself to go by – she’d been a waitress near her college campus. It had been OK work, and it had paid for her books and food, while her scholarship had covered her tuition and most of the rent on her tiny, walk-up studio apartment. Itwas a life that Violet barely remembered now and barely thought about anymore… all she knew was that she’d voluntarily left it for Gideon, and she’d never longed to go back to it.

Yet now here she was, waitressing at a sleazy biker bar, surrounded by blatant flirting, and half-naked women, and raucous sex in the back rooms. Sex waseverywhere, actually, it hung heavy in the air all the time, a rank perfume that choked her.

Thinking about wretch-inducing perfume and in-her-face sex immediately broughtthatwhore to mind, the one who wore next to nothing and whose brash confidence grated unceasingly on Violet’s nerves. The one who flitted around the MC members, batting her fake eyelashes and pointing her fake tits straight in their faces and grazing her fake nails along their muscular forearms.

Fucking, fucking Vixen.

Violet hated everything about that slutty bitch, and the fact that they worked together every single night was taking its toll on her, more than any of the rest of it. Having the woman’s sex appeal thrown in her face was bad enough; watching Vixen prance around attracting admiring male attention was just too much. Violet didn’t understand how the woman could demean and debase herself like that – didn’t she haveanypride or self-respect?

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