Page 66 of Chips & Checks
I swallow hard, glancing down at my notes to steady myself. When I look up again, Bowen’s still watching me, a quiet intensity in his eyes that sends my pulse racing.
Maybe some rules are meant to be broken.
Chapter Sixteen
Bowen
I can’t believe I made it this far without a single member of my team humming “China Doll” at me, only to be betrayed by my own flesh and blood. As soon as Viktor heard Dad call me Bowie, it was all over.
Even more shocking is the fact that my parents showed up in Vegas on short notice. It’s not like they’re neglectful or indifferent, but Dad gets that I don’t want to spend my life in his shadow, and he’s always respected that. It’s weird to have them here. Not bad, but surreal. Dad is thrilled to have me talk him through the wall of Venom memorabilia, and Mom hits it off with Violet’s mother over drinks, which is… good, I guess? But also strange.
Violet avoids me at The Puck Drop. Early in the night, she takes Camden aside. A couple of minutes later, I see Camden and Lenyx stroll up to Chad with a round of shots, and I realize that they agreed to serve as a distraction while she makes her escape.
I hang around for another half-hour before I make my excuses. On my way to her place, I text so that she won’t be alarmed when I show up at her door. I don’t want her to think that Chad’s nosing around again.
It’s less than a ten-minute walk from the front door of The Puck Drop to Violet’s apartment.
“One sec!” she calls in response to the doorbell.
I wait on the mat for a full minute before I ring the bell again. “You okay in there?”
“Sorry, sorry…” Her footsteps cross to the door, and she yanks it open to reveal her red face and tousled hair. She’s changed into a thin, long-sleeved shirt with a boatneck collar and matching gray sweats. “I was upset earlier, so I didn’t clean up, and it’s kind of a mess…”
I can see the room behind her, and I’m not sure what the problem is. “We must have different definitions of that word. What’s wrong?”
“Oh, just…” She steps back to allow me entrance. “Chad. That stunt before the game tonight. His behavior seems to be escalating.” Without giving me the opportunity to ask follow-up questions, she adds, “And look at you, dropping by unannounced. Surely this breaks a rule or two?”
“I texted first,” I mutter. I should never have sent her that list.
“Still counts,” she singsongs. “So, what brings you here?”
“I was worried about you. Obviously. Shit. Chad touched you. And I thought I showed amazing restraint because I didn’t kill him. With roughly thirty thousand witnesses.”
Violet laughs. “You forgot to count the teams and staff.”
“And all four parental units. But I’m serious, Violet.” I follow her into the living room. “This is nothing to joke about. And I wasn’t the only one upset. Briggs threatened him, too. And I believed him. I…um…I…” I stare at the corner of the room as my capacity for language dies a slow death.
She flops into the sofa. “What? Did your program glitch?”
I keep staring at the object in the corner in the hopes that it will resolve into something else. Something that makes more sense. Something that isn’t what it looks like at first glance, like one of those Magic Eye games. When that doesn’t happen, I point. “Sorry. What’s that?”
Violet twists around to see what I’m staring at, and her face flushes scarlet. “Oh my God.No.Pretend you don’t see that.”
It takes me a second to realize I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing. Because there’s no way. Not Violet. Not “wears vintage lemon-print dresses and volunteers for head-injury seminars” Violet. Not “quotes anatomy textbooks like other girls quote Taylor Swift lyrics” Violet. And yet… unless someone’s invented a really aggressive new kind of humidifier, I’m ninety-nine percent sure I’m staring at a goddamn rideable sex toy. My brain blue-screens. I want to reboot. I want to unsee. But mostly, I want to know who this woman actually is—and why the fuck I’m only finding out now.
“Violet,” I say, in my most reasonable tone of voice, “it looks like a physio ball with a dildo attachment. How am I supposed to pretend it’s not there?”
“In my defense, it was a gag gift from Ash.” Violet pulls her knees up to her chest and hides her face. “She saw it on Amazon and since I’m a PT, she thought it would be funny.”
“But it’s inflated. And it’s in your living room.”
“I forgot to put it away!” she wails.
“Which means you use it.”
Violet lets out a pathetic sound. “I went through a dry spell. Don’t judge. It was a much better option than a series of meaningless one-night stands with commitment-phobic guys.” She peeks through her fingers to give me a meaningful look. “I usually keep it in the spare room, but I hadn’t used it in a while, and it was getting dusty. That’sgross,so I brought it out to clean it, and…”
“I need to see this in action.”
