Page 127 of Whips and Chains
Except we both knew that was unlikely.
I could practically feel eyes on me, even though Bliss and I were the only ones around, the parking lot in front of us empty of people.
The darkness watched.
It drew me in.
Begged me to follow it.
So I did.
I took Bliss’s SUV up the road that ran along the Saint View beachfront and up into the hills. My fingers tapped the steering wheel, and my leg bounced the whole way. But I didn’t falter. I kept my foot on the accelerator, following the winding road until we were at the top.
The rain picked up the higher I went, and the trees whipped back and forth with the force of the rain.
Everything inside me said I should go back.
But everything inside me also screamed I should go forward.
Bliss’s gun sat on the seat next to me. I steered into the bluff parking lot, and a clap of thunder drowned out the nervous chatter of my teeth.
I put the car in park, grateful that as Bliss had predicted, the lookout was completely empty of other cars. The storm picked up as I sat there with the doors locked.
Like that might keep out a bullet.
I was no safer in this car than I was outside of it. I glanced around, peering into the shadows, just praying Levi and Whip and X were here somewhere, watching.
I’d given them thirty minutes. That had to be enough.
I didn’t dare check my phone.
Because some part of me knew that even if they weren’t here, I was going to have to do this myself.
“Get out of the car, Violet.” I muttered to myself, picking up the gun and shoving it into my jacket. “Get out of the fucking car and be the woman Toby always said you could be.”
He’d loved a mantra. He’d had me repeat more than one of them. That I was bold. Brave. Fearless. Fantastic.
I hadn’t believed any of them then. Repeating the words hadn’t meant anything when I didn’t feel it inside.
And yet somehow, when I whispered them now, they felt entirely different.
They felt like weapons. Like armor.
Like truth.
I pushed open the door and got out, slamming it behind me and striding forward to the edge of the cliff. I shuffled my way along the rock that loomed over the swirling ocean, careful not to get too close to the drop. Lightning cracked over the water, and power surged in the atmosphere around me.
Or maybe that was something inside me. I didn’t know. But I suddenly felt like I had Mother Nature on my side. Like I was the storm. I was the wind. I was the ocean churning beneath me.
I checked Bliss’s gun in my pocket. Ran my fingers over it, reassuring myself it was still there. Then yelled, “Come on, you miserable assholes! Show yourselves!”
The bluff remained empty.
I scanned the darkness. Were the guys there, watching? They had to be. I didn’t dare turn my phone back on to text them. It was too late for that. I’d turned it off, not wanting them to talk me out of it, and now I had to follow through.
Headlights bounced down the road, lighting up the trees whipping around in the wind. I clutched the gun in my pocket,reminding myself this wasn’t the time to pull it out. That car could be anyone.
It could be one of my guys.
