Page 146 of Beautifully Ruined
There, I splash water on my face and sink down against the wall, taking deep breaths.
Enzo didn’t say it out loud, he didn’t have to. But human trafficking means someone sold her. Walsh…?
I can’t.
Would he sell his own daughter? And why? It’s all kinds of demonic, that.
Someone taps on the door, and I get up as it opens, and Cade pokes his head in, making my heart wobble. “You okay, Violet?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know.” I start to nod but end up shaking my head as my eyes blur, and my throat burns. “I can’t believe it. I was so sure he was a good guy.”
And I look at Cade.
Really look.
If I’m wrong on all the levels with every man I’ve met, then am I wrong about Cade?
From his cheating brother to Isaac and now the congressman… There are other guys who do wrong that I thought weren’t that. Small things, little things. Names and faces blur in my head for a moment.
“Maybe I can’t trust my gut at all.”
But Cade opens the door wider and comes in, locking the door.
He takes me by my shoulders gently, his touch instantly comforting. “Don’t go there, Vi. Just breathe.”
I do, and I rest my head on his shoulder, his arms coming around me grounds me and stops the freefall.
“I just…”
“I know,” he murmurs. “But we’ll get to the truth. Together.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
CADE
Vi clings to me,and there’s a shake to her under the surface that, combined with the look she gave me, like she doesn’t quite trust me, or maybe it was more she didn’t quite trust herself, that brings a slight unease to my equilibrium. Not that I blame her.
“Okay?” I whisper.
She nods against me, and says into my shirt, “What if I can’t trust my own judgement?” Vi gives a small laugh. “Jack, Isaac, and now Walsh?”
She doesn’t say ‘you’. But it’s there. Unsaid, but I hear it like a whisper on the wind.
I know she trusts me. Violet’s young, but she’s brave and incredibly ambitious. She’s not afraid to go for what she wants, even in the face of adversary. And I know enough about her past to know she’s pretty much brought herself up.
Things like that demand someone be savvy enough to navigate the world at a too-young an age. They demand a person learn how to read people.
And she does that well.
She’s got an edge to her that wants to trust, and that’s not a bad thing.
But right now, her foundation is being rocked.
She wanted to believe in Walsh.
“You can, Vi.”
“I didn’t clock Jack would cheat or just do what he did. And Isaac…”
