Shamrock: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Page 16

  “Hey.” Violet nudged him in the side with her elbow as they walked up to the door of the restaurant. “There’s Jordan. I asked her if she wanted to come with us, but she said she had other things she needed to do. But she’s here now so why don’t we see if she wants to eat?”

  Aiden wasn’t sure if Violet was aware of how the people in Oak Creek tended to treat Jordan, or if she just refused to accept it. But before he could even begin to explain why it might be a bad idea, she was calling Jordan over. The dark-haired woman stilled when she saw them then jogged across the street to them. Her features became more pinched the closer she got.

  “Hey, guys.”

  Violet immediately linked arms with her. “You look so cute in your skirt! We’re just about to grab some pizza. Come eat with us.”

  Jordan shot both of them a panicked look that Violet didn’t seem to notice. She pulled back as Violet stepped closer to the door. “You know, I don’t even really like this place.”

  Violet laughed. “What are you talking about? You order food twice a week from here and have it delivered at the bakery. Adam DiMuzio and I are on a first name basis since I always seem to be the one out front to pay him when he delivers.”

  Aiden figured out the scenario quickly. Jordan had the food delivered to the bakery so the pizza place would think it was for Violet. If they’d known it was for Jordan, they’d probably refuse to deliver.

  Jordan shot him a look that begged for help.

  There were a lot of things he loved about Oak Creek, but how the people here treated this woman was not one of them. The bitterness and hatred for the Reiss family ran deep.

  But maybe it was time to face it head-on.

  “Come eat with us,” he said. “You can sit surrounded by all of us. Finn and Charlie are in there. Peyton. The kids.”

  Violet turned and looked at him like he was crazy. “Of course she would sit with us. Where else would she sit?”

  But Jordan understood what he was saying, what he was offering. There was safety in numbers.

  She was about to say yes. It was a little bit heartbreaking to see how much the woman obviously wanted to say yes to a simple dinner, something everybody else took for granted. But as Aiden opened the door to escort them inside, Jordan froze.

  Standing just inside the door was Mr. DiMuzio, a big, beefy Italian man wearing a grease- and flour-smeared apron.

  Obviously, someone had run to get the owner of the restaurant from the back kitchen when they saw Jordan might be coming in. The older man didn’t say anything, but it was obvious Jordan wouldn’t be entering his restaurant without a scene. Aiden wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan’s father had conned tens of thousands of dollars from Mr. DiMuzio.

  Jordan immediately caved. She unlinked her arm from Violet’s and began backing away from the door. “You know what? I just remembered I have something that I’ve got to do right now.” Her smile at Violet was obviously forced. “But rain check, okay?”

  She shot one more pleading look at Aiden to keep quiet before backing across the street without another word before he could talk her out of it.

  “What was that all about?” Violet asked as he led her inside New Brother’s.

  He raised an eyebrow at Mr. DiMuzio, but the older man said nothing, just uncrossed his arms and went back into the kitchen. Aiden decided to just let it drop. Violet knew about Jordan’s past, and even about her father, but obviously Jordan hadn’t made it evident how the town treated her. He may not like it, but if Jordan didn’t want to fight it, there wasn’t much Aiden could do to help her.

  Hell, even if she did want to fight it, he wasn’t sure there was much he could do to help her. Some battle lines weren’t easily seen.

  Finn and Charlie were already sitting inside with Peyton. They didn’t seem to have noticed what was happening at the door, mostly because they were too busy laughing at Finn’s son Ethan trying to help Jessie win a toy from the crane machine.

  They walked over and joined their friends at the big booth.

  “Ethan has done extra chores all week to save up five dollars so he can try to win a stuffed animal for Jess,” Finn explained. “Even after I explained that he could buy her one for that amount.”

  “They’re strategizing as to which method is their best bet to win a prize with the crane,” Peyton said with a roll of her eyes. “I had to make it very clear to my daughter that climbing into the machine, like when she tried last year and got stuck, was not an option.”

  Everybody laughed, until they realized Peyton wasn’t kidding.

  “Oh my gosh, she climbed up into the game?” Violet asked, brows going up.

  “Yep.” Peyton heaved a sigh. “I turned my back for thirty seconds, and she saw some pink teddy bear she wanted and figured she could fit through the hole in the bottom where the prize drops out. Next thing I see is Jessie’s head peeking up and looking around for the prize she wanted.”

  Aiden knew he shouldn’t laugh, but he couldn’t control it. “At least she wasn’t trying to take all of them out.”

  Peyton shook her head. “Only because it hadn’t occurred to her. Squeezing her back out of that thing was a mess.”

  They ordered their pizza, and the waitress brought them their glasses so they could get their drinks at the soda bar. Before Aiden could stop her, Violet grabbed the tray of empty glasses and stood up.

  “Everybody want Coke? I’ll get it.”

  He touched her wrist. “You sit down. I’ll get the drinks.”

  She just smiled as she leaned close and whispered in his ear, “You save your strength. You’re going to need it for later. All I have to do is bend over and hold on.”

  She walked away with a sassy little shake of her hips that had him adjusting himself as discreetly as possible under the table.

  Not discreetly enough for Finn to miss it. Charlie was talking with Peyton as the women kept an eye on the kids, and Finn leaned closer so only Aiden could hear him.

  “How old are you again, man?” Finn asked, smirking.

  “Thirty-three, asshole.” Finn knew damn well how old Aiden was.

  Finn started doing some sort of complicated math on his fingers.

  Aiden rolled his eyes. “Ha ha. Eleven years. That’s what you’re counting, right? The difference in age between Violet and me?” Because eleven years was a lot, and the knowledge was rarely out of Aiden’s mind, especially as things between them were getting more serious.

  “Nope. I was actually trying to figure out if she was closer in age to you or to Ethan.”

  He knew his friend was kidding but couldn’t control the wince. “Yeah, yeah. Very funny.”

  Vaguely, he heard Ethan and Jessie start to complain as their machine stopped working and started buzzing on and off.

  “We didn’t do it, Dad! I promise,” Ethan yelled as the game continued to make the obnoxious buzzing sound.

  He heard the loud crash of glass shattering as Violet crumpled to the ground. He was out of the booth in an instant, rushing toward her, his friends just a couple steps behind.

  Violet had dropped the tray. Shards of glass surrounded her on the ground. She was curled up in a ball, her arms wrapped protectively around her head.

  The animalistic sound of pain and fear coming from her throat broke his heart. Nobody else in the restaurant was talking, just staring, trying to figure out what was going on.

  Aiden squatted down next to her and touched her gently on the shoulder, but that just made her thrash around. He stepped back, afraid he was going to cause her to cut herself in the glass.

  “It’s almost like she’s having a seizure,” Peyton whispered, concerned.

  Finn crouched down next to him. “She seemed fine a minute ago. She doesn’t have any history of seizures, does she?”

  “This isn’t a seizure. This is like some sort of PTSD flashback,” Aiden said. “Something triggered her.”

  And it was getting worse, not better, the sounds coming out of her more ragged than th
ey’d been a few seconds ago.

  Charlie squatted down on the other side of Violet and began talking to her softly, soothing words about friends and being safe.

  Aiden wasn’t even sure Violet could hear her friend.

  “I called Dr. Griffin over at the hospital,” Peyton said. “I figured she’d get here sooner than an ambulance anyways.”

  “Did Violet see someone that triggered her?” Finn asked. “You said she thought she saw one of her kidnappers last weekend. Could that have happened again?”

  “He didn’t affect her like this. Not at all.”

  His hands clenched into fists at his helplessness. Aiden didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to frighten her more by restraining her, but he didn’t want her to cut herself on the glass.

  And then he heard it.

  The crane machine was still giving off that god-awful buzz, turning on and off. Each time it did, it sounded like something was getting zapped electronically.

  Not at all unlike what a Taser sounded like.

  “Fuck. Get that damned machine turned off, Finn. That’s what’s triggering her.” He bit out the words rapidly.

  Finn ran and a few moments later the sound was gone.

  The effect on Violet was almost immediate. She didn’t open her eyes, but at least she stopped making that heartbreaking sound of terror.

  Aiden tried touching her again, relieved when it didn’t agitate her more.

  His eyes met Charlie’s, and she nodded. She was noticing the improvement in Violet too.

  “You’re safe, Firefly. I’m here. Charlie is here. Nobody’s going to hurt you. Breathe with me, okay?”

  He kept saying the words over and over, touching her more and more once it seemed like it helped calm her rather than upset her.

  Behind him he could hear little Jessie crying and her mom explaining that it wasn’t her fault. Mr. DiMuzio had brought out a broom, and Finn and Charlie were sliding the biggest pieces of glass away from Violet.

  She was still lying in that defensive ball, arms wrapped around her head, but she was coming back.

  Anne Griffin rushed in, still wearing her scrubs from the emergency room. She dropped beside Charlie.

  “What happened? Is she hurt? Did she fall?” She touched Violet’s arm to take her pulse at her wrist. “Rapid, but steady. Was she jerking uncontrollably? Did she lose consciousness? That could mean a seizure.”

  “No. I think it was a flashback,” Aiden murmured. “The prize machine was making a sound just like a Taser. I think it triggered her.”

  Anne’s lips pursed. “That could happen. The brain doesn’t always process input the way we expect it to. Recovery is never a straight line.”

  Aiden just kept touching Violet and whispering in her ear.

  A few minutes later, he heard her soft voice. “Aiden?”

  Oh thank God. “Hey, Firefly.” He stroked a strand of hair away from her head.

  She blinked up at him. “Why am I on the floor?”

  He looked to Anne as Violet began to sit up, wanting to make sure it was okay for her to move. Anne nodded, so he helped her. “Just take it slow. You dropped the tray of glasses.”

  Violet looked around her. “Yeah, I . . .”

  He could tell the exact second that she understood what had happened. The color that had been coming back into her face leached out again. “I . . . I . . . was there a Taser?”

  Her voice was so small and frightened, it was all he could do not to snatch her up into his arms.

  “No,” he touched her shoulder with a gentle hand, “but the prize machine made a sound just like one. It frightened you.”

  She was becoming more aware of everyone around her. Not just Anne and Charlie, who were next to her in quiet support, but the much wider circle, the patrons of the pizza place all staring at her.

  “I just want to go home,” she whispered.

  Aiden looked at Anne again.

  “Violet,” Anne said, “can you follow my finger with your eyes?” She held up her index finger and moved it slowly in front of Violet’s face. “Good. Does anything hurt? Do you feel dizzy at all?”

  “I feel fine. Just stupid.” She flushed.

  All her friends around her muttered a protest.

  “There’s definitely no reason to feel stupid,” Anne continued. “I don’t think it’s needed, but we can take you to the hospital if you want me to check you out more thoroughly.”

  Violet shook her head. “No. I just freaked out. There’s nothing wrong with me. I just want to go.”

  Everyone was starting to go back to their own business as it became obvious nothing else exciting was going to happen with Violet. Anne and Aiden helped her stand, and soon one of the employees was sweeping up the rest of the glass.

  “We’ll take care of everything here,” Finn said. “You just get her home.”

  Chapter 21

  Aiden didn’t expect Violet to be chatty after what had happened, but her overwhelming quiet over the next couple of hours worried him.

  She would answer if he asked a direct question, which was how they ended up back at his house rather than her apartment. It was how he got her to eat some soup and a sandwich and was how he knew she was okay with him staying with her rather than calling one of her girlfriends or her brother.

  He didn’t press her to talk about what had happened or what she’d been feeling at New Brother’s. When she was ready to talk, she would.

  Instead, he wrapped her in the softest blanket he could find in his closet and deposited her on the couch near the fire he’d started in the fireplace.

  He wanted to hold her in his lap but wasn’t sure that was what she wanted. So, after doing the dishes and trying to give her as much time as she needed to say anything she wanted, he just sat down beside her on the couch, keeping ample distance between them. But he didn’t even try to deny the relief he felt when she crawled into his lap a few seconds later. He just wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

  Even then, she was quiet for so long he thought she’d fallen asleep. It was probably the best thing for her.

  He should’ve known that giant brain of hers was processing everything that had happened, not sleeping.

  “You must think I’m so weak.” Her voice was thick, her shoulders sagging.

  It was the first unprompted thing she had said since they’d left the pizza parlor.

  “Not at all.” He kept his voice even and calm. “I’ve seen men twice your size dive for cover because they heard a car backfire, and their brain processed it as danger.”

  “Hearing that noise . . . It was like my mind was cut in half. On the one hand, I could totally understand where I was and that I was safe. But the part of me that took over . . . I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t force the reasonable side of my brain to overcome the emotional side. It was like being thrown back there again.”

  He just let her talk. There were no words he could say that would fix this.

  “I don’t consciously think about my kidnapping very often. I mean, I’m much more aware of my limitations and vulnerabilities. Security and stuff like that. But I don’t sit around and let it consume all my thoughts.”

  “You keep busy.” He ran a hand up and down her back.

  She turned so she could look him in the eye. “But not because I’m avoiding it. I’m not trying to hold it all inside or something like that. I just don’t want it to define me. I don’t want people to look at me and think, oh that’s the poor girl who was kidnapped and held hostage.”

  “People don’t think about you like that at all. Most of them have no idea anything happened to you, and the ones who do know about the situation are your friends. And you know they don’t pity you.” He gave her a smile. “Most of the residents of Oak Creek just think of you as the person helping to fatten them up.”

  “Good. That’s how I want to be thought of.” She gave him a weak smile.

  They sat in silence for a long time again before she eventu
ally spoke.

  “It was hard for me to be in the dark at all when I first came home. I still sleep with the light on. I know you know that, even though you’ve never mentioned it.”

  She always left the bathroom light on with the door cracked. It hadn’t taken a genius to figure out why.

  He shrugged. “After being locked in a dark room, it’s not unexpected. Trying to force yourself to power through something like that probably isn’t a good idea.”

  She sighed softly. “That’s what my therapist said. She said that forcing myself to do things I wasn’t ready for, like sleep in the dark when I was scared, would ultimately hinder my progress more than it would expedite it.”

  “Then you leave the light on as long as you need to. Even if you always need to. That’s nobody’s business but yours. And I promise I don’t think less of you for it. Nobody would.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

  She nodded, then fell back into silence. Three times she started to say something but wasn’t able to get the words out. She was growing stiffer and stiffer in his arms.

  “I talked to the therapist about nearly everything having to do with my kidnapping,” she finally said. “I talked to her about that dark room, about the masked people at the auction, about how I felt when Randy was shot.”

  She straightened even further. “But I never talked to her about that Taser. She never asked, and maybe she never even knew about it.”

  “Did you not mention it to her for a reason?”

  “I didn’t want to think about it. I couldn’t bear to think about it. I got home and there were all sorts of questions about my emotional and sexual trauma. Had I been raped? Did I need to talk through my assault? Because I was sexually assaulted.”

  He nodded grimly. “You don’t have to be raped to be assaulted.”

  “As humiliated and helpless as I felt naked in front of those people, unable to stop them from touching me or doing whatever they wanted to me, that wasn’t the part that I couldn’t bring myself to not even think about.”

  He closed his eyes, trying to swallow the rage inside him. “Being hurt with the Taser was.”