SEPTEMBER | COLUMBUS, OHIO
“Turn the fuck around!”I shouted at the screen.
“Voice down!” Sorrento, my teammate and mentor, said. “You wake ‘em, you take ‘em.”
“Sorry!” I griped. “But your kids love me anyway.”
I was playingCall of Dutyat Sorrento’s place, giving myself something to do on our night off. It was pouring buckets outside, with thunderstorms of varying strength rolling through. Gloomy, gross, and frankly, depressing. I didn’t have space for anything else depressing in my life. I called Sorrento because I needed the brain chemical boost of being with other people.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I leaned to get it. “Hang on, let’s pause.”
My breath caught when I saw the name on my screen, a picture of long chestnut hair and blue eyes.
Violet.
“Hello?” I answered.
All I heard on the other end was sobbing, cut with gasps for air.
“Violet?”
“Hey.” Her voice was warbled through an attempt at sounding sunny. “Where are you?”
“I’m . . .” Stunned? Why was she asking? “In Columbus?”
“Right, but where?” She sniffled and coughed.
“Friend’s house. Upper Arlington. What’s wrong? Where are you?”
“I just left my therapist. Or, I haven’t left. I’m in the parking lot.”
My stomach dropped and my muscles tensed. “You’re in Columbus?”
Her voice was sheepish. “Um, yeah.”
“Oh.” My mind reeled. For how long? How long had she been in the same town and not talked to me? She implied to my mom that she was coming back, but this phone call was one hell of a comeback.
“I’m sorry, Colt,” she wailed.
I stood from the couch and paced behind it, waving Sorrento off as he shot me a worried look. “Baby, what are you sorry for? What’s going on? Are you hurt?”
“I need to talk to you about something.” Her sobs started up again, her wheezy gasps throwing me off. The last time she cried like this in front of me was when she left the first time.
Jesus, did she have a secret baby Stelle had somehow forgotten to tell me about? We used condoms when we met up a few years back. Why would she be here to talk to me?
“Should we talk now?”
“Never mind,” she rushed out. “You’re with friends.”
“No, I’ll come to you. Text me the address of where you are. I’ll leave right now and be there as soon as I can.”
Violet’ssmall sedan was one of a few left in the office building’s parking lot. I parked two spots away from her and ran through the rain to the driver’s side door. The windows were tinted dark, but I could make out her shape leaning her head on the steering wheel. I knocked gently on the window, rain dripping from the brim of my baseball cap.
“Violet. Open up, baby.”
The door latch popped and I got a good look at her: eyes swollen, cheeks splotchy, a massive pile of tissues in the passenger seat. She lifted her gaze to meet mine and her lower lip trembled again. She fought back tears with a series of quivering sniffles.
My lips fell open. “Who did this to you?”
