Page 21 of Outlaw

“I gotta run, Dad! Tell Mom I’ll see her in a few days!”

Before he can find a reason to get me to stay, I race back out the door and hop in Christian’s truck. “Go, go, go!” I tell him, hoping he’ll pull away before my dad can peek outside and see it’s not Violet who’s picking me up.

“Gosh, I feel so…naughty!” I whisper. The truck has a bench seat and I slide up next to him and put a hand on his thick shoulder. “I just lied to my dad and now I’m sneaking out with an older man.”

“You’re a bad girl,” Christian replies with a smirk.

“Mmmm, you gonna punish me?” I tease back.

“As soon as we get home.” He smiles.

Home…

It only takes a few minutes before we’re at Violet’s apartment. He parks out front and I climb the stairs and knock.

“Come in, bitch!” Violet shouts from inside. I shove the door open and head into the living room on the couch, hair up, eating mac and cheese. She looks at me and frowns. “Why are you glowing?”

“Glowing? I’m not glowing.”

“Yes you are,” she replies. “You’re fucking glowing. Did something happen last night? Hook up with a sexy biker guy?”

“Did something happen…?” I repeat, pretending to be mulling over her question. “Hmmm, well, I guess if you consider me almost being drugged and kidnapped and forced into prostitution something, then yeah!”

“What!?” Violet gasps, dropping her fork. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

As quickly as I can, I tell her the story of last night. When I’m done, her jaw is still hanging open. I lean over and push it closed.

“Claire, I am…I’m so sorry…”

“It’s not your fault,” I tell her. It kind of is, but I’m not about to tell her that.

“No, it is!” she groans. “I’m such a fucking idiot. I really didn’t think those guys were that bad. I hadn’t heard anything around town or—”

“It’s fine,” I assure her. I get up and join her on the couch. “But listen, Violet. I have to tell you something. Something even crazier…”

“Crazier than that!?” she asks.

“Mm-hmm.” I nod. “The guy who rescued me? Well…I think I’m in love with him.”

I go through everything with her, from the insane almost-kidnapping, to the rescue and escape, to everything that happened at the bunker, and when I’m finished, for the first time since I can remember, Violet is speechless.

I sort of just stare at her waiting until the silence gets to be too much for me.

“Say something,” I tell her.

“Something,” she replies.

“Stop!” I whine, slapping her on the knee. “I just told you I’m in love!”

“And…I need a minute to process…this.”

I laugh, get up and go to the kitchen, and get us both a glass of water. She takes hers from me, downs half of it in one big gulp, then nods several times.

“Okay,” she says. “It’s like some weird, fucked-up version of Titanic.”

I groan. “Don’t say that!”

“It is! You’re Rose, and instead of Jack coming to save you from jumping off the back of the boat, it’s some big, scary outlaw with a shotgun saving you from a gang of sex-trafficking bikers!”

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