Page 35 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Thirty-Two

TALIA

The guys were wiped out, barely moving when I left the nest the next morning. I should have been too, but it was easy to be swept up in the energy of being home.

Besides, I wanted to check on Violet. West had popped his head in on her last night. I hadn’t wanted to overwhelm her when I knew my sisters and parents would be rolling out the welcome wagon.

With dark, cloudy skies and barely any light, most of the house would still be asleep. She might be too, but I could press my ear against the door and check for movement before I knocked.

After taking a quick shower and getting dressed in my comfy leggings and a tank top, I escaped my bedroom unnoticed.

The guys slept really heavily.

My parents had given Violet a centralized bedroom, the one we typically kept as a spare room in case anyone had guests. Mira’s suite flanked it on one side; Emilia’s on the other. The same flower wreath that had been hanging on the door of her Omega Haven room welcomed people into her new home.

I didn’t need to listen hard to know she was awake. Music was playing inside the room—fun, rock-pop beats that I didn’t recognize, but enjoyed from the first impression.

I knocked loudly, hoping she could hear me over the music, and it turned off abruptly. The door jerked open, revealing a red-faced, pajama-clad Violet. “I’m so sorry, was the music too loud?” She blinked at me a couple of times. “Wait, Talia? Oh my god, can you hear it all the way from your room?”

“No, no!” I held up my hands. “That music was practically a whisper compared to the volume Odetta plays hers at. I just wanted to see how you were settling in.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Oh. Um, good. I went down to the kitchen half an hour ago, but I think I’m more of an early riser than anyone in your family. The staff were surprised to see me. I brought too many cinnamon scones back upstairs, do you want one?”

My stomach growled, and I smiled sheepishly. “I’ll take it.”

Violet stepped aside to let me into her room and shut the door behind me.

Her scent of almond cookies was faint, overlaid by the cotton smell of fresh sheets and an undercurrent of dust. Boxes littered the large room, not yet unpacked. The walls were blank and impersonal, but she would make herself at home with more time.

Lavinia, efficient as she was, had staff pack up Violet’s furniture from the Residence and move it in here last night. Her familiar green couch sat against a wall, facing one of the large windows.

I remembered the California king used to be in the centre of the room, with only the headboard touching a wall. She’d had it moved so it hid in a corner, out of direct sunlight, with two sides hugged by walls. Her bedding and the couch pillows were mostly unpacked.

A small end table, taken from our living room, sat beside her couch, and upon it was a steaming cup of coffee and a plate of scones.

I snagged one from the plate on my way past, sitting on the other end of the couch.

“I hope our parents didn’t give you too much trouble yesterday,” I said.

Violet shook her head. “Absolutely not. They’re wonderful. I can’t believe they’re just letting me stay here without paying rent or helping out at all.”

Mercer’s comment about her mother being a bitch made more and more sense. Violet seemed to struggle with accepting kindness. Had she not gotten any from the family she grew up with?

“It’s not like we need the money.” I gestured out the window at the field her bedroom faced, currently foggy in the gloomy grey morning. “No mortgage to pay off or anything.”

“Still…”

“If you’d stayed at the Residence, Mom would have sent a security detail to watch over you until everything got sorted. Really, by moving in you’ve saved her the hassle.”

Violet took a big bite of her scone, washing it down with a hefty sip of black coffee. “They wouldn’t even let me help in the kitchen,” she mumbled. “Said Mrs. Alfieri ordered them to send me away if I tried.”

I’d expected that. She sounded really let down by being unable to pay back my parents, though.

Maybe there was a way she could show her appreciation without making herself our unpaid maid.

“Can you bake?” I asked.

“Yes. I’m really good, actually. They taught classes at the Residence.”

“Mom loves strawberry shortcake. She’d love it if you made her one as a thank you. I can convince the chef to make a one-time exception to Mom’s ‘no helping in the kitchen’ rule.”

Violet lit up. “Really? That’s something, at least. I just feel so strange staying here when they barely know me. I have to admit the timing was perfect, though.”

“Were you planning on moving out of the Residence?”

The pack hadn’t mentioned anything about her leaving, but they probably wouldn’t have known.

West hadn’t visited her in months until I ended up there. He wouldn’t have reacted positively to the idea of her leaving, either.

She nodded. “In a few months. It’s funny, because West would have been extra upset when he found out, but you fixed that problem.”

“Extra upset? How?” I asked. “And why have I fixed it?”

Violet took another massive sip of her coffee, leaving the mug empty on the side table. Only crumbs remained of her scones.

“I’m moving in with a friend,” she said. “She was living at Omega Haven when I moved in, but she left six months ago. Her parents are wealthy and set her up with a massive apartment.”

“Why would West be extra upset about that?”

“Her apartment is in Seamouth.”

“Ah, not his territory.”

It wouldn’t matter for Violet, but he would have had trouble going to visit her often. He probably would have panicked about keeping her safe, too.

“His territory now,” she joked. “By virtue of it being controlled by your family. Plus, he gets to see that I can survive outside of the routine of the Residence. Ease him into the idea of me being independent.”

West did need easing. He was getting better at letting go, slowly, but Violet moving alone into the world might have caused him to panic.

“As soon as there’s no more danger from feral alpha bullets or my insane bondmate, you should bring it up to him,” I said. “I don’t want to promise anything, but I think?—”

“He’ll accept it,” Violet cut me off confidently. “With some typical West grumbles, but he won’t try to talk me out of it. And that’s because of you, so… thank you.”

I flushed. “Don’t thank me. He’s figuring his own shit out. I was only an extra push.”

Violet clasped her hands in her lap. “He needed it.”

That, I wouldn’t deny.

I finished the rest of my scone, watching the clouds part outside. A few rays of light shone through, artfully illuminating frost-kissed grass and brown, leafless trees.

When I brushed the crumbs off my lap, Violet awkwardly cleared her throat.

“How much has West told you about what happened to me?”

The question pierced the peaceful veil like a knife.

“Nothing. It’s pretty obvious he feels guilty about it, but I’ve never asked for any details.”

“Do you want to know the story? My side of it, anyway?”

I shook my head. “That’s yours to tell or not. I couldn’t ask you for that.”

Would it help me understand where West’s hesitance came from? Yes. But I didn’t need to know. It was her past. Knowing how difficult it was for me to talk about Benjamin right now, I didn’t want to push her.

“Don’t worry. I’m alright telling you,” she said softly. “It happened a couple years ago, and I’ve gone through it in therapy at least a hundred times.”

“If you’re sure…”

“I am.”

Violet stood up, moving over to the bed and climbing into her nest of pillows. Her cheeks had a light flush to them, and she wouldn’t look me in the eyes. “Um, if you don’t mind, would you come sit with me up here while I tell you about it?”

I grabbed the familiar leaf-shaped pillow from the couch and took it with me into her nest. The blanket Violet draped over us was cool to the touch; fresh and ready to warm up with us.

When I was settled, she cleared her throat. “Thank you. I’ll probably end up whispering some parts, so it’s better if you’re close, and the nest is my safe space.”

“Of course.”

I waited for her to start talking, but she took a while to work herself up to it. She started with a whisper but became more confident with each word, until she was speaking normally.

“If you get uncomfortable, let me know. It can be… hard to hear.”

If she could live it, I could hear it.

The omega articles I’d read online came to mind. Tales of hope and horrors. I’d cried my way through but read every word.

Then again, that was before Benjamin and the bite mark.

“West and I didn’t grow up together, you know,” Violet began. “I grew up with my mom, and he had his. We shared a dad, but I was the child of his mistress—I wasn’t supposed to exist, and for our father, I never did. My mom, she…”

She paused and took a deep breath. Without thinking, I placed my hand on top of hers, and she smiled weakly at me.

“My mom was abusive. I always knew I had an older brother, but I never met him because he didn’t know about me.

When I revealed, I couldn’t stay with my mom anymore.

She’d said things when I was a kid, about selling me off if I was an omega, finding me an alpha husband to keep me in line.

I didn’t want her to find out, so I ran away from home. ”

“And you went to find West? Not knowing if he was going to be just as bad as your parents were to you?”

That was more trust than I would have had.

Violet shrugged. “Where else was I going to go? I revealed at sixteen. Hardly a good age to be out on my own, and I never had many friends in school. Wasn’t allowed.”

That was younger than average. Most omegas were at least seventeen.

“Still… aren’t there shelters? Programs?”

“I didn’t trust them. They might have told my mom where I was, and I couldn’t risk it.”

Yet, she trusted the brother she’d never met. Violet really valued family, despite being given a shitty one to grow up with.