Page 36 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

“Anyway, you already know he was great to me. He took me in, made sure my mom thought I’d left the city for good, and helped me get into an online high school program so I could graduate. Everything was great for a few years, until… that night happened.”

Her body language changed abruptly, her posture stiffening. She turned her hand over and clutched mine tightly.

“I went out to a club with some people I thought were my friends. They weren’t, not really.”

Fake friends could be more dangerous than any man. She must have put her guard down, thinking they were watching her back.

I had a feeling they’d left her vulnerable, or worse.

“Some alphas took an interest in me. I wasn’t interested in them, refused all the drinks they brought me, all the things you should do to avoid being drugged. But one of my friends brought me a drink, and that one I took. I only realized later that those guys had given it to her to give to me.”

I squeezed Violet’s hand. “You’re right that she wasn’t your friend. Or maybe she was just a fucking idiot.”

Violet managed a dry laugh. “Bit of both, I think. All my friends left with the guys they’d picked for themselves until I was stumbling around the club alone. I don’t remember much else from that night, but I remember where I woke up.”

She closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths, then opened them again and looked around the room. “I’m not there anymore,” she whispered.

“No, you’re here with me.” I shifted closer to her, hoping I wasn’t making it worse.

She leaned into me, continuing in her barely-there whisper.

“I woke up in a warehouse. It was freezing cold, and I wasn’t wearing anything.

They’d left me on the concrete floor. No one was around, and I thought I’d be able to find a tarp to wrap around myself and walk out the door. It wasn’t that simple.”

“I found something to cover up with, but every door I tried was locked. I was searching through the boxes for something to pick the lock with when they came back. They didn’t let me leave.

They didn’t let me have clothes or food, only small amounts of dirty water.

I think their plan was to keep using me until I died. ”

Violet was so pale. Her hand trembled in mine. I could feel a cold coil of horror in my stomach as she painted a picture of what had happened. One of the worst things that could happen to us.

“Take some breaths with me,” I said, trying to keep the tremor out of my own voice.

She followed the cadence of my breathing until there was a hint of colour back in her cheeks.

“Thank you. The rest of the story is easier.”

No part of this could really be classified as easy.

“I was with them for two days before West found me. He saved me, but he’s always blamed himself for it because the guys who took me were with a rival motorcycle club.

” She snorted. “I saw how they looked at me in the club, though. I don’t think they targeted me as a way to get back at my brother—wouldn’t they have mentioned that in the two days I was there?

I was vulnerable. In the wrong place at the wrong time. ”

“Guys don’t really understand that sometimes it’s that simple,” I murmured.

“Yeah. But I was really beat up, and mentally just... broken. He’d already killed the men who did it, so he needed to shift the blame onto someone he could still punish. Ended up being himself.”

She slumped back into the pillows some more, tension draining from her body.

“He’s good at blaming himself for anything that happens to the people around him,” I said.

“Tell me about it. He blamed himself for me needing to live at the Residence, too. I wanted to stay with him back then, even though I wasn’t doing well.

He tried to help me himself, but I should have never asked that of him.

He isn’t a psychiatrist, and I needed professional help and medication.

When he had to leave me there, I was kicking and screaming for him to take me home. I think it just broke him again.”

I couldn’t imagine having to leave someone you love in a facility like that, knowing it’s for the best, but knowing they didn’t want to be there. It would weigh on anyone, but especially West.

He wanted to be the saviour.

“Did he visit you more often at first?” I asked.

“Yeah. It took a while before I saw any improvement—after it happened I was jumping at shadows, hurting myself, refusing to eat. My omega hormones were all over the place. He stopped by a lot when I was in that really bad place, but once I started to get better…”

“He told me he’s a curse on everyone he loves. That’s why he stayed away, right?”

Violet scoffed. “Yeah. He got that idea from his mom. She was even less affectionate than mine, from what he and Mercer have said. She blamed him for our father cheating on her. Didn’t blame the man who cheated, for some dumb reason. Just her son.”

My pack had a track record of terrible parents. At least Mom and my fathers were accepting them with open arms. Well, open arms and the occasional threat of violence.

They were mafia bosses, so I could cut them a bit of slack on that.

Sliding down to lay on her back, Violet sighed. “So that’s my story.”

I didn’t quite know what to say. I slid to lay beside her, stretching my arms overhead. “I’m sorry you have a story like that.”

“Yeah, it’s not my favourite one. You wanna hear a story that is my favourite, though?” She snickered.

I grinned. I bet West wasn’t going to like me hearing whatever tale she was about to tell. “Absolutely.”

She launched into it, and it wasn’t long before we were both laughing our asses off at West’s embarrassing older brother moments.

The stories definitely were not West-approved.