Violet Chain (15 page)

It was really hot dancing under the lights of that over-crowded dance floor, but I didn’t care, I was with Callie and we were both having the time of our lives, dancing, laughing and drinking.

The more I drank, the more I thought about Chain. Our conversation earlier really left me a mess. I hated that he was so cold and distant.

I really missed him. I wondered what he was doing. I wondered if he was thinking about me as I was thinking about him. I mostly wondered if he was spending his nights alone, or with another woman or even women. I hated this insecure jealousy that was starting to overtake my thoughts.

Callie and I were just about to leave the dance floor when a fight erupted in the middle of the dance floor from out of nowhere. We tried to glance over when bodies began to fall around us and we realized the small fight had turned into a bar room brawl.

“Shit, Violet, we have to get out of here,” Callie said as she gazed around at the utter chaos. We started pushing the flailing bodies out of the way as we began to flee the dance floor.

Once we were safely out of harm’s way near the bar, I glanced back over at the dance floor. In the dead center, I saw Victor grab a man by his shirt collar and slam him to the ground. Next to him was Vince, leaning over a man and punching him over and over. Callie tapped my arm. “Violet, look, it’s your brothers. I didn’t even know they were here,” she said, pointing.

I was embarrassed and pissed off. Of all the nights that they had to choose to be barbaric Neanderthals, it had to be the one night I was out with Callie.

They had completely ruined my night and I just wanted to get out of there. “Come on, Callie, let’s go.”

“Okay, let me just get your shoes from the bartender.” She called out to the bartender as I looked back at the dance floor.

I gasped as I saw a man pulling Vince to the ground as another jumped on his back. I was not a violent person unless pushed and that man jumping my brother from behind ticked me off. I raced to the dance floor and began pounding on the man’s back. I turned to my side and saw Callie struggling towards me, fighting with some girl who was yanking Victor from behind as he fought with another man, my shoes hanging from her free hand.

I fell backwards to the ground as the man who I was hanging from stood up and pushed me off. As I went to stand up, I met the hard punch of a fist to my eye and fell backwards again.

“Ow.” I grimaced as I grabbed my aching eye.

“What the hell, man, you hit my fucking sister!” Victor screamed as he lifted the man by the neck and slammed him to the ground.

Callie kneeled down, helping me up. My eye was burning and I could feel it swelling.

Police officers swarmed the dance floor, breaking up the brawl, cuffing everyone, including Callie and me, and taking us out of the bar.

Large police cruisers were lined down the block. The officers placed Callie and me in the back—I was at least thankful they kept us together.

When we arrived at the station, I called my father. I regretted it immediately. Jail seemed more welcoming than listening to him screaming about how irresponsible and how juvenile I was for five minutes. Unfortunately, turns out the call was a waste of time. The courts weren’t allowing any of the people in the bar brawl to post bond until we all saw the judge in the morning. So my night was going to be spent in a dark, dingy cell, thanks to my brothers. Wonderful!

My arresting officer took me into a small room. He made me stand near the wall that had black lines across it used to measure height, then took my picture. He then took me over to a table and lifting my hand, he rolled each one of my fingers across an ink pad then placed it on a sheet of paper. After fingerprinting, a female officer came into the room.

“Is she ready?” she asked the male officer.

“Yeah, you can take her.” The woman grabbed my arm and escorted me out of the small room and down the hall. She stopped near a brown door and opened it, placing me inside before shutting it.

“Strip down,” she said to me. I removed my dress and stood in front of her clad only in my bra and panties. She stood in front of me, giving me the once over. “Get rid of the bra and panties too, I have to do a cavity search.” I was confused. Why would I have to remove all my clothes if she just wanted to search for cavities?  Not that I had any, I was very good at maintaining my teeth and going for my check-ups every six months. I removed my bra and panties then opened my mouth.

She laughed. “A body cavity search.” Then she took her foot, placing it in between my feet, spreading my legs apart. Her hand slid between my legs and up the crack of my behind. I was mortified this woman was touching me in places I only allowed a few people access to. I felt humiliated.

After she finished her degrading raping of my body, she handed me this dark blue jumper. I held it up. “This is never going to fit me,” I told her. It looked like a jumper for three it was so big.

“Sorry, princess, but this isn’t Macy’s, one size fits all,” she snapped. She was so mean and rude. I grabbed for my bra and panties.

She shook her finger at me. “No bra, you can wear the panties, but that’s it.”

I slid on my panties and then the jumper. She grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the room. We walked to a large metal door, where she pressed a button and then the door opened. I saw cells of all types lined up to the left; a large tinted mirrored room was to the right. She took me to one of the cells. She waved to the mirrored area and I heard a large click, then she opened the cell door.

“Welcome to your suite, I hope the accommodations are to your liking.” She smiled. Smart ass. I glowered at her as I walked inside and she closed the cell door behind me. There was a small sitting area with a table, and three pay phones in the corner. I could see a small hall. I walked over to it; to the right was a dark bathroom, with a toilet, sink and a small shower. I walked to the end and it was a bedroom with two sets of bunk beds. Callie was lying on one of them and jumped off when she saw me.

She hugged me. “So how was the feel-up from Brumhilda,” Callie asked with a perturbed look on her face.

“It was humiliating,” I murmured.

“Violet, this place is so dirty and scary.”

I hugged her back. “Don’t worry, we only have to stay the night. I’m sorry my brothers got you into this.”

“It’s fine, I am just glad we are only staying the night.” She sniffed. “I miss David, I wonder if he knows I’m here.”

“I’m sure he does.” I could feel her shaking, she was really afraid.

“I tried calling him, but you can’t call cell phones collect.” 

I held her close. “Come on, we only have a few hours before court, let’s take a quick nap.” She nodded and I walked over to the bunk bed and lay on the bottom. Surprisingly, Callie slid in next to me.

“I’m sorry, I’m scared.”

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Within seconds, she was sound asleep. I stared up at the bottom spring of the top bunk bed and exhaled as I thought about Chain.

I stayed up all night waiting for Violet to call, but she never did. At 3:20 am, the alarm on my cell went off. I reached over and shut it off, then stood up and walked to the bathroom.

After I showered, I packed the rest of my things in my suitcase and strolled out to the living room. David was pacing back and forth, his cell pressed to his ear. “What the hell do you mean a bar fight? Where are they now? I see… Okay…thanks for calling.”

David hung up the phone then looked up at me. “That was Callie’s sister. Apparently a large fight broke out at Curtsey last night and Violet and Callie were involved,” David said as he rubbed his forehead.

A bar fight? There was no way, the one thing I knew for sure about Violet was she didn’t have a violent bone in her body.

I shook my head. “What happened?” I asked.

“They got arrested!” he exclaimed.

“They got arrested?”

“Yep. And the jail will not release them till they see the judge. Callie’s sister said the judge wants to teach them a lesson.”

“Shit, David, we can’t leave them in there.” I rolled my suitcase towards the door. David stopped me near the kitchen.

“Chain, where are you going? Our flight doesn’t leave for another hour and a half.”

I stilled him with a look. “We need to go now, Callie needs you. I will get us on an earlier flight. Are you coming or not?”

He grabbed his suitcase from the living room and walked up to me with a grin. “Let’s go.”

***

I was able to get us on a flight at 5:00 am. It was only a half hour different from our early flight, but it made a big difference as Philadelphia was one hour ahead of Minneapolis.

Surprisingly, I was not shaking or twitching as I sat on the plane. I believed it was because I was past shocked or worried: I was catatonic.

We arrived in Philly at a little before nine. As we were driving to the court, David called and found out that their arraignment was at 9:45.

The courthouse was packed. David and I pushed our way into the courtroom and found two empty seats on a bench near the front. We sat down and waited for what seemed like eternity.

There were two men standing before the judge, being tried for drug possession. A wave of fear washed over me as the reality of where Violet was hit me. My Violet was in jail, surrounded by murderers and rapists, vicious people. What if someone attacked her?  My jaw clenched at the very idea. If anyone touched a hair on her head, I would kill them, seriously.

The judge sentenced the men to five years and they were removed from the courtroom.

David leaned towards me, handing me a handkerchief. “You’re sweating and twitching again. What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m worried about Callie, what do you think?” But that wasn’t the truth at all, I was worried about Violet, crazy worried.

“Okay, but you have to calm down before you pass out on me.”

My head did feel dizzy and my stomach was swirling. I dabbed the handkerchief across my forehead and face. “It’s so hot in here,” I mumbled.

David exhaled like he was annoyed. I suppose it was better than him laughing at me. “It’s not hot, you’re just all worked up, now just calm down.”

I closed my eyes and stretched my neck from side to side, attempting to calm myself. I took a deep breath in, then released a loud exhale.

When I opened my eyes, officers began to pile into the courtroom with prisoners dressed in dark blue jumpers. There had to be over fifty of them being walked in two per officer, their hands cuffed and their ankles shackled together.

David brushed his shoulder against mine. “There they are,” he said, pointing towards the front of the courtroom.

I looked through the swarm of people and saw Violet. She was dressed in a dark blue jail jumper that looked four sizes too big. Her hair was messy and I could see her left eye was swollen and a dark bruise was beginning to appear. Anger instantly filled me. Who the hell hit her?

“Look,” David said, pointing to the opposite side of the courtroom. Standing with their hands cuffed behind their backs were Violet’s brothers Vince and Victor.

“What are they doing here?” I queried.

David chuckled. “You know as well as I do, Vince and Victor are fighters. They probably started the whole fight and dragged the girls into it.”

The bastards better not have. They were Violet’s brothers, they were supposed to protect her, not hurt her.

The arraignment didn’t take long. The judge gave a long speech about fighting and told every one of them if he ever saw them in his court again, he would throw the book at them. He gave them all a fine of five hundred dollars, retribution for the damage done to the club, and sent them away with the officers.

David and I waited outside the courthouse for the girls to be released. A flood of mixed emotions surrounded me. I shouldn’t be here, I should be as far away from Violet as I could. It wasn’t emotionally healthy for me to get so involved. But my damn heart wouldn’t let me. I was worried and I had to make sure she was okay.

When they finally emerged an older man was yelling back and forth at Victor and Vince.

“I can’t believe you two. Dragging your sister into your bullshit!” the older man shouted. I could see a resemblance between Victor and the older man and made the assumption that the man was Violet’s father.

“What the hell was she doing at the club in the first place,” Victor countered.

Violet shook her head. “It’s a free country, Victor, I am over twenty-one and can do what the hell I want!”

Vince interjected, “Well you shouldn’t have jumped on that guy, Vi. You know how drunks are, you’re lucky you just walked away with a black eye.”

Violet stopped and placed her hand on her hip. “You’re welcome,” she seethed.

Callie noticed us first. “David!” she screamed as she rushed up to him, lunging into his arms.

“Oh, sweetheart, are you okay?” David asked as he did an examination of her from head to toe.

“I’m fine,” she responded. I glanced over at Violet. Her head was cocked to one side and judging by the way she was glaring, she was not at all happy to see me.

Her actions spoke even louder, as she huddled her brothers and father together and without even a look back at me, whisked them away.

I was devastated by her cold reaction, but not surprised. In a way I deserved it—it was me, myself alone who kept putting myself through this torture.

With my head low, I followed David and Callie back to the limo waiting for us in front of the courthouse. I sat silently as we drove to their house.

After dropping off Callie and David, I decided to take a drive, to sort out my scattered thoughts.

I was so conflicted by Violet. I just didn’t understand this woman at all. Was she still just using me for sex? Most men would be thrilled with a woman who only wanted their body and nothing else. And I was quite sure if it was any other woman, I would feel the same way, but with Violet, I wanted—I needed more.

But why? What made this woman so different than any other? I had dated a lot of beautiful women. What was it about Violet that I needed so much? She did have a natural beauty about her. Beautiful big beige eyes that smiled at me every time I saw her and those lips, so soft and gentle.

And that smile, there was nothing like Violet’s smile. But putting beauty aside, it was her heart that I loved so much. That caring heart that held me close when I broke down about my mother’s and sister’s deaths.

I stared out the window and I came to the conclusion that this was a punishment, it had to be a punishment. A payback for all the broken hearts I had left behind after bedding innocent women and discarding them like they were nothing.

How could I fix it? There had to be a way to fix it. I could personally contact every single woman that I had used and apologize. It would take at least a year to accomplish and I was still not certain if I could remember every single one. But I would try if I had to. If it meant that this curse that seemed to follow me, the one that made me love a woman who did not love me back, would be lifted I would do anything.

I didn’t want to love her, I didn’t want to love her at all.

My mother’s face flashed into my mind. I didn’t know why I thought about her at that moment, but I did. She would have loved Violet, I know she would have, and my sister Carena too.

My sister would be fifteen, in high school. I could see Violet and her sitting in her bedroom, doing each other’s hair, talking about boys.

I missed them so much.

Violet, how did I get this woman out of my head?

The limo pulled up in front of my apartment and I stepped out. I convinced myself that I just needed to give it a rest for the night, stop thinking about her, let my head settle and deal with it tomorrow. That was a good plan and probably would have worked out great, had the very woman my head was so screwed up over not been standing near the elevators of my apartment when I walked up. Christ!

As I drew closer she reached out for me and I pulled away.

“No,” I told her, shaking my head. I didn’t want her to touch me, not after she had treated me so badly at the courthouse.

She frowned. “Chain, please don’t do that.” So now I was the bad guy? Because I pulled away from a woman who completely humiliated and hurt me today. No way, I wasn’t going to let her make me feel guilty.

I squeezed my eyes closed tightly and looked down.

“Violet, I think it would be better if you went home.”

“But why? Do you have another woman coming over?” she mumbled.

Her comment threw me off. “What?”

“I mean, I completely understand if you have other hook-ups, it’s fine, just be honest with me.” Other hook-ups? What the hell was she talking about?

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Violet.”

“Women, Chain, other women.”

I laughed. “Other women? No, Violet, there are no other women, trust me.” My comment relaxed her and she moved towards me and I backed away. “No.”

“No?”

I looked up at her and she seriously looked clueless as to why I was saying what I said. I knew we had talked about it and she was adamant about us not being displayed in public, but Christ, she was in jail, there had to be some bending of the rules. I pushed past her and walked to the elevator, pressing the up button. I felt her arms wrap around my stomach as her head leaned against my back and she gave me a tight squeeze.

“Please don’t be mad at me,” she whispered. Her touch sent a sensation through my body and my want for her was there instantly. She really knew how to get to me. But I had to stay strong, I would not cave in to her, she was wrong and she needed to know this. I gently removed her hands from around my waist and turned to her.

“Please, go home,” I told her.

She flashed a wicked grin and before I could utter another word, her lips crushed against mine. I lifted my hands to push her away, I wanted to so desperately, she needed to know she could not treat me the way she did and then expect me to fall into her arms. But I didn’t. Her hand cupped the back of my neck as she deepened the kiss and I melted like butter. Sucker!

She lifted her head and smiled at me and I was so disappointed in myself for allowing myself to fall under her spell, for allowing her to get the upper hand again. 

I glanced at her left eye and I could see a dark purple bruise beneath it. I grazed my finger gently over it.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not really.”

“What happened?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Vince was being double teamed, so I jumped on one of the guys and he hit me.”

“Who hit you?” I was going to have a stern talk with this person. One thing I despised was men who hit women.

“I don’t know, Chain, just some guy in the fight, it’s not a big deal.”

I placed my hands on her shoulders. “It’s a big deal to me, Violet, I don’t want some man putting his hands on you. I care about you, you know that.”

She smiled. “I know.” Just as I was beginning to fall back under that spell she had over me, I caught myself.

I inhaled sharply. “Violet, we need to talk.” I clutched her hand and walked her into the elevator.

The elevator doors closed and she faced me. “So what do you want to talk about?”

“Wait till we are in the apartment.”

The elevator doors opened and I took her hand and strode out of the elevator. I slid the key card into the door and opened it widely for her.

She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch.

“So what do you want to talk about?”’

I sat down beside her. “The courthouse.”

She held her hands up. “Before you say anything, Chain, I want to apologize for the way I acted, it was wrong. I wasn’t expecting you to be there, it threw me off guard. You shouldn’t have been there.”

“Oh I see, the man you are fucking shouldn’t worry about you, is that it!” I exclaimed.

“That’s not what I meant, Chain.”