When Doom Found Violet novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Mountain

Doc nicknames her Flower, she tells her brother Zane everything except where she is, and Doom overhears what she really calls him before laying down the one rule: the wreck never happened.

When I woke again the room was quiet and the pain had dulled to something I could stand.

My left arm was strapped into a sling.

I tried to sit up and the room tilted.

"Whoa," Doc said, appearing at the bed. "Easy, Flower."

"Flower?" I asked.

"Your name's Violet."

I stared at him.

"That's kind of cute," I said.

"Don't tell anybody," he muttered.

I needed the bathroom, and I was embarrassed about it, but Doc held my good elbow all the way there and waited outside the door.

In the mirror I had cuts along one cheek, a bandage on my temple and a purple bruise spreading under my eye.

I looked like I had been in a car wreck, which was fair.

When I tried to walk back I gripped the sink and had to call him in.

"Come on, Flower," he said. "Back to bed."

He settled me against the pillows.

"Doc, could I have my phone?" I asked. "I want to call my brother. He can pick me up and I'll be out of your way."

"Prez says you stay until you're better."

"Doom said I could leave if I could walk."

Doc laughed.

"Flower, you can't walk to the bathroom alone."

I didn't have an answer for that.

"We're not keeping you," he said. "We're just making sure you survive the trip."

I considered it.

"Can I at least call him so he doesn't worry?"

He looked at me for a long moment.

Then he took my phone from the tray and held it out.

"Don't do anything dumb."

Fifty texts and thirty missed calls glowed on the screen.

Nearly all of them said Kent.

I ignored every one and called my brother.

Zane answered on the second ring.

"V? Where are you? Kent's been calling me for an hour."

"I'm at a clinic. I was in a wreck."

"A what? Where?"

I pulled the phone from my ear until he stopped yelling.

"I'm not sure where, exactly."

"How do you not know where you are?"

"It's complicated," I said.

My brother built furniture for people in four states, and most days he was the calmest man I knew.

When something happened to me he turned into a different man.

"I'm fine," I said. "I promise. But Kent cheated on me, Zane."

The line went silent.

"With Marcy. In our bed. I found them when I came home with his anniversary present."

He started swearing.

He kept going so long that Doc raised an eyebrow across the room.

I waited, and when he took a breath I said, "Are you finished?"

"No. I'm putting him through my wood chipper."

I laughed, and it hurt, and I laughed anyway.

"What was the present?" Zane asked.

"A Camaro."

"You bought that jerk a Camaro?"

"Technically I bought myself one," I said. "And then I crashed it."

That stopped his laughing.

"V. Are you okay?"

"Not really," I said. "I'm hurt, Zane. Not just my body."

"I know, little sister."

"Can you call your wife for me?"

"Sure."

"Tell her she was right about Marcy," I said. "I should've listened."

He sighed my name.

"I know," I said. "Just tell me where you are when you figure it out and I'll come get you."

"I will."

I hung up and handed Doc the phone.

"No location," I said. "I gave him nothing."

He nodded and pocketed it.

"Don't read the texts, Flower."

"I wasn't going to."

"You're not fighting me about staying," he said.

"There's no point. You haven't hurt me. You fixed my shoulder."

I adjusted the sling.

"And I'd rather not make the Mountain angry. He looks like he could kill someone from across a room."

Doc started laughing so hard he had to put his hand on the counter.

"What?" I said.

His eyes slid toward the doorway.

My stomach dropped.

I turned my head slowly.

Doom stood in the doorway, arms folded across his chest.

"Glad you're smart enough to read a room," he said.

"Oh, no."

"I didn't mean it as an insult," I said fast. "It was more of a measurement."

Doom looked at me.

"I'm still not being rude."

He didn't blink.

"I'm going to stop talking now," I said.

"Good idea."

Doc was wheezing.

Doom walked in and stopped beside the bed, and I tilted my head back to see his face.

Then I tilted it further, and a pain shot into my neck.

"Could you sit?" I asked. "Looking up at you hurts."

His eyebrow went up.

"You're very tall," I said.

Doc looked from one of us to the other and grinned.

Doom pulled a chair over and sat, and his knees still came to my waist.

"Better?"

"Much. Thank you."

His face went serious.

"Today didn't happen," he said.

I listened.

"You tell anyone about that wreck, you won't like what comes next. As far as anybody knows, somebody hit you and kept driving."

I nodded.

"Say it, Violet."

I jumped a little at my own name in his mouth.

"I understand. Relax."

His eyes narrowed.

I had told the president of a motorcycle club to relax.

Twice.

"I won't tell anyone," I added.

"Good."

I thought about the crushed Camaro and my husband in the street.

Then I shrugged with my good shoulder.

"I'll tell people it was revenge," I said. "That I smashed the car he wanted most because I caught him with my cousin."

Doom stared.

Then the corner of his mouth lifted.

"That's cold," he said.

"It's believable," I said, and leaned back on the pillow.

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