Violet started to roll over to hit the snooze button on her alarm when a giant tattooed arm came out of nowhere and sent her alarm clock crashing to the ground. She peeked over the side of her bed to see it laying sadly on the floor, she squealed when that same massive arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her backwards. She squirmed around and looked into Roman's sleepy grey eyes.
"You didn't have to kill my alarm clock."
"Good morning to you too beautiful," he said softly placing little kisses all over her face.
"Roman, I have to get up." She said trying to push away. "No, I mean, I have to go to the bathroom!"
He laughed and let her go, watching as she stretched and scampered off to the bathroom. Her ass in those shorts would be the death of him, it was making his shorts feel very tight. He tried to adjust himself and realized that there was no way to hide his tented pants, so he hurried to pull on his jeans before Violet came out of the bathroom.
Roman and Violet met Dean and the lab staff at the security office. They sat around the conference room table while Dean briefed them on the damage he saw when he toured the building with the fire chief the night before.
"All of the major damage was to the lab staff's office area. You will all need new office furniture and electronics. I already submitted a request to the administration department and hopefully they are working on it as we speak. I did look in the lab area and as far as I can tell, there is no damage to any of the equipment. All of the chemical storage areas were also untouched." Dean looked around the room, "Does anyone have any questions?"
"What about my office?" AJ asked.
"Your office and the break room are the furthest rooms away from the fire and are completely untouched." Dean told her.
Seth, Antonio and Violet breathed a sigh of relief, they all looked at each other and tried to hide their smiles, they were far more concerned about their stash of gourmet chocolate than AJ's office.
"Alright then, you nerds can go look at your nerd stuff, I'll send one of the rookie guards over there with you. I need Reigns here for something else."
Dean called in a security guard that didn't look a day over thirteen and told him to stay at the lab until they finished cataloging all of the damage and to bring the list back to him as soon as it was done. The kid nodded his head, cleared his throat and waved for the lab staff to follow him. Violet and Seth held their breath trying not to laugh while AJ openly scoffed at the poor kid. Antonio was the only one who managed to keep a straight face.
Roman and Dean watched them all leave, as soon as the door closed they both busted out laughing. "Oh man, that poor kid doesn't stand a chance with those nerds!"
"AJ's gonna eat him alive," Roman agreed. "You are going to hell Ambrose."
"And I'm loving every minute of it!"
"Alright, what did you want to work on?" Roman asked.
"Oh, we need to convince administration that we need to order more CCTV cameras to eliminate all the blind spots you uncovered."
"And someone sneaking in and setting a fire on the property isn't enough to convince them?" Roman asked.
Dean shook his head, "Sadly, no. So I need you to come to this meeting with me and do the talking or I will wind up getting myself fired."
"So, what you are saying is, that you need me to save your soft ass again?" Roman mocked his friend, "What's in it for me?"
"Seriously? What's in it for you?" Dean tried to act offended, "Listen big man…."
"Ha! You got nothing!"
"Nope, I got nothing. Are you coming or not?"
"Whatever, let's go."
Violet, Seth and Antonio divided up the areas that needed to be checked out. Not surprisingly, AJ locked herself in her office and put Violet in charge of everything. Seth inspected the chemical storage areas, Antonio took care of the office space and Violet took charge of the lab. Both men finished first and went over to see if she needed help.
"Everything looks OK, I am not sure how much of yesterday's samples we can salvage though," Violet said shaking her head, "I'll have to figure out what we'll wind up having to skip and make some phone calls."
"Well, the only phone in this place that works is in AJ's office, so, I am not sure how you are going to get that done." Seth said.
Antonio handed them both a piece of chocolate, "I just had some, it survived the tragedy."
The trio just stood there looking around until Seth spoke up first, "I say we break for lunch and then crank up the radio and get all this shit done before quitting time."
"Sounds good to me." Violet said, "Pizza?"
It was a long day, Roman was surprised how hard it was to convince those suits to allocate the money they needed for more security cameras and to give the approval to hire some more security guards. You'd think someone setting a fire on their property would prove the need for these things. He walked into the lab looking for Violet, he left some things at her place and he wanted to get started training her. He found her sitting in the break area with her head down on the table, he put his hand on her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Sorry, Vi, didn't mean to scare you."
"It's ok, are we still going to train tonight?"
Roman looked at her skeptically, "Are you sure? You look exhausted."
"Yes, I am sure. Let's stop back at my place so that I can get changed."
As they headed to the gym, Roman tentatively asked a question that had been on his mind for a while, "So, Vi, tell me more about Jake, how did things start to break down between you two? What triggers him to go ape shit?"
Violet chewed her lower lip and started out the window, "Well, at first things were great. Then slowly he started having problems with things. If I made chicken, he wanted beef. If I made baked potatoes, he wanted rice. If I wore jeans, they weren't tight enough. So, I got tighter jeans and then they were too tight. He was just never happy with anything that I did."
Roman nodded, "I think I understand."
They drove the rest of the way to the gym in silence. Finally they got on the mat and Roman started with some simple drills, he would put her in holds and she'd break them, it was all textbook. Right here with him, she was calm, cool and collected, her brain was firing on all cylinders. But, he knew from the way she reacted in the lab during the fire, that she would panic when the time came. He had to test her, make her trust her instincts.
Violet was feeling pretty good, she knew how to get free no matter how someone attacked her. She put the lid back on her water bottle when suddenly Roman grabbed her by the wrist, twisted her arm behind her back and pinned her against the wall pressing his body against hers.
"How do you get me off of you?" He asked.
She tried to raise her knee, but he blocked it. She tried to move her other arm, but he blocked that too. The more she squirmed the tighter his grip became. "I can't, I can't do it. Let me go."
"No." He stared into her big brown eyes, "Break the hold."
Violet tried again, everything she could think of, but nothing, she couldn't get Roman to loosen his grip, it seemed like the harder she tried, the harder he held her. She was done, there was no way out of it, she wasn't as good as she thought she was. If Jake got his hands on her she would be dead. "I can't." she whispered.
"You can't? Look at me Violet!" She looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. "You aren't good enough to find your way out if this hold? You have a blue belt, maybe you aren't good enough for that belt."
Violet was shocked, tears started streaming down her face, she couldn't believe it, Roman sounded just like Jake. "You aren't good enough." He repeated in low growl.
Something snapped in Violet's head, she had no idea what she did or how she did it, but the next thing she knew, Roman was on his ass on the mat and she was standing in front of him, "I am good enough, Jake. You are the one who isn't good enough!" She kicked him in the shin for good measure and started to storm off.
Roman jumped up from the floor and chased after her, "You did it Violet! I"m so proud of you! You were great!"
"What?" She stopped, "But you said…"
"Shh, Vi, honey, I know what I said, I needed to get you good and mad, you needed to be angry in order to really know what you are capable of. And Violet, you are capable of kicking that little punk's ass."
"You didn't mean it? You don't really think…"
He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead, "No, Violet, I didn't mean a single word I said back there. I knew you could do it, you just needed to know that you could do it."
She rested her sweaty head against his equally sweaty chest, "Thank you Roman."
He was just about to answer her when his stomach growled, she laughed, "Ok, I get the point, let's shower and meet by the car. Will you allow me to treat you to dinner?"
"No way!" He said.
"But I can kick your ass!" She said poking him in the chest.
"You can kick my ass all you want, but you are not paying for dinner." He said taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. "Meet me by the car in 20 minutes."
Exactly 20 minutes later they were in the car headed towards the diner. Roman was entertaining Violet with stories about his older brother and all his cousins. Violet's laughing was music to his ears, he told story after story of them getting into trouble and managing to talk their way out of getting their asses beat by their fathers. He made a left turn near the diner when he noticed a pickup truck that had been behind them since they left the gym parking lot. He drove past the diner and made another turn.
"Uh, Roman? Aren't we going to the diner?" Violet asked.
"Change of plans, call your buddies in the police department. Someone has been following us since we left the gym."
Violet pulled out her cell phone and started to dial when Roman swerved, the pickup had pulled along side them and was trying to run them off the road. Violet yelled as much information into the phone as fast as she could as soon as the dispatcher picked up but all of a sudden the truck crashed into them. Violet screamed and then they were enveloped in darkness.