Page 106 of Reaper and Ruin

VIOLET

The guys talked me out of going with them to check out the address Francine had given us and left me in the safety of the clubhouse to wait. They’d convinced me it was highly unlikely anyone would be there, and if they found a body, I wouldn’t want to see that.

I hated that my last memory of Toby was of him bleeding to death on my lap.

When they came back barely thirty minutes later, I knew they’d found nothing. Apparently, there had been no signs of a struggle. Just a perfectly cleaned home. The owners’ names didn’t ring any bells, and the guys had determined the house was probably unoccupied, since they hadn’t found food in the fridge or clothes in any of the upstairs rooms.

None of us had been surprised.

Whip rubbed my arm. “We knew it was a long shot. I wouldn’t hang around the scene of the crime either. It doesn’t mean she’s dead. Most kidnappers try to get their victims to a second location.”

I’d heard that in self-defense videos.

I’d also heard that if you were taken to a second location, your chances of survival drastically plummeted.

Levi shoved his hands in his pockets. “So we go to plan B. We have his email address.”

It didn’t feel like a great plan. Emails could go to spam. Maybe he wouldn’t check his inbox. Even if he did, there was no guarantee an email from me wouldn’t make him suspicious and that he wouldn’t just ignore it.

But at least it was proactive. It was better than just sitting and waiting for him to make contact with us again. Which was plan C.

I sent the email, hoping he wouldn’t question where I’d gotten the address, and stating a time and place for him to meet me. I told him I had the money he wanted from Fang, hoping that would be enough to sweeten the deal and lure him out.

Then I waited, part of me hoping he wouldn’t show. But the rest of me knowing that he would. Because he had never been able to pass up the opportunity to torment me. Not back when we were kids. And not now.

Just like that night up on the bluffs, I sat alone, this time on a park bench in the backstreets of Saint View. We weren’t far from Psychos and Clean Sweep, the trailer park just across the road. But unlike that night, this time, the shadows felt loaded.

Quiet.

Brutal.

I wasn’t really alone. X, Whip, and Levi lurked. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them. It was the only thing holding me together, the weight of everything I’d realized too heavy to bear. I didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to come face-to-face with the monster who’d trapped me in that warehouse and messed with our heads until Toby had sacrificed himself for me. Nerves rattled my entire body. Travis had always been sneaky. A narcissist and a manipulator, twisting words until you were soconfused and back to front that you honestly believed it was you who’d done something wrong, and not him.

He was smart. Wily and ruthless. I’d already underestimated Travis once, and it had nearly cost X his life.

I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Even though X and Whip and Levi had assured me they would never be farther than a few feet away, and they would get to me before Travis could do anything, my stomach still swirled with nerves.

Beneath my purse, perched primly on my lap, I clutched the knife I’d once told X I didn’t want.

I still wasn’t sure I would be able to use it, but the feel of it between my fingers no longer terrified me, like it had that night in my bedroom. Now I clutched it like it was a lifeline.

Whip’s voice came quietly from the darkness. “Vi. Trigger just reported a white van approaching, same as the one we’ve seen before. Get ready.”

I couldn’t say anything. My mouth was too dry. I knew Trig and his crew were spread out, farther away than the three men who hid in the darkness around me. They were there as backup, but this show was mine.

The white van parked across the road. And for the longest moment, Travis and I just stared at each other. I couldn’t see him through the van’s dark tint, but I didn’t need to. It was just like the days I’d felt him watching me while I was showering. I knew before I saw him that he was there, in the darkness, watching me, ready to make his move but not before I was scared and shaking.

Travis was a man who got off on fear.

He’d shown me that when we were kids, him and his friends taunting me as we walked home from school. The way he’d made up stories so our foster parents would punish me.

And he’d shown it again as adults. Trapping me and Toby in that warehouse. Rigging traps on the bluff. Sending rhyming notes that threatened everything and everyone I cared about.

All of it had been about fear. About control.

About revenge for the fact I’d cost him years of his life, when I’d backed up the claims of a girl he’d abused.

When he got out of the van, his smile was smug. Like he didn’t have a fucking care in the world because he had a gun clutched in his hand. He sauntered over to me and took up the seat beside me.