Page 31 of Reaper and Ruin

He was still grinning and shaking his head in wonder, clearly surprised but thrilled by the fact his old cellmate was out and walking around the streets of Saint View.

I was a whole lot less thrilled about it.

Because I’d recognized Lynx’s face the moment I’d seen him.

He was the same man who appeared in almost all of Toby’s photos. The one lurking in shadows, making deals with strangers, money passing hands in dark corners of Saint View’s seediest locations.

Levi stared at the photographs I’d found in Toby’s room. Dax and Nyah watched on without saying a word, clearly realizing that something was wrong and not wanting to get in the middle of it.

Levi’s smile fell off his handsome face, and I hated I was robbing him of this one small happiness so quickly.

He shifted through the photos. “What are these?”

“I don’t know for sure, honestly. But I found them hidden in Toby’s room.”

Levi’s gaze snapped to mine. “When?”

“Earlier today.”

He swore under his breath and darted a look across the room at Lynx.

“Uh, not to sound naïve, but why does it matter if Toby had some photos of a guy in a dark street?” Nyah winced at one of the images and stabbed a pretty pink fingernail in its direction. “I did a cleaning job at that building last week. Place is a hole. I probably passed three drug deals in the process of lugging my mop from Francine’s van. Not exactly an uncommon occurrence in Saint View, from what I’ve noticed.”

Levi sighed heavily. “Maybe it’s not connected. But Toby had photo evidence of crimes taking place. Crimes that Lynx is clearly a part of.” He glanced over at him again. “And now Toby is dead.”

His words hung in the stillness between us.

I didn’t know about the others, but it suddenly felt like Lynx’s gaze was burning a hole in my back. I didn’t dare turn around.

“What do we do?” Nyah echoed the questions rattling around in my head.

Levi tucked the papers back into the folder and handed them back to me. “Nothing for right now. We’re in a restaurant full of people, and I need time to think.”

I put the photos back in my purse and tried to be level-headed. I hated that this was hurting him. “We don’t know for sure Lynx had anything to do with Toby’s death. Even if he is doing something shady in these photos, he didn’t necessarily know someone was watching him.” I bit my lip, knowing that coincidences in a situation like this were probably rare. And that where there was smoke, there was probably fire. “Should I have not shown you?”

Levi shook his head and met my gaze again. “Of course you should have. I don’t want secrets between us.”

His voice was so strong and firm I was instantly reassured I’d done the right thing. But my heart ached for him anyway. He’dbeen so excited by the idea of having his friend back, and I’d just thrown a bucket of cold water on it by accusing him of having something to do with Toby’s death.

I could see that same idea playing over in Levi’s head as we ordered our meals, and again when our food came. He was quiet, staring into space, not participating in the stilted conversation Dax, Nyah, and I tried to maintain. The whole thing felt awkward and weird, but I forced myself to make idle chitchat since we couldn’t just leave mid-meal.

Dax and Nyah carried the conversation, but the tension was getting to me. I wasn’t even sure he was looking in my direction, but I could feel Lynx’s presence looming over me. All my brain could think about was if he had something to do with Toby’s murder, then he was the man whose heart I needed to stop. He was the man who’d taken my best friend and who needed to be put in the ground.

I had no solid proof, nothing but circumstantial evidence that would have been laughed out of a court, and yet my brain screamed there was something off about this man. That he knew me even though I didn’t know him. That his polite words hid a snake coiled within.

I pushed back from the table, even though the waitress had just put a steaming plate of juicy steak in front of me. “Excuse me, please. Bathroom.”

I threaded my way through the room, my footsteps faster and faster, Lynx’s sharp-eyed gaze following me until it was all I could feel. Anxiety wrapped itself around my chest, forcing breathless gasps, my brain screaming I couldn’t just sit there and eat steak in the same room as the man who could be responsible for Toby’s death.

I’d thought this whole thing had been about me. The things I’d seen. The things I’d done. The men I knew.

What if I was right, but it wasn’t Levi, Whip, and X who were the problem? What if it had been Toby who’d set this entire thing in motion by sticking his camera lens where it didn’t belong? What if it was him who’d dragged me in, and me who’d dragged in the others?

My brain was a whirlwind of thoughts and theories, none of them quite fitting, but unable to think clearly enough to dismiss any of them either.

I slammed my way into the bathroom, finding it a blissfully empty space to have a mental breakdown.

I gripped the bathroom sink, hunching my shoulders, heaving in shuddering breaths, panic seizing my body.