Page 79 of Reaper and Ruin

Because the alternative was the sick fuck who’d been messing with us for weeks. And if he had her…

I didn’t want to think about finding another of Violet’s friends dead in a pool of her own blood.

Violet’s fingers shook, and I knew she had to be thinking the same thing. It was why we were here, why we were willing to go to the people Nyah hated.

It was the only hope we had that she was still alive.

She’d been gone forty-eight hours. Ifhehad her, then she was probably already dead.

But we weren’t getting anywhere just sitting in the driveway. “We’ll find another way,” I assured Violet.

She nodded but I didn’t think she really believed me.

I needed her to have hope.

I just didn’t know where to find it. I backed the car out slowly, motioning to Dax parked across the street that it was a no go. I couldn’t hear him, but his frustration was clear in the way he slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel and his mouth formed a curse word.

Levi’s phone rang a second later, and he mumbled into it before ending the call. “Dax is going to find somewhere he can get some new ink. He needs the release before he does something stupid.”

I watched him drive off in the opposite direction. “Healthier than getting drunk, I guess.”

Levi nodded. “I’ll check in on him in a couple of hours when we’ve worked out what we’re doing.”

X leaned between the two front seats. “Speaking of, uh, whatarewe doing?”

“Thinking,” I shot back.

He tapped his fingers for a moment. “Okay, that’s boring. What next?”

“X,” Levi warned.

X rolled his eyes and sat back. “Fine. God, I hope I’m not as dull as the two of you when I’m your age. Or is it the fact you’re an old married couple now?”

“We aren’t married,” Levi said with gritted teeth.

“And we aren’t a couple, right, Levi?” The passive-aggressive statement was out of my mouth before I even really thought about what I was saying. I could feel Violet’s concerned gaze resting on my back and bit down on my lip before I said anything else.

A horn honked behind me, and I glanced in the rearview mirror. “Fucking impatient city assholes.” I rolled the window down and stuck my hand out it, waving the guy around. “Just fucking pass if you’re in that much of a hurry.”

The nondescript white van made no move to go around us. It just honked again, this time with the addition of flashing lights.

Hair stood up on the back of my neck.

Levi took out his gun and checked it, then glanced at the van in the passenger-side mirror. Any talk of what our relationship was or wasn’t instantly forgotten.

“Uh, what’s going on?” Worry edged into Violet’s tone.

X patted her leg as he reached down to pull the knife he kept strapped to his ankle. “Nothing, my eggggg-stra awesome lady.”

She swatted his hand away. “Then why do you all suddenly have weapons?”

I didn’t want to scare her, but I wasn’t going to keep her in the dark anymore either. “That van honking at us looks an awful lot like the one you said was up on the bluffs that night.”

“And the same one from that night when someone threw a brick through your car window after you and Nyah followed us,” Levi added.

She twisted around, peering through the back window, before settling back. “Give me a weapon.”

“No,” all three of us said at once.