Page 12 of Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

“No. Would you have walked away when your mother was murdered?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t have.”

And neither could I.

“I’ll talk to Grayson and have him text you about the next meeting.”

I nodded.

I might not have been a psychopath, but I was joining their murder squad. Whether they liked it or not.

F rancine texted me thirty minutes before my shift that afternoon was supposed to start and asked me to come to the office instead. I screwed up my face at my phone but redirected Fang anyway.

When he pulled up out in front of Clean Sweep headquarters, right across the road from Psychos, a low growl rattled from his chest.

Or maybe it came from mine, I wasn’t quite sure.

“Want me to deal with them?” He cracked his knuckles and gripped the steering wheel tighter, as if he needed it to keep himself from launching out of the car and clobbering the three men who stood waiting outside my place of employment, apologetic expressions firmly fixed in place.

“No. I can. You go home.”

“I’ll sit at Psychos. I’ll be close by if you need a ride.” He glared at his old best friend through the glass. “Or someone to punch Reaper in his stupid face.”

But I was so mad at all three of them, if anyone was going to be doing the punching, it was me.

I slid out of the SUV, slamming the door behind me, even though the car had done nothing to warrant my frustrations.

“Violet,” Whip started.

I stepped up onto the sidewalk and held my hand up in a stop motion in front of his face. “Save your breath. I’m not interested in anything any of you have to say.”

Levi tried next. “Baby, just let us explain.”

I glared at him. “Call me baby again, and you’ll wish you hadn’t.”

“Can I still call you Omelet?” X asked hopefully.

The death stare told him it probably wasn’t a good idea if he wanted to keep his balls intact.

All three of them fell into silence as I stormed past them and stomped up the stairs to Francine’s place.

She glanced up from behind her desk, and I forced a smile for my boss.

“Afternoon. I got your text. You wanted to see me?”

It suddenly occurred to me I should have been nervous about this meeting. There was every chance I was getting fired. I’d been so worked up and distracted about Toby and the guys, it was only now I had even considered this meeting might be about more than just cleaning supplies or a new client.

But Francine smiled widely at me, clearly in a much better mood than the last time I’d been here. Her eyes were no longer bloodshot from her allergies, and she wasn’t scowling at me, so I guessed I was forgiven for calling in sick and her picking up my shift.

“Yes! Violet, thank you for coming in. I want you to meet Nyah.”

She pointed behind me, and I whirled around.

A dark-haired woman sat there, her leg bouncing nervously.

I blinked. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t even notice you there.

I didn’t mean to be rude…” I caught sight of X’s head popping up in the window behind the woman.

Oh my God. Was he jumping up and down in order to be able to see in?

I was actually going to kill him. I was probably going to end up in jail for Toby’s murder anyway, so I might as well commit a real one so the crime actually fit the sentence.

I tried to rein my temper in by reminding myself X was not actually a bad man; despite the fact he’d done bad things. My time in foster care had taught me all about truly bad people. My foster dad. Mother. The boy who’d called himself my brother but had never acted like one.

I swallowed hard, pushing away the thoughts of the shitty house I’d grown up in after my birth family had abandoned me.

Nyah stood and held a hand out to me. “It’s really nice to meet you…”

“Violet,” I supplied.

Francine interrupted our meeting and thankfully gave me a reason to look away from X’s stupid grinning face popping up in the window every few seconds. “Nyah’s new, so I’d like you to train her for your next couple of shifts, please.”

My smile fell. Francine was putting on someone new? She barely had enough work for the three of us she already had employed. It was why I’d had to pick up extra shifts at Psychos, because she couldn’t give me the full-time hours I needed.

It was a kick in the guts to realize she had the work; she just didn’t want to give it to me.

But I couldn’t say that to her. I didn’t have it in me to cause a scene. I was probably overreacting anyway. For all I knew, Francine had a big new job coming in I didn’t know about.

And I wasn’t training my replacement because she was still mad about me losing her a client.

A client who had attacked me and who had been lost not because he didn’t like my work, but because X had gutted him. Not that Francine knew any of that, nor could I tell her.

Frustration swirled inside me. I needed this job more than ever now I didn’t have Toby. The rent on my apartment was solely my responsibility. I didn’t get a chance to grieve and wallow in my guilt over his death, because I had to be here, training some woman to replace me.

I was bound and gagged in so many ways, and angry tears of frustration and guilt and grief all welled behind my eyes.

But I blinked them back and forced a smile for my employer. “Of course I can train her. No problem at all. I just need to top up a few products in my cleaning caddy, and then we can get out of here.”

Francine gave me a pleased smile. “Thank you, Violet. You and Nyah have a great afternoon. Don’t forget to get a copy of your schedule for the week before you leave.”

I nodded, picking up the products I needed and not bothering to spare a glance at the schedule because I’d already checked the online version and knew there wasn’t much on it for me.

But none of that was Nyah’s fault, and I refused to take it out on her. We walked out, side by side.

“The job isn’t too far from here, so I was just going to walk. Is that okay with you?”

She nodded. “Of course. No problem at all. It’s a nice day.”

It was.

Until I pushed open the door and realized Whip, X, and Levi were all still out there waiting for me.

Nyah stiffened behind me as all three of them moved toward us.

“Ignore them,” I told her. “Just walk right on by like they aren’t even there.”

Nyah took in the three huge men who towered over her, her eyes going big.

She wasn’t super short, but Levi in particular made even me feel small, so I could only imagine how intimidating he seemed to her.

His biker jacket and tattoos, including the little one just below his eye, probably didn’t help matters any.

I tucked my free arm into hers, my cleaning products clutched in my other. I caught sight of Fang watching me from behind a glass window at Psychos, and he raised an eyebrow in my direction, a single silent question on his lips.

I shook my head, letting him know I had it under control.

Because I did. Levi, Whip, and X didn’t approach me again, but the three of them tailed us the entire way.

Nyah kept shooting nervous glances at them, but the looks I threw back were more like murderous glares.

We reached Mrs. Sinterro’s cottage-style house and knocked on the door, calling out to her, but when she didn’t answer, I let us in with the keys she had provided to Francine.

The guys all followed us up the path, like they were the third, fourth, and fifth members of our cleaning crew.

I shut the door in their faces and locked it.

Nyah relaxed just a bit with the locks engaged, us on the inside of the house, the men on the other. “I know you said to ignore them, but who the hell are they?”

I moved to Mrs. Sinterro’s laundry closet and pulled out her Hoover and mop bucket. I didn’t even know how to answer that. Were they my friends? My boyfriends? My merry little band of psychopaths?

Okay, I definitely couldn’t call them that without terrifying Nyah further. She probably already thought they were my stalkers, since that was exactly what they were acting like. She would likely report this to Francine, which would be the nail in my coffin with her, I was sure.

I tried to distract her with cleaning instead.

“They’re harmless, I promise. They’ll get bored and go away.

In the meantime, we have cleaning to do.

So the routine I was taught is kitchen and bathrooms first so the cleaning products can soak in if needed.

Dust, vacuum, mop, and then we’re out the door.

And we need to move fast because Francine doesn’t like if we take longer than two hours per job.

An hour for smaller houses like this one. ”

Nyah rolled up the sleeves of her work shirt. “Got it. I like a challenge. I can start with the bathroom if you like.”

I blinked, surprised she would offer to take a bathroom.

Most wouldn’t. But then, I’d done exactly the same thing when I’d had my training day.

I’d desperately wanted to make a good impression on Josie, the cleaner who had trained me.

I’d really wanted her to report back to Francine that I was good at my job, and a team player, so I’d get a lot of shifts.

That clearly hadn’t worked out too well for me.

Maybe I hadn’t made the good impression I’d been hoping for.

I’d never gotten a chance to ask Josie since she’d quit a few days after I’d started.

Had I talked too much? I’d tried to be friendly, but maybe she’d found that annoying?

I sighed, hating that I was always so concerned with what other people thought of me, even months after it had taken place.

I wished I could just not care, but that had never been something I could do.

I smiled at Nyah. “That would be great. I’ll start in the kitchen, and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle.”