Page 23 of Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

WHIP

“ M urder crew, murder crew. Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when we come for you?”

I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to fight off the pounding pain building behind my eyes that seemed to always be present when X was around.

Levi groaned as X repeated his little singsong mantra for about the hundredth time since we’d left Psychos. “Please. For the love of all things holy. Would you pick a different song?”

Ah, fuck. That was the absolute worst thing he could have said. I knew what was coming.

X warbled loudly and off-key. “Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer…”

I groaned, scrubbing my hand through my hair.

Levi grimaced. “I made a mistake there, didn’t I?”

“Ninety-nine bottles is his default. The murder crew ditty was definitely preferable. He’ll go right down to one bottle and then he’ll start over.”

“We could kill him instead?” Levi offered.

X snorted from the back seat. “You could try. But you would fail.”

I think both Levi and I realized there was a high possibility that could be true. Levi and I could probably go head-to-head in a fight and I would have a fifty-fifty chance of coming out on top.

But neither he nor I had a screw quite as loose as X did. We might have been bigger than he was, but he had unpredictability on his side.

I wasn’t stupid enough to mess with that. Maybe we were something that resembled friends, but that didn’t mean I forgot to keep a healthy dose of fear in my heart when it came to him. It would be stupid not to, and I tried not to make a habit out of being stupid.

X quit singing, only to say, “If you prefer, we can talk some more about how you two got all up and intimate with each other in that viewing room. I still don’t have any details on that. Was it just a bit of friendly sucky-sucky between friends? Or did someone take a ride on the Hershey Highway?”

“Hey, X?” I called to him in the back seat.

“Yeah?”

“You wearing your seat belt?”

“No. Why?”

I slammed my foot on the brake hard, sending him flying forward. He hit the back of my and Levi’s seats with a groan.

I shrugged at Levi. “Damn. Was kinda hoping he’d sail right through the windshield.”

“Hey! I heard that!” X muttered from behind us, pushing himself back onto his seat. Though it was a bit late now, since we were nearly there, he put his seat belt on and glared at me in the rearview mirror.

“Sorry,” I called back to him. “There was a duck on the road.”

“Reginald!”

I rolled my eyes, my irritation with X only feeding the desire in me to stab something.

I stopped outside the destination Levi had given me.

We were well out of Saint View, after taking the road that led to the city.

We hadn’t quite hit the city center, but we were in a shitty part of the outskirts.

It wasn’t terribly different than Saint View, other than the fact the apartment buildings were a lot taller than the ones we had at home.

I cringed at a rat running across the alley in front of us, disappearing into a crack in the outer walls of the building we were watching. “This place is a hole.”

Levi nodded. “Did you really expect a man who was involved in a trafficking ring to live somewhere fancy?”

I peered out through the windshield at the people walking by on the street ahead of us, despite the fact it was after midnight.

“I don’t expect anything. Ever. I’ve known violent men who were poor as dirt and ones who were richer than I could ever dream of.

And everything in between. Expectations are what get you killed. And I prefer to remain breathing.”

Levi let out a long breath. “Fair enough.”

X finally dared to unclick his seat belt, even though we’d been stationary for more than a few minutes. “And where exactly do you fall on that scale, Whip?”

“On the scale of violent men? When you’re singing, pretty high.”

“I meant where do you fall on the richer or poorer scale? Because you live in that shitty little house in Saint View. But yet you drive this really nice car…are these leather seats?” He ran his palms all over them, then leaned in, loudly sniffing into the air. “What’s that I smell?”

“If you farted…”

X ignored me. “It’s the smell of someone who owns more than three matching forks.

” He grinned. “You’re rich, aren’t you? Let me guess.

Old-school money, but you wanted to prove to Daddy you could make it on your own.

So you took the shitty house, but you couldn’t give up the car.

” He patted me on the shoulder. “You’re doing it, Whip! You’re sticking it to the man!”

I pressed my lips together. “I liked it a whole lot better when we didn’t question each other’s personal lives. Let’s go back to that. Okay?”

“Sure.”

There was a beat of silence before X said, “Okay, I’m bored with silence. Tell me how many numbers were on the closing balance of your last bank statement?”

I groaned.

Levi twisted to look at me front-on. “We could be sitting here for a while before anything happens. We might as well talk.”

I glared at him, irritated by all the attention on me and the fact I was still sitting here in this fucking car, instead of finding out who was targeting us and putting a bullet through their brains.

And that was before I even started thinking about what Levi and I had done in the darkness of that room.

My fingers wrapped around his cock had been…

whatever. You could put that down to a heat-of-the-moment need to get off that had gotten out of control.

I’d initiated it. I’d wanted it, and he hadn’t stopped it, but I wasn’t about to start questioning what we were over a quick rub and tug.

It was the way he’d grabbed the back of my neck that I couldn’t stop thinking about. The way he’d hauled me in with a groan and pressed his mouth on mine.

I didn’t know what that kiss meant. And I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

The fact he was acting like it hadn’t even happened was pissing me off.

“Sure. We can talk,” I agreed. “About you. How about you tell us why you haven’t told Violet you love her yet? Why don’t we talk about how you’re scared she’s going to reject you, in favor of X, and so you haven’t said a word like a gutless coward?”

I didn’t care that I was being cruel.

I didn’t fucking want to talk about myself. Or where I lived. Or who the people in that photo were.

I just wanted to fucking put a knife or a bullet into someone so that pain was out of me and into someone else.

But of course, I had to get stuck with these two jackasses, who suddenly wanted to have deep and meaningful conversations about things that were none of their damn business.

Levi glared at me. “How about we talk about the way you just jerked my cock until we both came?”

Oh, fuck him. He couldn’t act like that was all one-sided. “How about we talk about the way you kissed me like you loved me?”

Levi said nothing, just stared at me in the dark interior of the car, his broad chest heaving with fast breaths of anger and irritation that I was sure I mirrored.

X’s head popped through the seats between us, and he stage-whispered, “Just so you know, if you two start hate-fucking, I’m not getting out of this car. There’s a really big rat out there.” He shuddered.

I yanked open the door. “No problem. I’ll leave instead.” I got out and slammed the door shut, stalking off down the alley. The night air did absolutely nothing to cool my heated skin.

One of them opened their door.

“What the hell is your problem?” Levi shouted. “Why are you being such a fucking asshole?”

I spun to glare at him. “Me? Why are you? What the fuck was kissing me like that?”

“You had your hand on my fucking cock! What else was I supposed to do?”

I blinked. His words felt like a slap in the face.

I’d never felt like more of a two-dollar hooker in my life. I’d always convinced myself the work I did didn’t affect me. That it was just a job and it didn’t have any consequences.

But apparently the consequence was Levi saw me as nothing but someone to get him off.

At least I knew where I stood. That kiss had clearly meant more to me than him. And I’d been stupid to think otherwise.

“Is the rat still out there?” X called from the safety of the car.

“Yeah, it is.” I didn’t know if I meant Levi or myself, but the furry kind had scuttled away, scared off by our shouts.

I wanted to join it. Because standing here, this close to Levi, didn’t feel good.

He reached for me. “Whip…I didn’t mean…”

But he did. And we both knew it. His hand dropped before he could make contact with my skin.

I turned away, not wanting to look into his eyes for a second longer.

And instead found myself looking square into Violet’s. “What the fuck?”

Her eyes widened, and she ducked down beneath the car window. Another woman, in the driver’s seat next to her, did the same.

Oh hell fucking no. They had not followed us out here, right into the heart of the gang-owned city streets. I stepped off the curb, beelining for her, because dealing with her ignoring us telling her to stay put was a whole lot easier than dealing with Levi and his bullshit.

Headlights lit up the street.

I stopped in place, shielding my eyes, blinded by the bright lights.

A roar of an engine blocked out all other sounds as the vehicle zoomed up the street, cutting me off from getting to Violet. It headed right toward me and Levi.

There was nothing for me to do but dive out of the way or get mowed down. Levi hit the deck beside me.

My heart stopped, knowing I couldn’t get to Violet.

Tires squealed.

Glass shattered.

Violet’s screams filled the night air.