Page 28 of Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

VIOLET

T he bedroom door crashed open so hard it bounced off the wall behind it.

Levi and I both jerked, twisting at the crash.

A soccer ball, followed by a small boy, flew into the room. Madden scooped up his ball, and then paused, finally noticing the two of us staring at him in horror.

“Mom!” he called back into the hallway. “Why is Uncle Reaper in Aunt Violet’s bed?”

“Oh shit,” Levi muttered. “I’m so fucking dead.”

Madden shoved his hand on his hips. “Mom says we aren’t supposed to say fucking.”

I widened my eyes, but I was also biting back laughter.

Levi clutched me close to him, holding down the sheet which was the only thing keeping us from being completely indecent. He hissed at the little boy, “Madden! Don’t say that.”

The boy gave him a cheeky grin. “Say what? Fucking? Fucking, fucking!” He singsonged.

I hid my laughter. “Oh my God.”

Fast footsteps came from the hallway, and then Rebel’s head appeared around the doorframe, Fang behind her.

Rebel grabbed the shoulders of her wayward son. “I’m so sorry, I’ve been trying to keep them downstairs so you could sleep—”

Her gaze strayed to Levi beneath me.

Then she looked back up at Fang.

My gaze followed her, so I saw the moment Fang realized I was in bed with his best friend.

Rebel clapped her hand over Madden’s eyes, but there was laughter in her voice.

“Come on, sweetie. I don’t think you need to see the massacre that’s about to go down here.

” She picked him up and jogged down the hallway with him over her shoulder, him still singsonging variations of fuck all the way down the stairs.

I stifled a laugh, but it fell away when I realized Fang was really not happy.

He was all red in the face, and I could practically see the steam building in his chest so thick and fast it came out of his ears. It was just a matter of time before he’d explode.

“What the fuck, Levi!”

And there it was.

Levi kissed my cheek. “Well, we had a good run, right? Shame it had to end so soon. Bury me with my bike.”

I couldn’t hold in a laugh that time.

I clutched the sheet to my chest. “Fang. Stop.”

The big man did nothing of the sort. He glowered at Levi like a bull about to launch out of the gate and ram a sharpened horn right through the matador. I was almost surprised when he didn’t paw the ground and snort.

Levi let out a sigh. “I love her, bro. I’m sorry, I know she’s your sister, but I’m not just fucking her. I love her.”

The warmest of glows spread around me, and I grinned at my brother.

He squinted like he suddenly had a migraine, his face all tensed up, lines deep between his eyebrows. He pinched the bridge of his nose to ease them. “No. No. No.” He pointed at me. “You are five years old.” He pointed at Levi. “And you are way too old for her.”

I hid a laugh. “Haven’t been five in a long time, big brother.”

“I don’t think it helps when you call him that,” Levi whispered.

He shook his head at Levi. “There’s fucking codes about this shit, Reaper! You know that! We don’t mess around with each other’s family!”

“To be fair,” I interrupted. “We started ‘messing around’ before any of us even knew you and I were family, so I really don’t think that rule applies.”

Fang ground his molars, his fists still clenched at his sides. “I strongly disagree.”

I sighed. He was being ridiculous. “If you want to challenge Levi to a duel or something, do it, but not on my behalf. He hasn’t taken anything that I didn’t willingly want to give him. There’s no need to fight for my honor.”

“It’s not about that,” Fang said quietly.

“It’s about him dragging you into a life you don’t want.

The club…” He screwed up his face. “The club is everything that’s good, and everything that’s bad all at once.

You don’t want a life with a biker, Violet.

It’ll mean a lifetime of always looking over your shoulder in case one of Reaper’s enemies comes after you.

Lockdowns when things get dicey. You’ll never be one-hundred-percent safe. ”

I could see the worry in his eyes. Hear the sincerity in his plea.

But Levi had spent the night in my bed, making love to me and whispering words I’d never thought I would hear a man say. He’d washed my hair, stroked my skin, taken care of me like nobody else ever had.

He’d tattooed my freaking name right over his heart.

And he’d told me he loved me.

If Fang thought I would give that up just because he wanted to play big brother now, after all these years when I was a fully grown woman, then he had another think coming.

I leveled him with a stare. “Did you have all these concerns over bringing Rebel into your life?”

“Of course I did!”

“And you went and did it anyway?”

His jaw went tight. “That was different.”

It wasn’t, and we both knew it. I had him.

He blew out a long breath, and his gaze flickered back to Levi. “Fine. But I swear to Hades, if you hurt her I will kill you with my own two hands, with absolutely zero remorse.”

Levi returned a solid gaze. “Brother, I promise you, if I hurt her, I’ll stand there and let you.”

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, while I tried to find the feminist in me who should probably hate the two of them discussing me like I wasn’t even in the room, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

I’d never had anyone but Toby care about me, and never in this sort of way.

Toby and I didn’t have a “touch her and die” sort of relationship.

Toby’s only weapon probably would have been a mascara wand.

He could have sung musical soundtracks until my enemies’ ears bled perhaps.

But there was something about a man declaring physical violence that just hit different. Fang’s declarations made me feel young and protected.

Levi’s felt like I really wanted my brother to go away so I could do some things with his best friend that no brother should ever see his sister doing.

Fang seemed to catch the vibe in the air, or maybe he was just satisfied with Levi’s response.

But either way, he closed the door, and I went straight back to showing Levi how much I loved the way he’d just fought for me, even if I couldn’t bring myself to tell him the same three little words he’d said to me.

I’d been there with him once. And he’d broken my trust.

I wasn’t quite ready to give it all back to him, no matter how many times his tongue and his lips and his fingers and his cock made me moan his name.

L evi and I slept the morning away. I had no idea what he was supposed to be doing that day, but he’d made zero move to get out of my bed, his big body tucked around mine, his deep breaths rising and falling behind me.

It had been short-lived though, because I had a shift at Clean Sweep that afternoon, where Nyah and I had scrubbed Mrs. Lewersham’s Providence mansion from top to bottom for four hours straight. Nyah had been back to her usual bubbly self, despite the events of the night before.

She’d taken all of that completely in her stride and gone on with her shift like nothing had happened.

I’d tried talking to her about it a couple of times, but she’d just laughed it off like it had all been a grand adventure and said I didn’t need to worry.

That whatever me and Saint View threw at her, she could handle. That she’d seen and done worse.

She’d said it with such a straight face that I’d had no choice but to believe her.

Her family sounded terrifying. And I was glad she was here now, well away from them.

Which was saying something, considering Saint View didn’t exactly feel too safe these days, if it ever had.

She dropped me off at Psychos on her way home, and I was well aware of X’s ice cream van slowly tailing us, but we both pretended not to notice it.

If he was going to stalk people, he really needed to get a more inconspicuous ride.

I eyed the man sitting on the door at the entrance and stopped in front of him, cocking my head to one side, studying his expression.

“Vincent,” I finally determined, though really, it was an educated guess based on the fact the man just quietly stared at me, rather than jabbering a mile a minute or giving me a smug grin and cracking a joke about my little sexcapades the night before like Scythe would have.

Vincent gave a single nod. “Are you well?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“I’m pleased to hear that.”

I jerked my head toward the door. “Okay if I go in? I’ve got a shift tonight.”

He held the door open, and I smiled at him while I passed. But I couldn’t help but add, “You really are different to Scythe, aren’t you?”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “We have a few things in common.” His gaze drifted to Bliss, slinging drinks behind the bar, and something hard became soft in his eyes.

She noticed him watching her and she blew him a kiss, not waiting to see if he returned it.

He didn’t, but it was very clear to me that Vincent loved Bliss in a way that calmed something inside him. Just one look from her had altered his whole being.

Oh, to have that sort of power over another person’s happiness. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or if the idea was terrifying.

But it clearly worked for them. Bliss radiated happiness in a way I couldn’t imagine myself ever doing. I had no idea what it felt like to be that settled, that happy, that loved.

Though Levi’s words echoed over and over in my head, I wasn’t sure I could believe them.

He’d told me things in the past, and then it had all gone to shit. I didn’t want to let myself believe him too quickly this time. I wanted to feel the glow of his I love yous, but I couldn’t let myself be fully open to them just yet, the way Bliss clearly was.

That required a level of vulnerability I couldn’t afford right now when my life was so messed up.