Page 36 of Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

WHIP

I turned down three client jobs over the next few days because I just couldn’t bring myself to do them. I made the excuse that I was sick and rescheduled, but it was with a sense of dread I’d only felt once before.

Right before I’d taken my first job.

Guilt had plagued me. The feeling this wasn’t right. That I was betraying the one person I’d ever fucking loved.

And now I felt like I was doing it all over again.

It was stupid. Violet and I weren’t a couple. Levi and I definitely weren’t. And yet all of a sudden, the thought of getting naked with anyone else had me feeling like I was cheating?

I’d gotten over it the first time. I would get over it again.

I checked the text on my phone one more time, wishing I had never gotten it. Or that I could ignore it. But I’d made a promise when I’d joined Grayson’s group. It was the number one rule we had.

No matter where you were, or what you were doing, when your phone went off, you showed up to the meeting.

You showed up for your brothers.

Though when I’d made that promise, I hadn’t had any of their dicks in my mouth, so it had been a lot easier to make.

I hadn’t seen Levi since X had gotten home to free us from his bedroom, and he’d rushed out without saying a word to anyone. I’d followed straight after because I hadn’t had it in me to deal with X alone.

I’d lain low the last few days, just keeping tabs on Violet.

But seeing Levi at some point was inevitable.

I got out of my car and shut the door. At the iron gates of the Slayers’ compound, Fang appeared on the other side and nodded his blond head at me.

The similarities between him and Violet were obvious. Their eyes. Their hair color. Their height.

But where Violet had a gentle softness about her, Fang was all brooding intensity that gave even me a slight pause.

Mostly because he knew I’d slept with his sister.

And that was awkward.

“Fang.” I nodded at him. “Just here to see Grayson.” I held up my phone like that explained everything. “He texted me.”

Fang pushed a passcode into the control panel on the brick pillars holding up the heavy gates, and I gave him a small smile as I walked between them.

“They’re down in the workshop. Grayson wanted somewhere private for you all to talk…or whatever it is you do at your meetings. Go down the hill, past the clubhouse, and the turnoff to Grayson’s place. There’s a big shed beyond that. Can’t miss it if you stick to the road.”

“Got it. Thanks.”

I went to walk away, mentally trying to place where this workshop was on the compound, though it was a useless endeavor because, even though I’d been here half a dozen times for various reasons, I’d never gone any deeper into their vast property than the cabin Gray and his family had built here behind the safety of the fences.

“Whip?”

I was already halfway down the hill but turned back to Fang. “Yeah?”

“I like you. I really don’t want to have to kill you. So don’t fuck up whatever you and X and Reaper are doing with my sister, yeah?”

Even that sentence was complicated. And a promise I wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure I could make. Because I couldn’t see a future where I was in Violet’s life in any meaningful way. If there was a competition for her hand, I was in dead last position and I knew it.

I didn’t fucking like it. But I knew it.

“All I want is for her to be safe,” I called back to her brother.

His lips flattened into a line, and I could tell my lack of promise wasn’t exactly going down well, but it was the best I could offer.

I trudged down the dirt road until I rounded a bend and a huge industrial building rose in front of me.

It was smartly positioned in the property, shielded by thick scrub and tall trees.

I would have never even known it was there until I was right on top of it if the trees around it hadn’t been thinned out by a fire I knew they’d had about a year ago.

The garage looked new, probably built after the blaze, I guessed, maybe at the same time they’d built Grayson’s place, but there was already a couple of old bikes and cars sitting out front, waiting for someone to work on or strip for parts.

There was a big roller door to one side, but a smaller regular one to the left. I beelined for that, taking a deep breath before I twisted the knob to enter, the sounds of talk from inside already filtering through the thin corrugated iron walls.

Doc raised a hand from the center of the open space, beckoning me over to the circle of chairs he’d made in the middle of the oil-stained floor.

There was only one chair left. The rest were taken up by Trigger, Ace, Torch, Scythe, X, and Levi.

Of course, the one open chair was right beside the man I’d very nearly had sex with just a few nights previously.

I didn’t say anything to him when I sat. Didn’t really acknowledge any of them. Just crossed my arms over my chest and sank low in my chair, the brim of my baseball cap pulled down on my head, shadowing my eyes.

Levi stiffened beside me.

A silence fell over the group, and even though I wasn’t looking at any of them, I could feel their gazes on me.

The most irritating thing about a group of psychopaths was they were annoyingly in tune with other people at times. They watched shrewdly, and it was like it was a natural trait for them to pick up on any little weakness or vulnerability they might be able to exploit or use to their own advantage.

It didn’t even surprise me they’d noticed the weirdness between me and Levi so quickly.

Ace waved a finger between the two of us. “What’s up with you two? You’re being weird.”

“Nothing,” Levi and I both said at once.

Fucking hell. We’d responded too quick. Too reactive.

I was right. The entire group pounced on the tension like they were kittens toying with a string.

Trigger shook his head. “Nah, something went down between the two of you. I can practically smell the secrets.”

I wasn’t giving them shit. I had made a promise to turn up to these meetings and support them in not going on mass murder sprees.

I hadn’t promised to spill my personal business and bleed my heart all over the dirty cement floor.

X twirled a wrench absentmindedly that someone really should have taken off him in case he got the urge to throw it. “I might have locked Levi and Whip in my bedroom. Just to see what would happen.”

A half-grin lifted Trigger’s mouth. “So I was right then? Something went down?” He sniggered in my direction. “Or rather, someone?”

I raised an eyebrow, locking down my cool instead of answering in the heat of the moment like I had initially. “Are you implying we banged in X’s bedroom while surrounded by his serial killer memorabilia?”

Trigger snorted.

But Ace glanced over at X. “What do you have in there? Like, just posters or collector’s stuff?”

Even X ignored him. What had happened between me and Levi clearly a more interesting topic of conversation. He couldn’t keep the laughter off his stupid face. “Aw. Did my emotionally stunted alpha boys have a little moment? Did someone hold the other and whisper, ‘It’s okay to feel things, bro’?”

Levi and I both gave him the middle finger.

I accidentally caught Levi’s eye in the process and then had to fight an internal battle not to show how badly sitting by his side was affecting me.

I didn’t miss the way I was more grumpy than usual though.

And that only annoyed me more. “Who called the meeting tonight anyway? Can we get on with it, because some of us have places to be.”

“Got a hot date?” Levi muttered.

If I hadn’t known better, I would have said there was a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“What do you care?”

Levi bit down on his bottom lip, white teeth pressing into the pink flesh I’d spent a lot of time kissing just a couple of nights ago. “I don’t.”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the group, ignoring the fact they were all staring at us with stupid grins on their faces.

“What?” I snapped. “Get on with it before I’m the one who needs to be counselled out of a murder rampage. One I’ll start in this room.”

X opened his mouth, no doubt to make another joke at my or Levi’s expense, if the laughter in his expression was anything to go by.

Grayson shut it down by clearing his throat and giving X that dad frown he had down to a T now that he had a couple of kids of his own to practice on.

X sighed and raised his hand. “I called the meeting.”

Ace rocked back on his chair, the front two legs lifting off the floor. “How many dead bodies did you leave in your wake before calling in this time?”

X screwed up his face. “Ha-ha, hilarious. Sheesh, you go on one little rampage—”

“There were at least three rampages, X,” I threw in dryly.

He threw his arms up. “Fine! Three rampages, one of which was definitely not my fault, because that guy was chewing with his mouth open, and you know I can’t handle things like that. But now you decide you don’t trust me? That hurts, you know? It cuts real deep.”

I snapped my fingers in his direction. “Focus, would you? If you haven’t been leaving a trail of bodies around Saint View, why did you call the meeting?”

X had the decency to look a bit sheepish. “Okay fine. There was maybe one body…”

My groan mixed with those of the others in the room. I scraped a hand through my hair. “Was it at least someone on the list?”

X waved a hand at me dismissively, like I’d insulted him. “What am I? A newbie? I checked his ID. He was on this list.”

Levi squinted as he followed X’s explanations. “So where’s the body now?”

X’s trademark sarcastic grin fit itself back on his face. “He’s just chilling in my truck.”

I snorted on a laugh. “By chilling, do you mean…”

X nodded. “He’s in the freezer, right next to the popsicles.”

Levi wrinkled his nose. “Remind me never to buy an ice cream from you.”

X pointed the wrench at him. “Hey! I’ll have you know I have the best prices in town! I’m way cheaper than anyone else!”