Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

by Elle Thorpe

I was never taking a shower again. Washing away the scent of her would be a fate worse than death.

Violet had rushed out of the room like her ass had been on fire. It definitely hadn’t been though, because I’d been watching it as she’d left, and it was nothing but sweet perfection,...

“Well, hey there, Brokeback Mountain. Blink once if there was tongue. Blink twice if Whip cried after.”

I’m emotionally unstable, sexually satisfied, and lightly caffeinated. Let’s go commit a felony.”

I was on a Violet high I couldn’t get off, and that energy needed to go somewhere.

“One blowie and the two of you turn into pumpkins. It’s barely ten. We aren’t going home.” Levi glared at me. “There was no ‘blowie.’” I raised an eyebrow. “Really? No bob on the knob?” Whip rolled his eyes. “Seriously?” “No slurpin’ the gherkin?”

Whip groaned. “Isn’t this why you have parents?” I grinned at him. “Are you asking me to call you Daddy?” I glanced at Levi. “Is that what you call him?”

I kissed his cheek, and he shoved me off. I couldn’t control my laughter. “You only like kisses from Whip, then, huh?”

Whip gave me a look. “If we take you killing, will you shut up about it?” “Yes, Daddy.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just call me your first victim of the night, because you are killing me. Go. Please. For the love of all things fucking holy, go get a knife before I turn my gun on myself.”

Whip elbowed me. “Shut up. She doesn’t need to hear that, after…everything.” Seriously, the Dad title really did fit him. He was such an old grump.

“They’re very boring,” I whispered to her. “But don’t worry, once you marry me and we run off to Barbados to live happily ever after, with our two children and a pet enchilada, they will be nothing but a memory.” All three of them stared at me. Whip pinched the bridge of his nose. “A pet enchilada?” I nodded. “Yeah, you know those furry gray things with the big ears? Kinda like cuter, cuddly rats? Wikipedia says they make great but unusual pets.” Levi squinted at me. “Do you mean a chinchilla?” I waved my hand around dismissively. “Chinchilla, enchilada, same-same.”

“So, while Violet is working, we’re all going stabbing.” I kissed the top of her head. “Have a great shift, chinchilla mama. I’ll be back to pick you up when you’re finished.”

“Vi, it’s dangerous.” “So is having sex with X, but the two of you were happy to sit around and watch that happen.”

He was right. Violet most definitely could not come hunting with us. “You have a shift. I know you don’t just want to leave Bliss and the others shorthanded. We’ll take you out to play another day.” Then I mouthed, “No, we won’t,” to the other guys. Violet glared at me. “You know I can see you doing that, right?” I cringed. “Oops. I was trying to be subtle.”

If men could kill, then how fucking hard could it be? Everything inside me blazed with anger and grief and loss. There wasn’t a single muscle in my body that wasn’t currently primed for a fight, for violence, or for blood to spill.

Screw everyone. I wasn’t a fucking child who needed coddling. I’d watched my best friend bleed out in my lap last night. I’d fucked three men, and then gone another round in a sex club while people watched. If I wanted to go on a killing spree then I would.

“Yeah!” Nyah fist pumped the air. “Ain’t nobody holding us down! Not even you, scary, brooding, bouncer dude!” I cringed and waved an apologetic hand in Vincent’s direction. Seemed smart to be polite to the psychopath.

How on earth could I have survived the warehouse, and the psychopaths who had all come out of the woodwork, only to be killed by the cute little brunette who looked like she should have been a school teacher?

“I might have spent my teens stealing cars and running from the police. It’s no big deal.”

I stared at her. “Is it me? Am I just the magnet for all people with no respect for the law?”

“Let’s just say my parents aren’t very nice people, and I grew up surrounded by their friends, who are also not very nice people. So there’s really nothing you can tell me that is going to shock me. I’ve seen it all before, and probably worse.”

“My dad is in the Mafia. He kills people with a click of his fingers. And so do my brothers and my uncles and my cousins, and pretty much everyone I know.”

She raised a shoulder. “But whatever your guys are into, whatever you’ve found yourself in, I’ve probably seen and done worse.” Her laughter filled the car. “I just need a friend. I don’t know anyone here, and I’ve never been alone in my whole life.” She sniffed. “Wow. Sorry. I just really dumped all that in your lap, and now you probably think I’m a desperate loser who needs therapy for her family issues.” I shook my head. “I could really use a friend too.” I took a deep breath then let out the words in a rush. “I watched a man get decapitated, and then I watched my best friend bleed out in front of me, and those three guys we’re following? They all murder people ’cause they like it.” I waited for Nyah to admit my story was worse than hers. For her to be shocked or worse, fearful. I waited for her to slam her foot down on the brakes and demand I get out of her car. Her stolen car, but I guessed it was still hers more than mine. But she just gripped the wheel tighter. “Sorry about your friend.” Out of everything she could have said, that was probably the most normal response I could have imagined. I burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Nyah’s expression morphed to concern, but just as quickly turned into laughter of her own. “Did we just become best friends?” I was pretty sure we had.

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

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…”

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.

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?”

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?”

He cringed. “Right. Sorry. Not the point.” He reached across Violet, offering Nyah his hand. “I’m so sorry. We haven’t officially met. I’m X. Licker of Violet’s pussy.”

Seriously? All I got was scowls and blazing anger, and he got smiles? I was being a grump and I knew it, but this wasn’t what I wanted. It wasn’t the life I’d dreamed of having with her. I was supposed to get a job, a house on a quiet street, in a decent neighborhood where kids rode their bikes after school. It wasn’t going to be a fancy life, but it would be honest and sweet because she was next to me. And somehow I seemed to have set the whole thing on fucking fire.

X contorting himself into unnatural angles to climb over the center console from the back seat to the front. I squinted at him, his big body half stuck somewhere in between. “Why the hell didn’t you just open the door and walk around?” He lifted his head. “I have impulsive thoughts, Levi. Sometimes they win.”

And yet with Whip, it had been impossible to resist. I’d wanted his hands on me. Wanted so much more than that, if I was really being honest with myself.

“Need you,” I murmured over her lips, knowing I had no right but wanting it all the same. “Fucking hell, Violet. I love you.”

A gasp filled the tiny, quiet room. I froze, my cock buried deep inside her, worry filling me that I’d somehow hurt her. My eyes flew open. “What? Are you okay?” She stared at my chest. Or more accurately, the Violet I’d tattooed over my heart.

She stared at me. “You…you tattooed my name?” I nodded. She breathed out a slow breath, fingers trailing so lightly over my skin, if I hadn’t been watching I would have thought I’d imagined it. “Yes.” “When?” “That night you met me up on the bluffs.”

“I never rejected you, Violet. I only rejected the version of myself I knew wasn’t good enough for you. I was stupid and selfish, I know that. But I loved you then, just like I love you now. And that tattoo reminds me every day.”

“I know it’s not perfect. It was really different than drawing with a pencil, and I need to get Dax to fix it—” Her gaze snapped to meet mine. “You did it yourself?” There was a hint of awe in her voice that had me both awkward and my chest puffing up with pride. “Yes.” Her eyes shone. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Her words were like a spear right through my chest, opening me up wide. If she hadn’t already owned every inch of my heart, that comment would have done it.

Our breaths mingled, and we both came down from our orgasms, clutching each other close. I rolled onto the mattress, taking her with me, settling beneath her with my dick still inside her, even though I was completely spent.

“I’m going to squash you,”

she mumbled sleepily, head resting on the light dusting of da...

“You’re going to lie right there and sleep. I’ll be j...

There wasn’t a single other place I wanted to be more. Her weight on top of me was comforting in a way I had never experienced, and the idea of her ever movi...

And whispered that I loved her until she fell asleep. It was only hours after staring down at her, sleeping on my chest, that I realized she had never said she loved me back.

“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.

“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.

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.

“Violet?” X hissed. “You pooping?” I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “No, X. I’m not pooping.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh good. I’m not very good with bodily functions. Piss. Shit. Vomit. Gag.”

“Who was that guy?” “An old foster brother.” He studied my expression, and for once, was actually observant of what it meant. “I’m assuming you don’t want me to send him one of our joint Christmas cards this year?”