Reaper and Ruin (Saint View Murder Squad #3)

by Elle Thorpe

“I am a land-dwelling creature, Whip! I am not made for the sea!” We were both going to be made for a watery fucking grave if he didn’t stop drowning me. “I’m Rose, not Jack! Let me on the door!”

Levi squinted at him. “I see you being crazy. You think you’re going to stop killing and live on the straight and narrow just because you swallowed some seawater?” X made a face at him. “What?” He snorted on a laugh. “I’m not giving up killing. Are you crazy?” All three of us stared at him. He grinned back. “I’m going to get a nose ring!”

“Well, congrats, you’re officially pierced and insufferable.”

“How’s it look?” “Hot,” Violet said softly. “Dangerous. Slightly unhinged.” I grinned. “Just my vibe.”

“Well, I feel you. You’re in there somewhere.” “You always say the nicest things to emotionally unstable psychopaths.” “Only the cute ones.”

“We’ll have a ceremony in the park so Reginald can attend! I’ll get him a little ducky tux!”

maybe you haven’t been paying attention for the last few weeks. So if that’s the case, hear me now.”

“I’d do anything for you.”

“Loving me is enough.”

I drew her in tight, so her head rested on my chest. For maybe the first time in my life, I slept without demons in my head, or in my heart.

“Don’t worry, Omelet. I’m armed and dangerous.” I jumped at the voice next to me in the darkness, my brain taking too long to remember it was X. I breathed out slowly, reassured by his presence. And then curious. I had the baseball bat. I knew he didn’t carry a gun. What the hell was he armed with? Had he brought another freaking knife into my apartment? I flicked on the light. He was sitting upright in the bed, his attention focused on the door, his body primed for action. My vibrator clutched in his hands like a bat.

stopped in front of him. “Hi—” That was all I could get out before he was grabbing the back of my neck and hauling me in, claiming my lips, kissing me stupid. My knees went weak. Those traitorous bitches just gave right on out like a I was a damsel in distress and needed him to catch me.

X was already shakily skating away. “MacIntosh! Guess what! I made the team! But I’m all out of best friend spots.” He glanced over at me and Levi. “I’ve already got a couple of those.”

omg this whole part 🥹

I’d drawn the line at him wearing it, and nothing else, to bed. If I’d ever even thought of having some sort of snake kink, it had been well and truly satisfied.

“Funerals aren’t for the dead. They’re for those left behind.

“Make way, boys. Daddy’s home, and he brought the chaos kink.” Okay, maybe not all jokes. Whip cringed like X’s words had mortally wounded him. “Did you just refer to yourself as Daddy?”

“Yes, and you’re both grounded. Get naked and think about what you’ve done.”

“Goodnight, X.” I tugged the blanket over him. “Goodnight, future husband.”

We weren’t good men. I wasn’t deluded enough to believe otherwise. But we weren’t this. “Plot twist!” X piped up. “We’re the good guys.”

“Do you think he’s going to be as ugly as the photos made him look?” X leaned in conspiratorially. “I saw a video. He hissed at a toddler and then fell off a shelf.” “Oh my God.” X got a dreamy expression on his face, like he was mentally replaying the video. “It was love at first sight.”

Just me, X, and the world’s ugliest cat, starting a very weird family. And somehow, that was everything I needed.

Losing her would just be swapping one prison for another. Losing her would mean my heart and soul and everything I was would be locked up, the key thrown away.

There was nothing more than the three of them and the way I loved them all. They were the family I’d never had but always wanted. They were the love and the care I’d craved but never received.

“Yeah, well, that was when I was fueled by adrenaline and the belief I was going to rescue my girlfriend from certain death! Now I know she’s fine, and my heroic purpose has been stolen from me, and I’m just some fat raccoon in a tree!”

And I was finally walking in the shoes of the woman I was always meant to be. Out of ruin and into the sun, surrounded not by the family I’d been born into, but by the one I’d created for myself.