Reaper and Ruin (Saint View Murder Squad #3)

by Elle Thorpe

“X! You idiot! You’re drowning me! Just chill the fuck out!” But he thrashed about in the water, dragging me under, over and over again. He held on to my shoulders like I was his damn island while I fought uselessly to keep us both afloat. “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!” I took in another mouthful of water and mentally planned all the ways I would kill him and his Titanic references once I saved him.

maybe you haven’t been paying attention for the last few weeks. So if that’s the case, hear me now.” I stared at her, all the laughter fading away. “I’d do anything for you.” She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me down on the mattress beside her. “Loving me is enough.”

hid a laugh. “Oh, look at jealous little Levi. All mad because for a split second he thought I’d had Whip’s anaconda in my moist cave of wonders.” Whip groaned and shoved me with one arm without taking his eyes off the road. “Please shut up before I run us into a tree. And never say moist again. Especially not in conjunction with cave of wonders.”

15

LOL!!! This entire chapter - love it!

“You know you don’t have to keep doing this.” He blinked. “Doing what?” “Running.” I paused to pick at the edge of my blanket. “From us. From her. From…this.” I waved vaguely at the bed. But also at the feelings that existed between the people in it, even when I sort of accidentally, on purpose, poisoned them. “I have a really great family, you know? You haven’t met them yet, but they’re the best. Great parents. Great brothers. Cute niece and nephew.” “Why do I sense a but coming on?” I lifted a shoulder and shrugged. “They don’t know the real me. I can’t show them that. But you…” I gave him a half-smile. “You know me. You might want to kill me all the time, and I know I deserve that. But you’re kinda my guy, Whip.” His brow furrowed into a frown. “I thought Scythe was your best friend?” “Oh, he is,” I assured him. “We’re like this.” I held up my hand, my first two fingers entwined around each other. “But it’s you I trust with Violet. It’s you who jumped off a cliff for me. It’s you who I’d call if I entered a pie-eating competition and needed to be rolled home.” Whip clutched his stomach. “Please don’t talk about pie. Or rolling.” I went on like he hadn’t said anything because I needed him to understand why I’d poisoned him. “Scythe has a family of his own. But you’re my family. So when you said you were leaving us tonight…” Whip’s expression finally morphed into one that might have been understanding. “You lost your mind and thought poisoning me was the way to go?” I gri...

“It’s not that easy.” I pushed the urge to make jokes away and instead focused on the words I knew he needed to hear. The ones I knew I needed to say, not just for him but for me too. “I know it’s not that easy right now. But it could be? You belong here. With us. In this madness. In a found-family soap opera of trauma bonding and inappropriate lust…” Well, I’d tried. It wasn’t my fault it was really hard to have a serious moment when you were just naturally hard-wired to be hilarious. He huffed something that might have been a laugh. “I’m serious, Whip.” I tried again. “You matter to us. To me.” His mouth moved, like he had a thousand replies and didn’t know which one was safe to say. So I saved him. “Plus, I already added you as my emergency contact. So now you’re trapped.” That got a real laugh, small and hoarse, but real. Whip shook his head, the hint of a smile still curling his lips. “You’re a lunatic.” I grinned, reached out, and gently shoved him sideways. “Get under the covers before you collapse and die. I don’t want to have to explain to Levi how I had to bury you in Mrs. Sinterro’s turnip patch while they were sleeping. He gets all growly and weird about your well-being. It’s honestly adorable.” “Goodnight, X.” I tugged the blanket over him. “Goodnight, future husband.” His eyes flew open. “I swear to God—” I sniggered, enjoying the pure panic on his face. I didn’t have any sexual attraction to Whip or Levi. I was a one-Violet man and always would be. But it wa...

Whip rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers between the two of them. “You’re missing the point.” X side-eyed him. “The point being Paul Jeddersen’s gross nanny cam bear somehow moved from his bookshelf to this creepy warehouse?” Whip’s lips pulled into a thin line. “The point being someone filmed what happened here the night Toby died.” He swallowed thickly, eyeing me. “And that if this bear was also on Paul Jeddersen’s bookshelf, someone probably filmed everything that happened that day on Olympic Drive too.” My blood ran cold. Him drugging me. Stripping me down to my underwear while I was unconscious. X saving me. Whip cleaning it up. Someone had seen it all through the glassy eyes of a ratty bear.