Reaper and Ruin (Saint View Murder Squad #3)

by Elle Thorpe

“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...