Page 120 of X's and O's

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“We’re surrounded by cartoon animals licking cones. I got the joke. Wasn’t funny though.”

I sighed. “You never think I’m funny.”

“Because you’re not.”

“I’m hilarious.”

“You know those people onAmerican Idolwho get up in front of the judges and are so painfully off-key you kinda want to die?”

“Sure.”

“But they were so confident in their singing abilities, you just know their mothers must have spent years telling them how amazing they are?”

“I don’t know where you’re going with this.”

Whip raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you?”

My mouth dropped open. “Are you insinuating that only my mother finds me funny? And that she’s actually beenlyingto me my entire life?”

“If the shoe fits…”

“Violet thinks I’m funny.”

“Violet watched you murder a man. She’s hardly going to be like, ‘Oh, excuse me, Mister Murderer? Your jokes suck.’ She probably thinks she has to laugh if she wants to keep her carotid intact.”

I considered his argument for all of zero point three seconds then dismissed it. “You’re just jealous.”

Whip’s smile turned smug. “You can make her laugh. I can make her come. Same, same, right?”

I glowered in his direction. “I have knives back there, you know.”

Whip chuckled to himself, wholly unbothered by my threats. Which was fair enough because I’d have to be insane to take on Whip, knowing what he was capable of.

But if he kept talking about how he’d seen Violet come and I hadn’t, I might be stupid enough to give it a go.

I could cut out his tongue. Then he couldn’t talk.

Or lick Violet’s pussy.

I liked that plan.

But later. Because right now, there were other things that needed cutting. Namely, number seventy-three on the list, a Mr. George Towler. I picked up the list and read out what we already knew about the guy. “Thirty-three. Five eleven. Recently released from Saint View Prisondue to overcrowding. He did six months for a misdemeanor.”

Whip filled in the rest from memory. “But the cops have been trying to nail him for the rape and murder of three women in the city.”

I eyed him. “Do we know for a fact he did that?”

Whip shrugged. “I’ve heard rumors.”

“Same, but is that enough for us to go kill a man?”

“We aren’t here to kill him. Just to chat with him. See if he knows anything about who might be targeting us.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really.”

I sighed. “You’re so boring. Let’s get this show on the road then.” I grabbed my backpack from the floorboard of my van.