Page 125 of Whips and Chains
“Shut up, X,” Levi muttered. “That’s not helpful.”
Maybe not, but I had a point, and they knew it, even if there was nothing we could do right now. We already had three of the bodies out of my truck, and I wasn’t going to try to get them back in so we could go find a different burial spot. I needed to get out of here. I closed my eyes briefly, not wanting to see the bodies of the women anymore.
In my mind, all their faces were Violet’s.
I stalked back to the van, yanking out the next guy by his arm and letting my mouth run because that was the only thing that blacked out the images burned into my brain. “Maybe there’s a simple explanation for this. Ace might have picked up one of those reward cards. You know, where you buy nine coffees and get the tenth free. Maybe he got confused.”
Whip gaped at me, watching me drag my next body over to the pile. “And what? Thought it was some sort of dead body loyalty club?”
I heaved my guy farther through the dirt, wrinkling my nose at the trail of blood he left behind. “He’s not real smart. I don’t know if he can read that well. It’s a possibility!”
I stalked back to the van, irritated I was doing all the work while they shot down my ideas. “Maybe Torch got bored? You know how he gets when he’s not allowed to set things on fire. Or maybe, and hear me out, Trig started a sex cult side hustle. And they have Murder-orgy Mondays.”
Levi exploded out of the blue. “What the hell is wrong with you, X? There’s a pile of dead, brutally murdered women here and you’re making jokes? You’re as messed up in the head as whoever the fuck did this!”
Whip’s anger was just as palpable, and all of it directed at me. “You’re unbelievable, you know that? This isn’t a fucking joke! Either someone is trying to frame us for these murders, or somebody we thought we knew and trusted isn’t who they say they are. Either way, do you actually comprehend how fucked we are right now? How this is going to blow up in our faces and we are yet again farther away from working out who’s doing this, rather than closer?” He threw his hands up. “Honestly, X, you’re a liability. You need to be fucking locked up.”
His words felt like a slap in the face.
Because by being locked up, I knew he didn’t mean in prison.
He meant in a psych ward.
And he was just saying out loud the very thing I had worried about every day.
He’d gotten inside my head and yanked out my deepest, darkest fear.
Then rubbed it in my face.
My heart beat too fast. My chest was too tight to pull in enough air.
I stared down at my hands, coated in someone else’s blood, with Whip’s words ringing in my ears.
I turned stiffly and walked back to the van, slamming the sliding door closed. I got in behind the steering wheel and closed that door too.
Levi had left the keys in the ignition.
I turned them, and the engine came to life.
Without looking back, I put my foot down on the accelerator, leaving the two of them behind. Their shouts were lost in the roar of the engine when I pushed down harder, needing to put distance between me and Whip’s words.
But the space didn’t help the pain and fear threatening to engulf me.
You’re a liability. You need to be locked up. You’re messed up in the head.
I groaned, the pain inside me a sharp, physical ache I couldn’t ignore. It carved through me, as deadly as a knife, chiseling away my insides until it felt like there was nothing left.
No amount of stupid jokes and bad humor was going to make this feeling go away.
I just had to sit there and bleed, while Whip’s and Levi’s words sliced me open.
Everything they’d said was right.
And I knew it.
I didn’t know how long I’d been driving or how long my phone had been beeping for when the sound finally registered. But it was a welcome relief from the onslaught of thoughts in my head, and so I steered to the side of the road and opened the message on my phone.
Violet:Meet me at the bluffs. It’s happening now. I’m the bait, and we’re going to catch a killer. Don’t be mad. You all know you were never going to let me help.
