Page 45 of Whips and Chains
I needed out. Out of this club, out of this town, out of my fucking head that insisted on playing memories over and over in a never-ending loop I couldn’t hit stop on.
I needed to spill some fucking blood.
It was one of only two things that had ever helped ease the desperate ache inside me that opened up like a gaping, mortal wound, trying to end me whenever I thought about the people in that photo.
I didn’t see anything. Just stumbled blindly, needing to get out and find a knife and someone off that fucking list that I could plunge it into.
Levi’s hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I whipped around, shoving him up against the wall, my forearm across his throat.
His eyes went wide, his hands coming up in surrender.
But he didn’t try to fight me off. Just stood there, gaze connected with mine, taking in the deep heaves of my chest as I fought to get enough air.
People around us gasped and backed away. They reminded me of where I was, and that even though, in that moment, I might have happily taken Levi’s blood to calm the storm inside me, that I couldn’t do it here, in my friends’ club, with a hundred fucking witnesses.
I dropped my arm from his throat, shaking out the fists I’d bunched my fingers into.
Levi took a deep breath now that I wasn’t cutting off his oxygen supply, and I braced myself for him to come at me, fists flying.
But he just eyed me. “You good?”
I was so fucking far from good I couldn’t even comprehend what good was. “No.”
His mouth flattened into a grim line. “Too bad. Because whatever the fuck is going on with you is going to have to wait a minute.”
I shook my head. “Can’t. I can’t be here.” I backed up a couple steps, but that was as far as I got.
Levi grabbed my arm and snapped his fingers in front of my face. “I get you’re having a mental breakdown right now, and I’m sorry I set that off, but can you put a fucking pin in it for a minute? Did you miss the way X just dragged Violet into a private room?”
I blinked. “What?”
He breathed out an exasperated sigh. “You heard me.”
Fear curled in my gut. “And you just let him? He can’t be alone with her, Levi! Jesus fucking Christ. Where are they?”
Levi muttered something that sounded like a “fuck you” but pointed down the darkened hallway I’d just stormed out of.
Un-fuckin’-believable. I hauled ass back in that direction, shooting Levi a dirty look as I went. “Seriously, you didn’t for one second think, oh, there goes Violet with a madman who has a fucking choking kink. Maybe I should stop them?”
Levi glared at me, matching my pace so we were side by side. “Oh, I’m sorry. I was too busy chasing after you, making sure you weren’t going to draw a gun in a crowded club and take out half the room!”
“I wasn’t going to do that!”
“Well, how the fuck was I supposed to know? You were acting like you wanted to murder an entire stadium full of people, and if you’d been anyone else, I would have just let it go, but because it was you, I had to consider you might actually do it!”
I grabbed his arm and hauled him in close. “Would you stop fucking shouting at me? Everyone can hear you yelling about guns and murder! You want all these people panicking and running out of here to call the cops?”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Whip! Just say thank you!”
“Thank you? Why would I say thank you to you, of all people? Are you that much of a narcissist?” Was he for fucking real?
“A narciss—” He shook his head. “God, you’re such an asshole. Whatever. Are we going to find X before he murders Violet or what?”
I shot him a dirty look ’cause that was a fucking shitty thing to say, even if he didn’t mean it.
To his credit, he averted his eyes, like maybe he realized he’d gone too far as well.
I stormed down the hallway, moving through the crowd, checking each peephole and glass window to see if Violet and X were behind any of them.
