Page 7 of Whips and Chains
I clasped her cheeks with both hands and forced her to look at me. “Vi, it’s me.”
She flung her arms up, colliding with mine, breaking the hold I had on her. She scrambled back onto her feet, trying to get away from me, Toby’s head clunking onto the concrete in the process. “Don’t touch me!”
Her eyes were huge. Her chest heaved with too-fast breaths. But her fingers clenched into fists, telling me she still thought she had to fight her way out of this.
“No one is going to touch you,” I assured her, using a gentle, deep voice I would have used to settle a spooked horse. “You’re safe. You’re okay.”
But shock had set in deep. Her gaze strayed to Toby, and her body tensed at every sound, every movement.
“We can’t clean this,” Whip muttered from behind me.
X quickly agreed with him. “Dickson we probably could, but Toby has family and friends who will miss him. We can’t just sweep whatever happened here tonight under the rug. We’ve gotta let the cops find this one.”
But all I could see was that knife sticking out of Toby’s neck.
And Violet the only person left here breathing. I knew how that was going to look to the police. Whether she’d done it or not, she’d be the prime suspect. And I’d bet anything her prints were all over that murder weapon, just from the way she’d been holding Toby as he’d died. “Agreed. But we need to convince her to come with us first. She can’t be here when the cops find it, and that weapon comes with us. Get the guys down here to clean her prints off anything she might have touched.”
I didn’t wait for their confirmation. I knew Whip well enough by now to know he’d handle it.
All I could concentrate on was Violet.
“Vi. Can you look at me?”
I waited, trying to stay patient, even though everything inside me screamed to stride across the room, pick her up, and carry her out of here. And I would if I had to. But that would only cause her more trauma, so it was a last resort.
“Vi.”
Eventually she dragged her gaze to meet mine.
“That’s good. That’s real good, baby. We’re going to take you home, okay? Nobody is going to touch you, but we need to get you out of here. All you have to do is walk. Can you do that?”
She didn’t respond, but her eyes flickered to the door. That was enough for me to know she wanted out. Somewhere deep beneath the shock and anger and fear, she wanted to be home, surrounded by things that were familiar. I could see the yearning in her eyes.
“Whip’s car is just outside,” I promised her.
Her entire body trembled, but she stepped forward.
I cringed, watching her walk right through the puddle of blood like she didn’t even see it, but there was nothing we could do about the footprints we were leaving behind. We had to trust that Trig and the others would get here in time to clean up any evidence, because all we could do now was get the fuck out.
I held the door for her and led her to where Whip had left his car. He and X moved cautiously behind her, keeping their distance but wearing identical worried expressions to the one I was sure was plastered all over my face.
Whip unlocked his car when we got close enough, and I held the door open for her. X walked around us carefully, keeping an eye on our surroundings, the knife that had been in Toby’s neck now firmly grasped in his hand.
Fucking hell. What a ginormous mess all of this was. My goddamn bike was still sitting here, and I couldn’t risk leaving it, but I wasn’t leaving Violet either.
X held out his hand. “Give me the keys to the bike. You stay with her.”
I could tell it was the last thing he wanted to do. He wanted to be with her as much as I did, but somebody had to get the bike out of here.
Normally I would have never let anyone else touch my ride, but it was the easiest yes I’d ever said. I dug my hand in my pocket and swapped the key for the knife that X wouldn’t be able to hold, then got in the car with Whip and Violet.
We drove away without a word, X on my bike sticking right behind us.
“We need to get her shoes off.” Whip threw me a glance in the rearview mirror, his mouth pulled into a grim line that made him seem older than he was.
I agreed. She couldn’t track bloody footprints all through her apartment building. It was going to be hard enough to get her upstairs without anyone seeing us.
“Take your shoes off, Vi,” I said gently.
