Page 95 of Whips and Chains
All eight of us stared at her.
“You are not joining the group,” Levi practically snarled. “No freaking way.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, and then her hand followed. “I pledge allegiance to this group of emotionally unstable boys, who think murder is a love language.” Her sarcasm was so thick it dripped from every word. “There. I’m in.”
Scythe leaned in toward X. “That didn’t sound sincere.” He paused a second, then added, “And it is a love language, just for the record.”
Grayson cleared his throat. “That isn’t exactly how this works, Violet.”
She glared at him. “Oh, isn’t it? My bad. Is there an initiation I have to pass? Is it murder?” Her glare moved across the three of us who’d shared her bed recently. “I can think of a few people I wouldn’t mind taking out right now because they clearly don’t have my back, even though they promised they would.”
The fight went out of all three of us and the shame sank in. It was like a literal deflation, all three of us dropping our gazes to the floor like dogs who’d just been told off by their owner.
It was a pretty spot-on analogy. It definitely felt like Violet owned me.
One by one, the three of us sat, the others all taking their cues from us and following. Grayson didn’t seem happy, but he pulled over a chair with wheels from behind a desk filled with messy, oil-smudged paperwork, and we widened the circle a little to fit him in.
All of us stared at Violet.
She nodded, like it was exactly the reaction she had wanted, and I couldn’t help the flare of pride deep in my chest for the way she was owning this. Where was the timid woman from the back of my car that first night we’d met? The one who’d been scared of her own shadow and too afraid to take her panties off for me?
She seemed far away tonight.
The Violet who sat at the head of our circle looked much more like some sort of Mafia don, owning the attention and respect of the eight men in the room.
It was hot.
Instantly, my brain started conjuring up all sorts of things we could do in this workshop if there weren’t currently seven other people in here. The workbench was just the right height for bending her long torso over. There was an old Chevy with a hood I could lay her on to bury my face in her pussy.
Levi behind me, finishing what we’d started the night before.
I swallowed down a groan at the very thought of being sandwiched between them like that, him taking me from behind, me going down on her at the same time.
Fucking hell.
“I heard everything you said,” Violet announced calmly.
X turned sheepish. “I swear, it’s still safe to eat my ice cream. The body is wrapped in plastic. Nothing is touching.” He couldn’t help but add, “Apart from Levi’s and Whip’s dicks.”
Violet frowned at him. “You make jokes, but, X, someone tried to kill you. Someone tried to kill me. It’s only a matter of time before someone comes after Levi and Whip too, if they haven’t already.”
She looked at the two of us.
I bit my lip but then admitted, “I think I was followed the other day. They backed off pretty quick when I turned around and confronted them. I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t connected to the list. Saint View isn’t ever the safest place to be walking alone at night.”
Violet wasn’t convinced. “But it could have been someone targeting you because the sick fuck playing games with us is paying them to.”
I couldn’t deny it was a possibility.
She turned her attention to Grayson. “I want to see a copy of the list.”
He shook his head. “Violet—”
It was Levi who spoke up. “She wasn’t asking, Gray.”
The two of them exchanged a look, Gray still hesitant, but Levi clearly willing to stand up for Violet, even if just minutes earlier he’d been objecting harder than anyone.
His mood swings gave me whiplash. But Violet had put him in his place, and he was backing her.
