Page 93 of Reaper and Ruin
My head was right back in the past, reliving every trauma. The attack at the house on Olympic Drive when all I’d wanted to do was my job.
Being locked in a warehouse, excited to meet the man I already knew I was in love with, only to lose the best friend I’d ever had.
That night up on the bluffs, standing in the pouring rain, explosions ringing in my ear and watching the three men I loved go over the edge of the cliff into the swirling void below.
“He’s never going to stop, is he? He doesn’t even want us dead. He just wants us scared. He’s the cat and we’re the mice.”
Nobody could assure me otherwise, and I was glad they didn’t try.
We pulled up outside the hotel X and Levi and I had dropped our bags and the cat at earlier in the night when Whip had needed to be alone. We made our way straight up to our room without stopping at reception.
Harold snored from his carrier in the corner of the room. We’d left it open for him, but clearly he was protesting even being here at all by refusing to move out of it.
Two king-size beds filled the room, leaving plenty of space for all four of us to sleep. And that’s exactly what we should have been doing. It was already after midnight, and we needed to leave as early as possible.
To do what exactly, I didn’t know. I just needed to get back to Saint View. To storm the police station and demand they do something more. To knock on every door of every house and find out where Nyah was.
It was my fault she was missing.
My fault Toby had died.
My fault this guy kept coming after us.
I couldn’t say exactly why, but my gut knew that everything that had happened was because of me and that night on Olympic Drive.
“Violet,” Whip urged. “Get into bed, sweetheart. You need to sleep.”
But I shook my head. I was tired, but I knew as soon as I closed my eyes, I was going to see blood. Tears. The face of Paul Jeddersen as he’d loomed over me, as he’d cut off my clothes and touched me.
I was going to see that bear watching it all, someone on the other side getting sick pleasure out of my pain and fear.
“Touch me,” I whispered. “I don’t want to sleep.”
Whip looked at the other two, as if checking they thought it was okay to give me what I was asking for when I was clearly in a state.
“Please,” I whispered. “I don’t want to sleep. I can’t. Not until I know she’s okay.”
Whip stopped hesitating. He stepped in behind me and drew down the zipper on the back of the dress I’d bought with X at a thrift shop that afternoon. It was sparkly blue and covered from neckline to hem in glittery sequins. It was slightly too small andclung to my curves, but it had been so fun I hadn’t been able to resist buying it.
I knew I’d never wear it again. It would be a constant reminder that I never got a night off. I never got to have any fun.
Hewouldn’t let me.
Healways found a way in. A way to ruin everything, even when he wasn’t there.
He’d found a way to live in my head, and that was the biggest betrayal of all.
The dress pooled on the floor at my feet, and I kicked it away to the corner, never wanting to see it again.
I turned in my underwear and unbuttoned Whip’s shirt. Then Levi’s. Then X’s. They all watched me carefully, taking their cues from me, moving slowly. Levi undid my bra, and I pulled it off.
None of us had bothered to turn on the lights. We were high up, and the city lights from outside shone in, giving us more than enough light to see. There were buildings just as tall as ours across the street, and I idly wondered if the occupants of them could see us.
Then decided I didn’t care. What did any of it matter?
How long would it be before I was dead and buried and nobody would ever see me again?
Either this guy was going to find me and kill me himself. Or he was going to torture me into a grave by taking out the people I loved one by one.
