Page 100 of Reaper and Ruin
“We found a nanny cam teddy bear at the scene of Toby’s murder. I saw the same one in the home of the man who attacked me.” I turned to Scythe. “That was the night I met you.”
Scythe’s forehead furrowed into lines. “That ugly bear that was on the bookshelf?”
Relief rushed me. “You remember it too?” I’d almost thought my traumatized brain had made it up.
“Yeah, I do. I remember thinking it weird ’cause the guy clearly had no kids. There were no photos of him with any children, no kid-sized shoes at the door or coats on the racks or Lego lying in wait for someone to step on in the middle of the night.” He winced, like he was remembering that pain. “I know what a house with kids looks like, and that wasn’t it. So that bear stuck out to me.” He shrugged. “But then you and Xwere throwing knives and eggs and fuck knows what else at each other, and I didn’t give it another thought.”
“I didn’t either. Until we found that same bear, or at least one that looked exactly like it in that warehouse where Toby died.” I bit down on my lip, not wanting to scare anyone when we probably should have had this conversation in private first, but it was a bit late not to drag Bliss and my sister-in-law into this now. “I think someone watched what Paul Jeddersen did to me that night. And I think someone saw what you and X did to him afterward.”
Grayson swore under his breath. “And watched me, Whip, and the others all arrive to dispose of his body. Shit, that would explain all the letters. We were all there that night.”
Levi cleared his throat. “Only one problem with that theory. I wasn’t there that night. Some of those letters felt like they were addressed to me.”
“I’ve been thinking about that, and my gut instinct is they used you to get to me. And when I didn’t die in that warehouse, like I was supposed to, their anger extended to you. Or maybe it’s just that hurting anyone in my life will hurt me. Maybe that’s why Fang’s family has been dragged into it. Maybe that’s why Toby is dead and Nyah is missing.” My voice broke. “It’s me they want, isn’t it? Everyone else is just collateral damage.”
X pulled me into his arms. “I’m the one who killed him. This could be just as much about me as it is about you. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I should have waited to kill him. Should have done it somewhere else. I was hyped up and distracted and sloppy. It shouldn’t have gone down like that at all.”
Bliss shook her head angrily and held up her hand, silencing us all. “Stop it. It’s neither of your faults. That man lured you to his home, drugged you, attacked you, would have raped and killed you if X and Scythe hadn’t been there that day.”
Bile rose in my throat at the memories she was dragging up. I didn’t want to think about that night where I’d lain helpless and tied up, stripped of my dignity, praying for someone to help me. My entire world had changed that night, for the better in so many ways, but it had come at a cost.
A steep one, and it wasn’t just me paying it.
“So let’s assume Paul Jeddersen was working with someone.” I wasn’t really talking to anyone in particular, just thinking out loud.
“He might have just been filming your attack so he could rewatch it himself later,” Whip said quietly, smartly poking a hole in my theory.
My shoulders slumped. “That’s true.”
“And sick.” Rebel wrapped her arms around herself.
I hated that this was probably triggering old traumas for her too.
Whip held up a hand. “But just because that’s a possibility, doesn’t mean it’s the most likely scenario. I agree with you, Vi. I do think he was working with someone else, and that someone else knows what happened that night and has been trying to punish us for it ever since.”
X shook his head. “We researched Paul Jeddersen though. He had nobody in his life except a set of elderly parents, who weren’t even in the country when old farty Paul got a knife through his lactose-intolerant guts for touching something that wasn’t his.”
His eyes flashed with anger, and he edged closer to me, until his warmth permeated through my shirt. I knew he was reminding himself that I was here, and I was okay, and that Paul Jeddersen was dead, probably chopped up into little pieces and left for the fish to eat.
X circled his arm around my middle, pulling me back against his chest. “I don’t even think they realize he’s dead. I drivepast the house regularly on my ice cream route and I’ve never seen anyone there. The lawn is overgrown, and there’s a pileup of mail on the doorstep. If they know he’s dead or missing, they haven’t bothered to stop by and sort out anything with his house.”
“If Paul Jeddersen was my son, I wouldn’t visit him regularly either,” I muttered.
But my gut still screamed that Paul did have someone in his life. Some sort of sick accomplice who had been out to get us ever since that night.
“It could be Lynx,” Levi said quietly, stiffly, like he was forcing the words out but desperately didn’t want them to be true. “He got out around the same time I did.”
Whip shook his head. “But not before you, and Violet was attacked before you got out. That gives Lynx a pretty good alibi.”
The frown between Levi’s eyebrows eased a little at that, his relief evident. I reached over and squeezed his fingers. Lynx might have been loitering in some dodgy places since he had been released, and hanging out with some undesirable people, if Toby’s photos were anything to go by, but my gut said that whoever Paul Jeddersen was working with had been a thing before I came onto the scene.
I couldn’t have been their first attack. “I went to Paul’s house that night to do a job. He’d booked a cleaner.”
X cocked his head. “Are we sure it was Paul who booked you? Maybe his partner did? Would Francine have a record of that?”
Everyone looked at me. “I have no idea, but we could ask her.”
I gazed around at the grim faces of the men I loved and the friends I’d made. They all stared back at me, concern in their gazes.
