Reaper and Ruin (Saint View Murder Squad #3)

Chapter 1 Whip

WHIP

Ifucking hated heights.

Not in the way Levi hated small spaces; he had a real reason for being claustrophobic after being locked in a prison cell for six years.

I just hated them because staring over the edge of the Saint View bluffs churned my stomach and tightened my chest.

So jumping off them wasn’t exactly on my bucket list.

Then again, watching X plummet off the edge, into the inky blackness of the swirling sea below, hadn’t been on my to-do either.

The explosion that had disintegrated the edge of the cliff face still rang painfully in my ears. The rain from the storm pelted my face in sharp, stinging bites, drenching my skin and clothes.

But it was Violet’s screams that X couldn’t swim that drowned out all of it.

And the entire reason I threw myself off the edge after him.

I hit water as hard as concrete, the force slamming up through my feet and legs, vibrating through the rest of my body in a bone-jarring thud I would be feeling for days.

But then the waves rushed over my head.

Freezing cold.

Pitch-black.

Utterly terrifying.

Panic threatened to rush in but was quickly shoved away by the thought X was down here somewhere too, and unlike me, he couldn’t fucking swim.

So instead of succumbing to the cold shock and sinking deeper, I kicked out hard, and then again, over and over until I broke the surface.

I gasped, sucking in air, fighting the choppy waves threatening to smack me in the face.

“X!” Levi shouted from somewhere beside me.

I hadn’t even realized he’d jumped as well.

“Levi!” I shouted. “Violet—”

“She didn’t jump!”

Relief flooded me, but it was short-lived.

Because even if Violet wasn’t down here, X was. “X!”

My clothes weighed me down, the pull of the sea threatening with every wave.

But no way was I giving in to it.

I kicked off my shoes, instantly losing them to the bottom of the ocean, and pushed myself in circles, scanning the water for any sight of him.

Guilt clutched at me. I’d been so fucking mad at him. He’d left Levi and me stranded out in the middle of nowhere, with a pile of dead bodies, when Violet had needed us.

But now it was his stupid ass that needed saving.

If the idiot drowned and broke Violet’s heart, I would seriously kill him all over again. She’d already lost enough people.

I ignored the voice in my head that whispered if he drowned, it wouldn’t just be Violet’s grief I’d be dealing with.

It would be my own too.

For all X pissed me off and drove me mad, I apparently loved the idiot.

Or at least liked him enough to not want to see him dead. “X!”

“Whip!”

I closed my eyes for the briefest of seconds, because X’s gasping voice had never sounded so good. He was nearby, and I squinted through the darkness, Levi at my side doing the same.

“There!” I caught sight of X’s flailing hand before he sank under the waves. Not waiting for Levi, I swam with sure, strong strokes, gaze fixed on the spot I’d last seen X, mentally praying for his head to pop back up and assure me I was on the right track.

The waves came from all directions, whipped up by the wind and the rain. The dark storm clouds blocked most of the moonlight, making it impossible to see much, but I held my breath, waiting and silently urging for him to pop back up. “X!”

All that surfaced were his fingers.

But it was enough.

I desperately dove for him, plunging beneath the water, frantically feeling around, my heart pounding when I couldn’t get a grip on anything but the freezing water. The seconds ticked by, a roar in my head, each one screaming he’d been under too long, and that if he died, it would be on me.

My hand hit something solid, and on instinct more than thought, my fingers clenched around it.

His head broke the surface, and he gasped for air. “Took you long enough!”

I blinked, kicking hard to keep both of us afloat. “What?”

I was fully sure I was hallucinating. Hell, maybe I’d swallowed too much seawater and it was me who was drowning.

“Took you long enough!” He grasped at me, yanking me in closer with his panicked, clawing fingers. He pushed me beneath the swirling water, trying to keep himself afloat.

I kicked away from him, enough that I could get up and get another breath while still keeping my grip on his arm. I broke the surface only for him to shove me beneath the water again in his panic.

When I got back up, I spluttered, heaving in water-laced breaths. “X! You idiot! You’re drowning me! Just chill the fuck out!”

But he thrashed about in the water, dragging me under, over and over again. He held on to my shoulders like I was his damn island while I fought uselessly to keep us both afloat.

“I am a land-dwelling creature, Whip! I am not made for the sea!”

We were both going to be made for a watery fucking grave if he didn’t stop drowning me.

“I’m Rose, not Jack! Let me on the door!”

I took in another mouthful of water and mentally planned all the ways I would kill him and his Titanic references once I saved him.

“Levi!” I bellowed the next time I managed to get my head above water.

As if I’d summoned him from the depths of Hell, Levi appeared out of the darkness. “X! Stop! You’re not fucking drowning anymore, you’re killing him!”

He wasn’t wrong. I was struggling. My energy rapidly depleted in the cold water. I coughed and spluttered, trying to untangle myself from X’s grip.

If I didn’t get away from him, Levi was going to be saving us both.

But X couldn’t stop. He flailed and fought to keep hold of me, his survival instinct outweighing everything else. He gulped air wide-eyed, like he’d never see the sky again.

I went under once more, my curses turning to silence beneath the water.

Fuck this.

The next time I managed to break the surface was just in time to see Levi grappling with X.

They wrestled, Levi swinging punches at X in an attempt to get him to let go of me, but none of them landing well because he couldn’t get any momentum while treading water.

His shouts rang in my ears, but I was too waterlogged to make sense of them while I fought to save my own damn life.

I was so fucking glad I’d jumped off that cliff. Drowning was such a pleasant way to go out.

Water poured into my mouth again as Levi fisted X’s shirt and slammed his forehead into X’s face.

There was a groan of pain, and X finally went limp.

“Holy shit,” I gasped, finally able to kick away enough that X couldn’t try drowning me again. “Did you just headbutt him?”

“Yeah.”

X floated between us now, heavy and limp, water lapping at his slack jaw.

I squinted at him, wary. “Did you knock him out?”

Levi shook his head, hooking his arm around X’s and keeping his head out of the water. “I don’t know. But that was my intention.”

I grabbed X’s other arm.

We both kicked for the shore, dragging a limp and bleeding X along with us.

“Next time,” Levi muttered, “he’s wearing floaties.”

“Next time”—I shook my head, straining my way through the water, coughing up lungs full of liquid—“we let the fish have him.”