Page 13 of Eden's Joker

Realizing those two things makes the room start spinning around me again, nausea taking over. He wouldn’t be calling this early unless something was wrong. Or would he? Maybe he would. He’s been gone for weeks. Maybe he just got back and wanted to chat. But he wouldn’t call this early even then. Something’s wrong. I think I woke up knowing it, before I even heard the phone.

“What is it, Dad?” I ask as I answer the call.

He clears his throat like I surprised him. “Summer was abducted last night.”

My heart stops and then starts racing so fast I feel like I’m trapped in a whirlwind. When? I was just withher. And how could my sister be taken and I not feel it? How could I be so wrapped up in a guy I just met not to know she was in trouble? We are identical twins and we’ve always been super connected, could finish each other’s sentences, know what each other was thinking even when we were hundreds of miles apart. When she was in trouble down in Mexico a couple of weeks ago, I woke up from a dead sleep, just knowing something was wrong. Like this morning.

“She’s fine,” my dad says. “We got her back.”

Or at least I think that’s what I heard. I ask him to repeat it just to be sure. Twice.

“I just thought you should know,” he says. “Sorry I woke you.”

“You should’ve told me as soon as you knew she was missing,” I say. “I don’t like being kept in the dark. Like I’ve told you a million times?—”

“That’s why I’m calling you now,” he says and he sounds very tired. I feel bad for getting prissy now.

“Sorry, I just…”

“We’re having dinner at home tonight, just the family,” he says. “Because I’ll be going away to take care of this.”

I very nearly blurt out that I already have plans. But of course, this is more important. I also very nearly asked him if he really has to go. But I already know he does.

“I’ll be there,” I say. “And you should get some sleep.”

“I’m fine,” he says and lets me go.

Growing up, I used to get very upset and very sad whenever my dad had to go away on MC business, as we called it at home. Even before I fully understood just how dangerous that business actually was. I used to cry and beg him not to leave, held onto his legs so he couldn’t walk away.

Until he sat me down one time and told me that he was already living on borrowed time. That the Devils gave him back his life years ago, before I was born, and that he would always be there when they needed him. And that the fact he was able to meet my mom and have the two of us was more than he’d ever dreamed of having. And that he was the happiest man on earth because he had us. So I shouldn’t worry, because it was all already a gift.

Mom got so mad at him for talking about dying to me. I’d never seen her so livid, before or since. But I understood what he was trying to tell me. Everything that happens is in the hands of destiny and we’d already been blessed. If he had to die, he’d die a happy man and we shouldn’t be sad. Even then, I appreciated his honesty. Brutal as it was. And we’ve had a relationship based on that honesty ever since. It’s why he called me to tell me about Summer as soon as he could. The time she was almost abducted in Mexico, he did the same. There are no secrets between us. Which is why I feel so bad keeping Tyler from him. But there’s nothing to tell yet. And there might never be.

I called Summer three times and send about ten texts before she finally calls back.

“Oh, my God, sis,” I say. “Are you all right?”

“I am now. But it was touch and go for a while last night.”

I can hear the rustling of sheets through the line. She’s probably with Edge and who knows what I just interrupted. But I need to know that she’s OK.

“What happened? Did they hurt you?”

I don’t feel that she’d been hurt, but then again, I didn’t feel it when she was taken either. That kind of fear and anguish… How could I not?

“Some,” she says, her voice cracking a little. “They were with those assholes who tried to grab me in Mexico. Dad and the rest took care of them at the time, but not well enough. Now they’ll finish the job.”

She’s saying such dark things, she’s talking about killing, so why am I so happy to hear it? But it’s one thing to resent death and killing, and another to almost lose the person you’ve been closest to your whole life.

I plop down on my sofa and pull my fluffy pink reading blanket up to my chest, because I’m suddenly freezing cold. And it has nothing to do with my hangover.

“I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t around anymore,” I whisper, because those words scare me worse than the dark.

She gasps but covers it up with a giggle. “You’re not getting rid of me yet.”

“I’m serious,” I say. “We all have to be a lot more careful. So many things are going wrong. First Veronica, Harper and Trixie getting taken, and now you.”

“Yeah, we really should’ve seen this coming. I guess you’re next,” she says and laughs again, but it’s a hollow sound.

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