Page 3 of Eden's Joker

Tyler’s just a random guy from the internet who will forget all about me just as quickly as he found me. And I should start doing the same.

2

Joker

It’s almost time to start putting phase two of my plan into action. Mission Eden. In more ways than one. She really has the most fitting name for this.

That innocence of hers comes through the videos and texts loud and clear and it’ll be some kind of paradise when I finally get to take her. And once that’s done, I’ll be inedenregardless of anything else. Because my blood debt to Devil’s Nightmare MC and her father Ice will be paid in full.

When I first hatched this plan, I lay in bed, dreaming up things I’ll do to her. Things Ice will get to see once I give her back. Nasty things that are for my imagination and his eyes only. All the Devils’ eyes. Sweet, innocent Eden destroyed beyond repair. Nothing’s been enough to break them so far. But I think this will.

My MC, The Lost Sons, will finally win the war against the Devils. And take everything from them. Soon.

But lately, I’ve been kept awake reading all those books Eden keeps recommending. And chatting to her about them. It’s why it’s almost noon and I just woke up. I was up until dawn reading a book.

“What time do you call this?” Scorpio asks as I make it into the compound’s kitchen.

I haven’t had the chance to put myself together yet, so I ignore the taunt. The room smells of coffee, beer, whiskey, and everything my guys had for breakfast, boloney, mayo and cheese predominating. My own fault for putting this kitchen into a windowless room when I took over this place. But then again none of the rooms here have much by way of windows.

The previous owner used it to store merchandise—in his case, women to be sold to the highest bidder. Which in this case were the cream of the crop when it comes to rich guys. We took the merchandise and this sweet compound. And the lives of everyone who stood in our way, including the owner.

Even the Devils didn’t know this place had sprung up right under their women-saving noses. The sanctimonious assholes, doing so much to save trafficked and otherwise abused women. Fuckers. My mother was a woman too and they shot and killed her just becauseshe tried to save my dad. It wasn’t Ice who pulled the trigger, it was that scarred monster the Devils use to torture people. But he might as well have, because it was all done to give him his revenge. And he did butcher my father singlehandedly. But thinking about that now will only put me into an even fouler mood.

“What’s got your panties in a bunch?” Scorpio asks, grinning at me. “The book you stayed up all night reading didn’t have a happy ending?”

I scoff and throw down a cup of black coffee, willing the bitterness to wake me up fast. Asking me that has been his favorite joke since I started on this mission to get Eden. It was old before he came up with it.

“They all have happy endings,” I tell him, because I’ve known him long enough to know that ignoring him will only make him talk more.

“So what was wrong with it? Too sweet? Did it make you go all soft inside?” Another thing he’s always asking. He finds this one particularly funny and he’s chuckling to himself as I pour myself another cup of coffee.

He’s my VP and the closest thing I’ll ever have to a real blood brother. We’ve known each other since I can remember, because we’re both children of Satan’s Spawn MC members—the MC that the Devils hunted down and killed in revenge for keeping Ice prisoner. My dad Seven was the VP and his was the sarge.

It took me forever to find Scorpio again afterthe Devils killed or scattered everyone all over the country and beyond. In his case, he ended up on the streets of Chicago and not in a good way. This war is as much for him to get his revenge as it is for me and the rest of us. Maybe more so because I might never have come up with the idea for it if it weren’t for what happened to him. But I’m starting to lose my patience with these bad dad jokes he’s been spewing lately.

“Actually, it was a real dark read,” I say. “Psycho stalker falls in love with an innocent girl. But in the end, he wins her over.”

Scorpio chokes on his laugh as he eyes me with wide, happy eyes. “Kinda like what you’re doing to Eden. Did it hit too close to home? Was that the problem?”

I knew I should’ve just ignored him.

“I’m about ready to hit you if you don’t shut up.”

He finds that incredibly funny. I give him the darkest look I can muster, which isn’t hard after never getting enough sleep these days.

“Fine, fine, I’ll let you finish waking up,” he says, backing out of the room.

I’m guessing he’s not all the way sober from whatever he spent the night drinking. It’s his way of dealing with what the Devils did to him. Left him to fend for himself on the streets of Chicago after they murdered his whole family. We were both much too young to remember all the men of Satan’s Spawn MC who lost their lives to Ice’s psycho revenge. The only reason weknow as much as we do about them all was Scorpio’s father’s whore, who took care of him after his father and brothers were killed. She filled his head with as many stories about them as she could remember, before she died too, a couple of years later.

After that, the streets were not kind to him. He was about ready to call it quits before we founded Lost Sons MC together and set out to get this revenge. That was almost twenty years ago now.

I have an inkling that my plan to abduct and break Eden has rubbed him the wrong way for personal reasons that only the two of us know about. Maybe that’s why he’s starting to drink more now that the mission is commencing. But he told me he was fine with it and that he wants this revenge just as much as me and all our MC brothers do.

Every one of our one hundred and fifty members lost someone to the Devils and their mercenary ways. Some whole families, others just fathers, still others, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, and cousins too. Scorpio lost all of the above.

The point is, we all want them to pay. And this is how they pay. Scorpio understands that. Trouble is, maybe he understands what’s in store for Eden a little better than the rest of us. But it’s a great plan and he knows that too.

Now I just have to get my shit together and finally meet Eden in real life. Wowing her with shirtless videos online and extensive, deep knowledge and lovefor all her favorite books is one thing. Wooing her in person will take more finesse.

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