Page 48 of Eden's Joker

It’s not a suicide mission I just sent them on. Roaring Brook is a small ghost town encircled by a very thick wall. Thirty guys can hold it against a hundred, easily. The Devils will hit the town hard, just like they always do, but not all of them will walk away from that fight. I’m hoping less than half will, actually.

This buys me a couple of days, a week maybe, to break Eden. And then, while they’re mourning her, I’ll gather up the other MCs still fighting against them and we’ll hit them with everything we’ve got. And end them once and for all.

Now all that’s left is to break Eden. But I have a very annoying feeling that a week won’t be nearly enough time for that.

27

Eden

The sun has set and now the room really is pitch dark. I’m shivering and I don’t know if it’s just from the cold. Maybe it’s from sitting in the unnatural position on the floor, my arms chained up and angled weirdly, my back all twisted to accommodate them. I can hear faint voices coming from somewhere and smell cigarette smoke. I can’t understand what’s being said, but I think one of them belongs to the guy I spoke to while they were abducting me. Life as usual seems to be going on around me.

Not so in my head.

The last of the gin’s buzz from last night is gone. I’m cold, I’m tired, I’m hungry. And I’m scared. I can’t even pretend that’s not true anymore. However hard I try.

I’ve read more books than I can name where women get abducted by monster-type guys and chained up in dark houses. But that’s not meant to be real life. All those books have happy endings, and I was speaking with that in mind while I was mouthing off to Tyler before.

But this is real life.

And stories like that don’t usually have happy endings in real life.

Another voice joins the two outside. This one I do recognize. I hate how my heart flutters happily because of it. And a few moments later, thudding footsteps on the wooden stairs materialize into Tyler standing in the open doorway of the bedroom.

“Still where I left you?” he says. “Good girl.”

He’s grinning at me, but I don’t smile back. I just sit up straighter and glare at him.

He flicks on the overhead and the sudden brightness where there was only black darkness before makes me blink.

“Are you ready to behave now?”

“Stop talking to me like I’m a dog,” I say.

He chuckles, but his eyes are pure unyielding ice as he walks closer.

I know I should be nice to him. Make him see me as a person. That way maybe he won’t kill me. Or maybe he at least won’t torture me before he kills me. That’s the theory and best advice when being abducted, anyway. My aunt Roxie sat us all downwhen the war started and explained all this. Plus a whole bunch of other things. My dad taught me how and where to hit a man to really hurt him so I can run. I should sweet talk Tyler so he’ll untie me. And then I’ll punch him in the throat and make a run for it.

He reaches into his pocket and I hope it’s to get the key for the padlock securing the chain around my neck. Instead, he pulls a large hunting knife with a serrated edge and a black blade from the sheath on his belt.

“I’ve had just about enough of your lip,” he says. “Where’s the sweet girl who bought me pie, huh? I want her.”

He’s holding the knife barely an inch from my throat. I’m shaking and it’s not only from fear. I hate the fact that I bought him that pie. It makes me so angry that I was nice to him when all he was doing was planning this.

“She’s not here anymore,” I say. “And you’ll never see her again.”

I must be insane for saying that to him. But damn him. He made me believe he could be the one. And now he has me chained up and is threatening me with a knife? He can kill me, but no way I’m gonna show him fear.

He touches the knife to my cheek. The blade is freezing cold, as icy as his eyes, and I shiver harder.

“Careful now,” he says as he slides the tip of the knife down my cheek all the way to the tip of my collar bone. My breaths are coming in little jagged gasps. Notbecause I’m afraid, but because I don’t want him to cut me accidentally.

Accidentally? What the hell is wrong with me? He means to cut me on purpose!

“You’re not afraid?” he asks, sliding the knife between my breasts.

My chest is heaving from how hard I’m breathing. I feel like I’ve just run a 5K without rest. But still, I shake my head.

The knife slides further down. And my crazy brain wishes it was his calloused fingers instead. Or his lips.

---