Page 51 of Eden's Joker

“So, she broken yet?” he asks as I lean over the railing next to him.

I wish there was a breeze to cool my face, but the hot air seems to stand still tonight.

“You should at least feed her,” he says once he realizes he’s not getting a reply. “You don’t want to starve her to death. Or do you?”

“She can starve. What the fuck do I care?” I snap.

Maybe that’ll make her more compliant. Because despite being the guy with the knife and all the power, I somehow managed to come out of that room more broken than she.

What the fuck is wrong with her? Apologizing to me for what her father and the other Devil bastards did? She should be spitting in my face, cursing me out and calling me a dead man like her father did. And then screaming and crying when she realizes I mean business. Not letting me kiss her and apologizing for the wrongs the Devils did to me.

“So it didn’t go well?” he asks and I can just hear the smile in his voice. Good thing I’m facing away from him, because if I actually saw him smiling, I just might have to wipe it off his face with my fist.

“Ice knows I got her and he knows who I am,” I say. “That’s good enough for tonight. The fucking Forsaken Outlaws turned on us. I gotta go see if anyone told them how to find this town.”

“What do you mean, turned on us?” Scorpio asks. There’s no smile in his voice. Or in his face as I turn to him.

“You didn’t notice them turning around andshooting up the compound as we were leaving with Eden? They killed Tiny and Brick.”

Those two were a recent addition to our MC, having come from a club that the Devils tore through in this war. We didn’t know them well enough to truly mourn them, but we’re gonna anyway.

He looks more than just confused. Dazed is more like it.

“I thought that was part of some plan of yours,” he mutters more than says.

“Nope, Karma and her boys betrayed us,” I say. “So you can stop pining over her now because she’s a fucking rat.”

I wish I knew why the fuck this news makes him look like he’s about to throw up. He rocks back in his chair, making it squeal, then takes another long swig of the bourbon.

“I guess that’s that then,” he says, pouring some of the drink onto the floor the way he would for a fallen brother. Karma and those assholes don’t deserve it. “Good fucking riddance, I guess.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we’ll meet them in some battle soon,” I say.

“On the wrong side,” he mutters.

“The bitch never gave you the time of day,” I say, since I can’t ignore his weirdness anymore. “Why are you acting this way?”

He shrugs and takes another swig of his drink. “They don’t know about Justice. Only Roaring Brook. That’s where they’ll lead the Devils.”

“I’m gonna go check on that with the others anyway.”

“It’d be better if you just finish up shit here,” he says darkly.

I shake my head and walk away.

I don’t want to argue with him, and I don’t need to be called out on how I’m handling Eden. I know I’m acting weird. But it’s just how it is when you finally get what you wanted. You’re always disappointed, because it’s not how you imagined it would be.

But I’m sure all that will fade by tomorrow morning. I just need some air and silence. And some peace from Eden. I’ve been obsessed with trying to make her fall in love with me for the past three months, after all. It’s logical that I’d need some time to change gears.

29

Eden

The crazy attraction and other thoughts subside as soon as he leaves. I know that much by now. Because while he’s here, doing whatever he thinks he’s doing with me—trying to scare me, I guess—I just want more of it. But once he’s gone, I know I’m totally screwed and I am totally scared.

My lips and my chest are still tingling from the kiss. It was every bit as wild and amazing as the one on that twilit sidewalk where people parted for us so as not to disturb. But that bliss is curdling badly. Especially because the darkness in the room is showing me my dad’s panicked face very clearly and I can’t even focus on anything else to chase it away. And for his threat of passing me around to his MC brothers… that sent shivers down my spine and made me sick to the stomach.

Not as much as his story did though.

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