Page 54 of Eden's Joker

“Or did I tell you to leave her chained up and hungry?”

He nods and reaches for the bottle on the floor beside his feet. “That second one.”

I yank the bottle from his hand. “No more drinking. You’re falling apart bad enough without being drunk all the time.”

He yanks the bottle back, glaring at me. “I’m not falling apart.”

“Yeah, you weren’t,” I say. “Until you saw her chained up… “

The look he’s giving me now is a lot of things. Anger predominately, but there’s lots of sadness mixed in too.

“You want her pissing and shitting all over herself up there, fine. It’s your show,” he says and stands up. “But fuck you for bringing all the rest of that shit up. We don’t talk about it.”

We did make that pact after I saved him from a house of horrors where a married couple kept him chained up for weeks. We were sixteen. I never knew exactly what went on in there, what they did to him, and made him do, but I know it was bad.

“If you can’t handle this part of the mission, you’re free to go help Razor keep the Devils off our scent in Roaring Brook,” I say calmly.

My anger at him went away with the memory ofthose long-gone days. I should’ve just kept him away from this part of the mission. But there’s no one I trust to keep the others away from Eden as much as I trust him.

His eyes are shooting lightning at me again. “You know, for someone who can read people as well as you can, you’re pretty dumb and blind when it comes to reading your own self.”

His voice is firmer and more controlled than I figured it could be.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shakes his head and sits back down to pull on his boots.

“You’ll figure it out,” he says. “Maybe you’re right, this is too much for me. You do your thing here and I’m gonna follow Razor to Roaring Brook. He’s gonna need the backup when the Devils come.”

“Yeah, good,” I say and watch him leave.

I hope it’s not for the last time. Because he’s not wrong. Roaring Brook will run with blood when the Devils arrive.

But we’re all ready to die for the cause that is revenge against the Devils. That, at least, has never been a question. But I have no idea why Eden’s role in all of it suddenly is.

31

Eden

I didn’t expect to sleep, but I did. Deeply. So deeply that the sudden appearance of Tyler’s grinning face hovering over mine as he straddles my body becomes just part of yet another dream in a long sequence of dreams where I am not his captive. Where this kind of thing is a happy moment that I’ve so far only dreamed about and hoped for.

I close my eyes fully, anticipating a sweet good morning kiss.

Instead, he grabs my wrists and brings my arms over my head. “Rise and shine, princess.”

His voice is not something that belongs in a dream. Maybe a nightmare. The chain rattles and then my arms are bound again, this time to the headboard.

The look in his eyes tells me he’s in bad need ofsome sleep. The fields of ice in them are barren, windy, desolate, and deserted. No sun can touch them.

I shiver despite the room actually being very warm.

“Why do you have to tie me up?” I ask. “You already have me locked up in an old house in the middle of nowhere.”

His lips turn up into a sinister sort of grin. His Cheshire cat grin. Full of malice and an enticing promise of danger. Why does my traitorous body react with desire when it should be fear? Why?

“So I can do this,” he says and rips the front of my dress open, buttons flying then rapping against the hardwood floor. They sound like fat raindrops hitting the windowsill in my apartment right before a storm whooshes in, bringing thunder and lighting.

I wanted him to see me naked. I wanted to get naked with him. But not like this.

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