Page 5 of Eden's Joker

The text comes amid yet more online orders. Accompanied by a selfie of him riding. His hair catching the wind, his shirt undone, the aviator shades concealing his ice-blue eyes, but reflecting red desert sculptures.

How close is he?

The panic that grips me now has more to do with the pile of unshipped orders than meeting him for thefirst time. But he said the weekend and that’s two days from now. I’ll get it all done by then.

I snapped a quick selfie of myself. But my long dark hair’s a mess and the scarf I tied it back with to get it out of my face, and which I thought must look very cute, actually makes me look homeless. Not to mention the blotches of redness covering my face. Some from the exertion of working all day, most from his text.

I’ll be waiting! And now back to work…

I take a picture of the mess that is my store and send that along with the text instead of the selfie.

He has follow-up questions which I promptly answer, ignoring my quickly filling inbox.

And once we’re done texting for now, I do get back to work with renewed energy to be done as soon as possible.

I love my bookshop and my life here. I wouldn’t give it up for the world. But there’s decidedly a lack of excitement in it.

Now that excitement is coming to me. Riding to fill the one last missing piece in my life. If I could stop myself from crushing on Tyler so hard and having these dumb ideas, I would. But I can’t. And something tells me I don’t have to. Because I’m right to be feeling all this.

4

Joker

The ride out to the desert to take those selfies for Eden, and film a few videos for good measure, cleared my head. The sun on my face was nice too. I’ve been spending too much time cooped up in our woodland bunker, strategizing and plotting. And anxiously awaiting the day I can start putting my lifelong dream into action.

But now only two days separate me from it.

I have my inner circle of brothers crammed into the makeshift office on the top floor of the main compound building. It’s one of the rare rooms with a window. A small one and it’s dirty. All I see through it is just trees upon trees. After the day on the open road, it’s not enough. I need to get out on the road more. As soon as this business is done, I’m gonna just ride for a while.The way I did in the beginning, before I set these wheels of my revenge into motion.

One of the plastic deck chairs they’re all sitting in creaks and groans, bringing me back to the present.

“Is there a reason we’re all here?” Sarge asks. “Some of the guys are getting antsy from being cooped up here. I should be downstairs, breaking up fights and whatnot.”

“Yes, I have a reason,” I tell him.

As his name suggests, he’s our Sarge—a guy well used to the role from the years he spent in the army performing this same job. That was before I found him and proposed revenge.

He joined the Army after the Devils killed off most of his family as killers for hire way back before I was even born. A job they probably don’t remember anymore, seeing how many jobs just like that one they took on over the years. Sad how something that can change the course of your whole life can be a forgettable thing. But that doesn’t matter. We’re gonna settle that score for good now. And then forget all about them.

“You forgot to tell us the reason for this family meeting,” Scorpio pipes up.

Family meeting is what we call church, because I thought it was more fitting given that we’re all one big family of orphans. He may be joking, but Scorpio’s no longer in a very good mood. Whatever he was on this morning must’ve wornoff.

“Mission Eden is starting in two days,” I say. “I made plans with Eden for this weekend.”

“Finally,” Scorpio says.

The rest just sort of grumbled and I can feel a certain level of displeasure in the room. Several here think we should just grab her and get the mission done sooner rather than later. But we’ve already had this talk about why my way is better and they’re loyal. So there’s no need to call anyone out or explain it all again.

“So basically, we’re only on if she decides she likes you,” Scorpio says. He really is in a foul mood.

“I still say we snatch her as soon as we can,” Razor says. “Have her meet you somewhere secluded and she’s ours.”

He’s our intel officer and he’s been the most vocal in disagreeing with Mission Eden as I’ve envisioned it. He’s all for taking her, just not with the whole wooing her first so she’ll come with me willingly part.

I turn away from the window and take a seat in one of the remaining plastic chairs. “We could. And we might still have to. But it’s like with butchering animals. The meat always tastes best when they don’t know they’re about to die. That’s how it’s gonna be with Eden if she comes willingly. She’s so soft and innocent. We don’t want to spoil that ahead of time.”

They all chuckle at that.

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