Page 64 of Eden's Joker

Razor clears his throat. “The Devils are already on the move. About a third of them are riding to deal withBadger and what’s left of his guys, the rest are coming here.”

Razor has trouble meeting my eyes. As well he should. He’s our damn intel officer and he knows he has to tell me of new developments as he learns them.

“How many of Badger’s guys are left?” I ask. “And when did I miss this piece of intel?”

Badger was one of the six leaders of the war against the Devils—the war that I orchestrated, but got pushed to the sidelines of by those traitors. The Devils hit a leaders’ meeting and killed everyone but Badger. It was me who told the Devils where they can find the leader, so I could finally take my place as the one and only leader of the war. But I thought I still had some more time to make that part of the plan happen.

“You were busy with the Devils’ bitch,” Razor says apologetically. “And you already knew Badger was still alive. We only just heard that he challenged the Devils once more. Apparently, he’s trying to hijack one of their weapons storage bunkers on the Nevada border.”

“Near here?” I ask.

“About fifty miles south,” Razor says.

“So if I rally the remaining MCs now and we go help Badger, we can take care of at least half the Devils in one go,” I say, thinking aloud more than looking for an answer.

“That leaves the half coming here,” Scorpio says. “It also leaves Eden out of the plan altogether.”

Figures he’d be the one challenging me on mychange of plans. He’s still upset about the way I spoke to him.

“It does,” I say and leave it at that.

A new plan is beginning to form in my head. One that lets me win the war and keep Eden just as she is.

“I need some time to think,” I say and march out of the room, because I do my best thinking alone. No one tries to stop me, because they’re used to my eccentric ways, and they all trust me to know the next best step.

I’ve mostly kept them alive to reap all the benefits of the war with the Devils without having to risk their lives for it. But this time there might be no avoiding it. If we want to beat the Devils, we’re gonna have to fight.

Outside, I start walking the perimeter of the town along the brick and mortar wall. This town is a mess. There are weeds growing everywhere and most of the houses are not fit to live in, with broken windows and caved-in roofs. There’s also trash and God knows what else littering everything and it smells. The town of Roaring Brook has served us well, but it’s served its purpose.

Scorpio is walking towards me across the open area between the hotel and one of the few houses that is still intact.

“I don’t have any answers yet,” I tell him.

“But I have a couple of questions,” he says and falls in step beside me. “Stuff I hope you’re asking yourself, before you send at least halfof us to die.”

“Don’t be such a drama queen. I’m not sending anyone to die,” I say.

“But that’s what’s gonna happen if we go against the Devils,” he says.

“Well, we do want them all dead,” I say. “That’s not gonna happen without some of us dying too, no matter how hard we wish for it.”

“And that’s one of my questions,” he says. “Do we want them dead? Or just defeated? Or something else?”

“What something else? What the fuck are you talking about?”

He smirks at me. “Eden’s not gonna like it if you kill her whole family.”

“What do I care what she likes?”

He laughs. “You shouldn’t. But you do.”

I stop and round on him, ready to punch him if he doesn’t stop grinning at me. “Who else is saying this?”

“About you and Eden? Just me, no one else yet. But they’re starting to put two and two together.”

“It’ll all be over before that happens,” I say. “Let’s go back to the hotel. I have a plan.”

I haven’t had the time to work it all out. But it’s not like I haven’t been living only for this war these last couple of years. I have plenty of plans and ideas. I have strategies all thought out too. Stuff that will give us victory.

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