Page 74 of Eden's Joker

That goes over about as well as I expected it to. A whoosh-like noise passes over the crowd, as though a strong gust of wind came out of nowhere. It’s followed by a couple of moments of dead silence. Then questions start raining down.

What changed? When are we attacking the Devils? When are we delivering Eden’s broken body back to them? Are we doing that?

That last one seems the loudest.

“You’re not giving the bitch back to the Devils, are you?” Razor asks from somewhere in the shadows.

“Obviously not,” Trip answers. “He wants her all to himself. Even shot Brick to save her.”

I figured we’d come to this and here we are. I wish I’d prepared words before I came here tonight. But it’s best to come clean, leave nothing unsaid now. It’s that kinda night. I don’t need preparation to do that.

“Yeah, I’ll be keeping her,” I say. “She’s mine, I claim her, and I’ll fight anyone who tries to take her.”

It feels nice saying that out loud. Kinda like taking a drink of cool, clear water on a hot summer day. Ormore like after wandering the desert for days, weeks, months. Years.

But as good as it feels, it does not go over well with my men. They explode in outraged shouts, grunts, and yells. Even some of the hoes are cursing me out now. They might rush me at any moment and there won’t be much I can do about it.

“But none of that changes anything when it comes to the Devils,” I shout, speaking louder than the noise. “They’re still dead men walking. We will have vengeance!”

“How?” is the question that comes most often.

“Just because they don’t know they won’t get her back, doesn’t mean they won’t come to get her,” I say and watch the anger on their faces change to confusion. For the most part, anyway. Some remain enraged.

“The other MCs fighting the war have agreed to give me their allegiance and their men,” I say. “They’ll be arriving here over the coming days, ready to fight.”

They like hearing that. Good.

“Once they’re all here, I’ll tell the Devils where they can find Eden,” I say. “Right here, in Justice. Which we will get once they arrive.”

I pause again, for effect. No one is talking now. They’re hardly breathing.

“Just like we planned, we will lure them in via the one and only road,” I say. “They’ll be outnumbered three to one, maybe even four to one. And then ourvengeance will rain down on them like fire from the sky.”

I blame all the books Eden made me read, while I was wooing her for this flowery language. But I don’t regret any of it.

“So tonight, we celebrate our fallen brothers,” I say. “And tomorrow we start planning our victory. Are you with me?”

I timed it well. They erupt in shouts of agreement.

“Make the Devils pay their debts,” echoes over the hills surrounding this town like a war song.

Not all join in, but most do. Enough do. And that’s all I’m gonna get for now.

Could be that some of them will never accept Eden. Could be that she won’t accept me after what is coming. But that’s a problem for another day.

Tonight is about celebrating all we’ve achieved after years of trying. And all we’re about to achieve.

It’s hard choosing between getting justice for my dead parents and keeping the woman I can’t stop thinking about. Even now, I’d still rather be lying in bed beside her.

But this way, I get both. And that too, is a thing worth celebrating.

39

Eden

I didn’t wake up when he joined me in bed last night, but I’ve been up for hours now, alternating between watching him sleep and leafing through the copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I found in the library. The sun is beating down on the town, but a breeze is coming through the window, and I could be happy just spending days in this alcove, reading, being with Tyler, far away from the rest of the complicated world.

I miss my family and my friends. The longer I’m away the worse it gets. And if I think about how worried they must be, it gets unbearable. But I woke up with a very strong feeling that everything will be all right now and I’m holding onto that with all I have.

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