Page 49 of Karma

“I think we have to,” I say. “He needs us as much as we need him.”

I expected a derisive snort. I expected to be told that Scorpio isn’t worth my time, that I don’t know what I need and that he certainly doesn’t need anyone but me. Instead, he nods.

“I already called the others,” he says. “Psycho’s arriving tomorrow morning. I’ll tell him to meet us at the inn instead of here.”

It’ll be good to see our MC brothers and sisters again.

“So you don’t think we should just ride on out of here?” I ask. “This could get dangerous real fast and maybe he really doesn’t want us around anymore.”

He shakes his head. “No, this isn’t finished.”

It’s the certainty in his voice that convinces me too. Because it’s so perfectly aligned with how I feel. And it’s been a while since Grim and I were this in synch. We both want Scorpio inour lives. And that has to mean it’s gotta happen, right? I wish I could be certain of that too.

25

Grim

I’ve never been ignored as completely as Scorpio ignored me when Karma and I got to the Fire & Heart Inn and walked past him to get to the bar. The sun was just coming up from behind the inn part of the compound—a drab looking multi-story structure with a chipped and cracked facade, multiple broken and boarded up windows and a smell rising off it clearly saying it should by rights be long abandoned. That stench of decay, dust and death, which once you smell for the first time, you never want to get near again. Even the tangy scent of the redwoods that grow everywhere around here has no hope of competing with that kind of stench. There’s also the classics of piss, puke, blood and alcohol mixed in. Karma will hate it here. I know I do.

When we rode up, Scorpio was faking being asleep, leaning against the concrete wall of the entrance to the inn, cradling a bottle of whiskey in his lap, and pretending to be just one of the many sleeping outside. Seemingly because they were too drunk to make it to their rooms. Or maybe because they can’t even afford the cheap rates the rooms here go for.

But his eyes were winter cold as we passed him, and stone cold sober. He looked right past us. It annoyed me in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. Childishly needy and angry. I wanted to pick him up off the ground and shake him, make him notice me. Maybe that means I am starting to have some sort of feelings for him. Or maybe I was just that angry for Karma’s sake, because she definitely does.

She looked so lost as we walked past him and he didn’t so much as glance in her direction. And her hands were shaking once we reached the inside of the bar, which was nice and cool and blissfully empty, even if it did stink as bad as a sewer.

Not long after that, Joker came in and told us to pretend we’d never met before while we’re here. He delivered the demand like an order, in that high and mighty tone of his. I almost told him to take it down a couple of notches with the ordering around, but then I remembered I don’t give a fuck about the guy and would like nothing more than to never have met him. He’s a plotter and a schemer, always has some sinister plan going and even when we collaborate on jobs, I’d rather not. I hate being a part of something I can’t see clearly and he’s a master at hiding stuff from others. I bet he does the same to Scorpio and yet he just blindly follows the guy. Why?

After he left, I had half a mind to do the same. Just drag Karma away from here and make her forget she ever met Scorpio in the first place. But I couldn’t. She kept glancing at the door, waiting for him to walk in, no doubt, for one thing. And for another, I’m not leaving until I give him a couple of choice words about this cold welcome.

Psycho, one of our Forsaken Outlaws MC brothers, is here with us. More are coming in the next few days. We have things to discuss as an MC. Things like where we go from here now that Reaper is gone. We shared the presidency, but he was always more of a leader. Maybe they don’t even want to follow me.And this decrepit place, filled with people so far down on their luck they’ve broken right through rock bottom, might be just the place to have that conversation. We’ve lost so many brothers and sisters in the last couple of years, I don’t even know if we’re an MC anymore. The revenge for Reaper, and his funeral ride brought us together again. But once that was done, we just all went our separate ways, riding alone. Maybe that would be for the best. But I’ll start that conversation once they’re all here.

“So, you think Joker will have something to do for us while we’re here?” Psycho asks, snapping me out of the lonely darkness of my thoughts.

I shrug. “Do we even want that?”

“Sure we do,” Psycho says. “He always pays well. And we’re running low on funds.”

He’s something like our treasurer, since he’s good with money.

“We were well on our way to having a healthy rainy-day fund from his jobs alone,” he adds and clears his throat. “Before Reaper… “

“Died,” I finish his unfinished sentence, letting way too much anger bubble up. For almost a year since then, we’ve taken on no paid work as we hunted down the assholes who killed him. Psycho clears his throat again nervously and Karma shudders.

“Reaper wanted us to steer clear of Joker and the Lost Sons,” I say. “Maybe he was onto something.”

Psycho shrugs and leans back in his seat and puts his hands up. “I’m just saying. It’s easy money and we need some of that.”

Psycho might have a vicious sounding name, but he’s actually one of the more level-headed members of our club. He’s on the run because he hacked up a guy who was harassing the girl he’s hopelessly obsessed with. She’s the one who called him a psycho after that and even though it’s been years, I don’t think he’s over that, or her yet. I’m pretty sure he stalks her when he’s awayfrom us, but I don’t ask because I don’t truly want to know. It’s none of my business how he lives his life. But maybe a president should care about shit like that.

I could tell him that Joker and the Sons are mixed up in something we don’t want to be a part of. But that’s another conversation that best wait until we’re all gathered.

All other conversations will have to wait too.

Scorpio just walked in and he’s no longer pretending we’re no more than air in his line of vision. All he has to do is incline his head towards the door and Karma is on her feet following him outside. I’ve half a mind to stay right where I am. But the rest of my mind is screaming at me to go and give him a piece of it, so I’m standing too, before I even realize what I’m doing.

“Be right back,” I tell Psycho who’s looking at both me and Karma like we’ve lost our minds.

And maybe I have.

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