Page 53 of Karma

“Is that the club One Arm Eddie used to run?” Scorpio asks. “What happened to it?”

Grim bristles beside me. “He doesn’t like being called that.”

“Fine, fine,” Scorpio says, tensing a little too. “But I thought we weren’t gonna argue.”

“Yeah,” Grim says and relaxes again, squeezing Scorpio’s shoulder in apology. That reaction makes me happier than any words ever could.

“Eddie’s road name used to be Fists,” Grim says. “But then he lost his arm in a crash and ditched the name too. After that, he lost himself in a bottle for a few years. And by the time he crawled back out, most of his guys ditched him too. The three that help him run this place were the most loyal. But they’re not calling themselves an MC anymore.”

“No, they just run one of the most disgusting inns on the West Coast,” Scorpio says.

“Hey, without no-questions-asked places like this, we’d be sitting in a jail cell right now,” I say then lean over to kiss him lightly on the lips. “And aren’t you glad we’re not?”

I kiss Grim too so he won’t feel left out.

“I am,” Scorpio admits.

“The rooms may be disgusting, but there’s precious few places where I can sit like this on an evening and not worry that some random cop car driving by is gonna take my freedom,” I add.

“Yeah,” Scorpio says. “But Eddie and the boys could keep the place a little cleaner. I mean, it doesn’t take much. Just a lot of bleach.”

Even Grim chuckles at that.

“That Roaring Brook town you call your HQ isn’t much cleaner than this,” Grim says. “Might even be dirtier.”

Roaring Brook is an abandoned town that The Lost Sons MC operate from. It’s not too far from here and Grim’s not kidding, the place is a pigsty.

“That’s not our HQ,” Scorpio says quietly and takes a long swig from the bottle of bourbon he brought with him.

“Oh, yeah?” I ask, since this is total news to me and we’ve been working with them for years now. “And where is that?”

“Can’t tell you,” he says. “But it’s even safer from cops than this inn.”

“But you can’t take us there because Joker won’t let you.” The words just spill from my mouth, the promise I made when he sat down clearly not strong enough to hold them back. But he started it.

“You got it all wrong about me and Joker,” he says. “He’s my best friend in the world. He’s family. There’s only so much shit I’ll listen to about him.”

“He looked like he’s best friends with those three Devils in there too,” I say. “And he’s gearing up to kill them all.”

Scorpio shakes his head and takes his arm from around my waist. I’m sorry I broke my promise. But maybe not as much as I should be.

“We’re your friends too,” Grim says, taking the words right from my mind. “At least we’re trying to be. But that won’t happen if you’re dead.”

For all his intensity and quick temper, Grim has a voice that could calm even a raging bull. Soft and just deep enough to fill your whole chest like soft mist, dampening and quenching all fires. It seems to work on Scorpio too, because he runs his fingers through his hair and leans back against the wall with a sigh.

“I can’t tell you what you want to hear,” he says. “As much as I like being here with the both of you, I can’t tell you it’s gonna last. It’d be a lie.”

“Just do what you want to do,” Grim says. “Don’t blindly follow your friend into a war you don’t want.”

Scorpio scoffs. “The war is for me.”

I don’t know what to say to that, and judging by Grim’s surprised gasp he doesn’t either.

He recovers faster. “Because the Devils killed your families, yes, I get that. But is it worth losing your lives as well? Because the Devils don’t lose.”

“Yeah, we know they don’t,” Scorpio says. “That’s why the plan is way more elaborate than that. It’ll do maximum damage whether we beat them or not.”

“What’s the plan?” I ask.

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