Page 62 of Karma

I get up without saying anything and join Grim just as Scorpio announced he’s going to the toilet. But he follows Joker outside.

I motion to Grim to follow me to the bar, where Psycho is drinking by himself, looking like he’s miles away from here. Probably with that girl he can’t stop thinking about.

“What do you think that was all about?” I ask Grim.

“Fuck if I know. Some kind of ruse, gotta be,” he says and pours himself a shot from Psycho’s bottle of bourbon.

“Well, I wanna know,” I say, take the shot glass from him and down in one throat-burning swallow. “I want to know what Joker is planning. Even if he doesn’t involve us, we’re obviously already involved.”

I search his face for confirmation that he feels the same way. I don’t have to look very hard. Something drastically altered between him and Scorpio last night. I saw it then and all day today.

“You’re right,” he says and turns to Psycho. “I got a job for you…”

Psycho shrugs and nods. He still seems to be a million miles away.

“I want you to follow Joker every time he leaves here,” Grim says. “Make sure he doesn’t see you.”

Psycho grins. “You’re giving me this job because I’m so good at being a stalker, right?”

He sounds very bitter about it. But he can’t exactly deny that he doesn’t spend a hell of a lot of his time watching that girl he loves from a distance. Most of his time actually.

The words,if the shoe fits, are written all over Grim’s face, but what he says is, “You’re the best man for the job,” with no undertone whatsoever.

It makes Psycho sit up a little straighter.

“Consider it done, Prez,” he says and leaves right away to begin trailing Joker.

Grim pours another shot and drinks it before I can.

“We should get some answers now,” I say.

Grim nods slowly, his eyes cloudy and troubled. “I don’t think we’re gonna like them though.”

Then his eyes brighten again as he spots Scorpio at the door looking kind of sadly at the table they shared which is now empty.

“So let’s go make the most of what we have before that happens,” he says and makes his way towards Scorpio.

I drink another shot before following, hoping the burning will fill the growing pit in my stomach.

Making the best of it is all we’ve ever done. Always running, always fearing the day when it would all be taken away from us. A day like that can come anytime for us. I want more thanmaking the best of itfrom this thing we’ve started with Scorpio. I want endless nights just like last night. I want forever.

31

Scorpio

The world seems to have this soft quality to it lately, and I now actually look forward to falling asleep. Because I’ll get to wake up with Karma and Grim within arm's reach. I figured the three of us sleeping in the same bed would be annoying and uncomfortable as hell, but it’s fast becoming one of my favorite things we do together.

I’m sure there’s a word for how I feel about them, but I don’t want to think it, because that happy train always goes crashing into the wall of what is coming soon whenever I dare even think the L word.

I haven’t been able to get much sense out of Joker ever since his lovely speech about defecting to Devil’s Nightmare MC the other night. Which I’m sure no one believed. Especially not Karma who’s been watching and studying him very closely lately, preferring to play cards with him every night when she could be sitting on my lap under the stars instead. For example. Or do a thousand of the other things that I can’t get enough of doing with her. Or with Grim for that matter. Never saw that one coming.

But really, it’s enough to just sit close to them.

I’d rather be doing that right now. But I gotta have a conversation with Joker and it seems that right after he gets up in the morning is the only time he at least marginally feels up to it.

We’re at the workout set at the back of Eddie’s compound and the sun’s beating down mercilessly. We’re still pretending we don’t know each other, but back here we’re just two guys serious about staying in shape even while staying at a dump like the Fire & Heart Inn. Joker is lifting despite the heat, maybe to keep up appearances, or because he’s burning off some kind of frustration. The grimaces on his face seem to suggest the latter. I’ve long since stopped exercising, submitting to the heat and the fact that I can’t stop reliving last night. I’ve possibly had the most mind-blowing sex of my life right here just a few hours ago. My dick’s hard just from remembering it. And the good thing is, there’s more to come.

“You should come to the shade,” I tell him. “We don’t want you stroking out before the big day when Eden becomes ours.”

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