Page 87 of Karma

He’s looking at Cross who is coming down off the hill, flanked by ten of his guys.

“I guess that depends on how well the negotiations go.”

Joker nods and squares his shoulders again. “Better get to them, get this over with.”

He walks towards Cross and I follow.

“So let’s talk,” Joker tells him and the guy nods.

I have some talking of my own to do. Karma and Grim have stopped a few feet behind Cross and I’m pretty sure they’re thinking the exact same thing. Namely that it’s high time we get squared away so we can get back on the happy train. Mad as I still am at them, I want that more than anything.

But my place is by Joker’s side now, as we try and broker peace where there was only hatred before.

It has to work. Because I know I’m not letting Karma and Grim get away from me a second time. But letting them wait and roast in their guilt a little longer won’t be a bad thing either. They did betray me after all. Even if it was for the higher good.

46

Grim

Night has fallen, but it’s still hot as hell and the stench of gunpowder and blood is thick in the air. Along with the exhaust of all the men who left once it became clear that peace would hold and the war is over. I tried to remember every one of those that left. They didn’t agree with the war ending, so they are very likely to become tomorrow’s enemies. But we’ve only just dealt with one impossible problem. No point starting to think of another right away. Especially since the war ending doesn’t mean Scorpio will forgive us.

The Forsaken Outlaws have no dog in this fight, so we’re not in the Saloon where the peace talks have been going on pretty much continuously since this morning’s truce. Shouting and fights breaking out keep interrupting them and it’s starting to seem like they’ll continue all night.

Not what I want. I want to have my own version of a peace talk with Scorpio. But he hasn’t come out of the Saloon since going in there on Joker’s heels this morning.

Men are camping out in the open, huddled around fires that only add to the heat of the night. Karma and I built one too, under a thick oak tree with a good view of the Saloon door.

The town’s twenty or so houses are being used to treat the wounded, our own Fatal is helping with that, since he used to be a paramedic before finding himself falsely accused of killing a bunch of his patients and going on the run. The Devils have not one, but two doctors with them. One of them is a grizzled ex-Army doctor, the other a pretty brunette with legs for days. She could just as soon be a club girl, but the way she handles her patients leaves no doubt that she’s actually a well-trained ER doc. Her name’s Melody and she’s been ordering Fatal around all day. The guy obeys, looking at her like he’s been waiting to do what she tells him to do all his life. But he’s gonna be disappointed. She’s with Rogue, the president of Rogue Angels MC.

I wouldn’t have even noticed all this, if Karma hadn’t laid it all out for me. She’s been talking a lot all afternoon and evening. About everything except the peace talks of our own, which I hope are coming soon.

There’s nothing much to say there. Talking among ourselves and making plans without him is what brought us here in the first place.

“I’m just gonna go in there and get him,” Karma says and stands up, proving me right that she’s been thinking about him all day just as I have.

A gust of cool wind cuts through the stench of gunpowder and dying, promising a better tomorrow. Then the door of the Saloon opens and Scorpio is standing on the porch, looking around into the darkness. I stand up too and wave him over as soon as his eyes find us.

He keeps looking at us, his face unreadable. But he doesn’t move towards us and a fear that he’s not gonna come to us gripsme like a fist around the throat. It’s been almost two weeks since we fucked up and betrayed him, a week since we failed to apologize. That’s two weeks of thinking about him constantly and dreaming about him when I do manage to sleep. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when he became so essential to me, I just know he is.

I want to run to him and explain all that, apologize until he forgives me. Apologize for the rest of time, if that’s what it takes. But it’s my impulsive decisions that have caused this rift between us, which seems to keep expanding. So I’m not gonna do anything rash. Yet.

I exhale in utter relief as he finally jogs down the porch steps and heads in our direction, walking fast like maybe he’s afraid he’s gonna change his mind and turn back around if he doesn’t hurry. Beside me, Karma is holding her breath, standing perfectly still like a statue.

His eyes as he reaches us are two black flames—burning hot at the edges, but ice cold in the center.

“I told you Joker was in love with her,” he says. “I told you he wouldn’t be able to hurt her.”

Karma exhales and walks up to him, taking both his hands in hers. “You did.”

I clear my throat. “We should’ve listened to you. We shouldn’t have tried to interfere.”

He fixes me with a look that’s the kind of ice that burns. “You think?”

Karma gasps like the look and the anger in his voice burned her too.

“Can we talk?” she asks in a pleading voice I’m not used to hearing from her lips.

He’s letting her hold his hands, which I suppose is a good sign that maybe he’s not as angry at us as he seems. That maybehe won’t just tell us to fuck off and storm away again. But just as that hope blossoms in my chest, he rips his hands from her grip.

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