Page 41 of Joker's Ghost
I cup his face with my palm.“I love you.”
“I love you too, babe, so much.”
After all that, Joker and I promised to always be honestwith each other, but I couldn’t help thinking he was still keeping something from me. Aside from the near accident in the garage. Something big, that could possibly put us all in danger.
Joker grew up knowing, at an early age, the only one he could depend on was himself, and the same applied to me. There weren’t too many second chances for the illegitimate child of a jailbird father and a mother who ran off leaving her seven children to fend for themselves in the hills of West Virginia.
Somehow, Joker and I fought hard to get to the other side, then formed a bond with each other through adversity and the knowledge that life sucked some times, but if you held on, sometimes there was a reward. And if our little family unit of Derek, Deana, and our unborn baby held tight, we would survive all the bad.
And because of that, I was determined to find out what Joker was hiding. I refused to put our family in danger from lack of information.
JOKER
I hustle Cobra and Python outside into the lot then turn on them and glare. “What the fuck was that?”
“What?” they both say in unison.
“You guys trying to fuck up my life and make sure I never get my dick wet again.”
Python shrugs in his usual nonchalant way. “Nothing said wasn’t the truth, and if you really wanna get up somebody’s ass, it should be Cobra for starting the story and Gus for finishing it. As far as I can tell, I was outta it altogether. Just an innocent bystander.”
“Thanks, brother,” Cobra sneers, “for having my back. I’ll remember that the next time Virginia calls to see if you’ve left Ecstasy. Maybe I’ll tell her you’re ogling a new stripper on stage.”
“Whoa, whoa with that shit,” Python defends. “I only goteyes for my Virginia, but sometimes in my job managing the club’s strip joint, I gotta put in some extra hours overseeing the talent.”
“Yeah, okay.” Cobra and I both do an eye roll, ‘cause even though Python is true to Virginia, he does like to vet the new talent personally.
“And since when would you ever label yourself innocent?” I glare at Python, and the bastard smirks at me.
“As usual, we’re all getting way off topic,” Cobra adds.
“The bottom line is I didn’t tell Daisy about my near miss here the other day because I don’t want her worrying over nothing.”
“All right, but you never said you weren’t gonna tell her, so how were we to know?” Cobra makes a logical point I can’t argue with, so I drop it and move on.
“You gotta admit some of the shit that’s happened to me lately is unusual.”
“Unusual, but explainable,” Cobra says. “Your bike blew some spark plugs.”
“After Rattler swears he replaced them the day before.”
“You see some guy at the Halloween party in Indian regalia,” Python adds.
“Who looks exactly like the guy we offed.”
“Then you take a tumble down the stairs.” Cobra cocks his head. “All this shit is somewhat normal.”
“Except I didn’t take a tumble; I was fuckin’ pushed.”
Python puffs out his chest. “I didn’t push you.”
“I know that . . . It was some force. I can’t explain it, but it was like a?—”
“Ghost?” Cobra offers.
“Crazy shit, I know, but I’m telling you, before I fell, I heard this high-pitched whining, and the next thing I know, I’m flat on my back on the basement floor.”
“Gotta admit, we were fuckin’ scared.”
