Page 10 of Jester

“What about Hope?”

“She won’t want to live in this house without you, either.”

“It’s too good of a house to sit empty. Give it to Thorn when he finds the right woman.”

“Fuck that,” Ghost snarls, always feeling competitive with his club brother. “He can build his own house.”

“I’m sure he’d prefer that.”

“Oh, so our house isn’t good enough now?”

Wrapping my arms around Ghost’s waist, I think about the baby pictures I located of him. He was such a gorgeous child with big, blue eyes and floppy brown hair. I always get the urge to crawl into the pictures and hug the sad-looking child. Since that isn’t possible, I comfort him in my arms now.

“Once this thing in Texas is done, we’ll stay close to home.”

Ghost gives me a little grin, liking how I view the Sanctuary as permanent. Even after a year together, he occasionally worries I might run away or betray him like his cunty mom was prone to do.

“When we get to Primrose, we’ll follow the plan just like we’ve practiced for months,” I explain while nuzzling my jaw against his. “This is just another mission. Don’t overthink it. Or worry about dying. Just assume we’ll both be dead at the end. That way, we’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by the outcome.”

“I don’t care if I die. I just want you to live.”

“I don’t want you to die until you’ve knocked me up. Maybe you could jizz in a cup before we go.”

Ghost rolls his eyes. “That’s how Jelly Bean got knocked up. I think her kid will be weird. I’ll jizz inside you like nature intended.”

“So we’re good?” I ask after softly kissing Ghost and giving his ass a tender squeeze.

“I’m not ready to be miserable again.”

“Why do you assume I’ll die and you’ll live?” I ask, trying to seem annoyed. “Maybe we’ll both die.”

“You’re not helping.”

“Ghost,” I say, lowering my voice when I hear Hope moving around in the adjoining family room, “they have women like Giselle locked up in that estate. She was their ballerina. Another one is a schoolgirl. Another is an athlete. There’s a cheerleader. Think about having to dress like that all the time, never being able to be a real person, and instead feeling like a toy. And what happens to them when they get too old to turn on the perverts?”

“I know all that.”

“We kill monsters, you and me. We ended Hope’s dad. We killed those fuckers who hurt little Jesse,” I whisper, thinking of Ghost as a boy pimped out by his mom for drugs. “We’re vengeance. Yeah, I want to save those women. And I certainly want our team to come out of this thing unscathed. But more than anything, I want to destroy the bad guys.”

Ghost considers what we’ve accomplished together over the last year. A dozen perverts are dead now because of us. Many of them hurt Ghost and other defenseless kids. Vengeance felt cathartic. I see in his gaze how he’s reliving the emotional release he gained from ending those monsters’ lives.

“This is likely the last bloodbath we’ll cause. Rather than be afraid, you should feel nostalgic.”

Offering me a small smirk, Ghost stops assuming the worst. He’s a naturally pessimistic guy. His terrible childhood prepped him for a cruel world. But he’s also had a lot of good luck over the last decade.

Ghost always needs a little help to remember how he overcame his shitty childhood to become a strong, smart, sexy man worthy of my obsession.

Scenting up Ghost “kitty-style,” I whisper, “Let’s go make sure Hope has packed enough clothes for her stay with Sweet Buns and Tank.”

The grizzled founding member and his feisty old lady grew attached to Hope back when the damaged young woman barely spoke. She spends time at their house nearly every day and stays over during many weekends, so Ghost and I can run around naked at our place.

Over the last year, Hope has grown accustomed to the Sanctuary. In theory, she could walk around unsupervised. But if Hope gets spooked, she’ll take off running. One time, thirty people needed to fan out to search for her after she disappeared into the woods.

And anything can spook her. Hope knows the men of the Born Villains Motorcycle Club. She can look at them straight on with no problem. But if she notices a few of them out of the corner of her eye, she’ll think she’s in danger and run.

Tonight, rather than eat at HQ, Ghost, Hope, and I get burgers and fries in downtown Metamora before watching “Die Hard with a Vengeance” in our family room. Hope sits between us while cuddling with her shelter cat, CC.

More than once, Ghost glances at me. His expression is easy to read. We’ve started building a beautiful life together. All three of us are healthier than we’ve been in a long time. Everything we have could end in the next few days.

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