Eden's Joker (Devil’s Nightmare MC Next Generation, Book 7)

Chapter 4

The ride out to the desert to take those selfies for Eden, and film a few videos for good measure, cleared my head. The sun on my face was nice too. I’ve been spending too much time cooped up in our woodland bunker, strategizing and plotting. And anxiously awaiting the day I can start putting my lifelong dream into action.

But now only two days separate me from it.

I have my inner circle of brothers crammed into the makeshift office on the top floor of the main compound building. It’s one of the rare rooms with a window. A small one and it’s dirty. All I see through it is just trees upon trees. After the day on the open road, it’s not enough. I need to get out on the road more. As soon as this business is done, I’m gonna just ride for a while. The way I did in the beginning, before I set these wheels of my revenge into motion.

One of the plastic deck chairs they’re all sitting in creaks and groans, bringing me back to the present.

“Is there a reason we’re all here?” Sarge asks. “Some of the guys are getting antsy from being cooped up here. I should be downstairs, breaking up fights and whatnot.”

“Yes, I have a reason,” I tell him.

As his name suggests, he’s our Sarge—a guy well used to the role from the years he spent in the army performing this same job. That was before I found him and proposed revenge.

He joined the Army after the Devils killed off most of his family as killers for hire way back before I was even born. A job they probably don’t remember anymore, seeing how many jobs just like that one they took on over the years. Sad how something that can change the course of your whole life can be a forgettable thing. But that doesn’t matter. We’re gonna settle that score for good now. And then forget all about them.

“You forgot to tell us the reason for this family meeting,” Scorpio pipes up.

Family meeting is what we call church, because I thought it was more fitting given that we’re all one big family of orphans. He may be joking, but Scorpio’s no longer in a very good mood. Whatever he was on this morning must’ve worn off.

“Mission Eden is starting in two days,” I say. “I made plans with Eden for this weekend.”

“Finally,” Scorpio says.

The rest just sort of grumbled and I can feel a certain level of displeasure in the room. Several here think we should just grab her and get the mission done sooner rather than later. But we’ve already had this talk about why my way is better and they’re loyal. So there’s no need to call anyone out or explain it all again.

“So basically, we’re only on if she decides she likes you,” Scorpio says. He really is in a foul mood.

“I still say we snatch her as soon as we can,” Razor says. “Have her meet you somewhere secluded and she’s ours.”

He’s our intel officer and he’s been the most vocal in disagreeing with Mission Eden as I’ve envisioned it. He’s all for taking her, just not with the whole wooing her first so she’ll come with me willingly part.

I turn away from the window and take a seat in one of the remaining plastic chairs. “We could. And we might still have to. But it’s like with butchering animals. The meat always tastes best when they don’t know they’re about to die. That’s how it’s gonna be with Eden if she comes willingly. She’s so soft and innocent. We don’t want to spoil that ahead of time.”

They all chuckle at that.

“You got a dark mind, I’ll give you that,” Scorpio says. “But that’s nothing new.”

He sounds like his mood might be improving. I fully intend to share Eden with the rest of them once I’m done with her and they all know it.

“So the plan’s simple,” I say. “I’ll relocate to that dump, the Fire Heart Inn, tomorrow. I want ten guys with me at all times just in case, but they’re not to reveal that we know each other.”

Sarge nods, since he’ll be in charge of that. “I’ll make sure they understand that.”

I turn to Razor. “I’ll need to know as much as you can tell me about the Devils’ movements while I’m out in the open.”

He nods. “Consider it done.”

“And me?” Scorpio asks when I don’t give him a task right away.

“You’ll be with me at the Inn,” I say. “I expect to be fully in the wind, so I don’t blow my cover with Eden. You’ll be making sure nothing goes wrong.”

“How about I run the place here?” he asks sullenly.

I don’t often relinquish full control to him. In fact, he often complains that he’s just my arm candy around here. He’s kind of right. Except that arm candy in his case means a one-man personal hit squad and bodyguard. I trust him to have my back unconditionally, come what may. And he knows this.

“The Inn’s where I need you,” I say, willing him to not argue the point.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he says. “You don’t do well on your own. You need me to be your conscience, for one thing.”

I hate this added proof that he’s not fully on board with my plan. Maybe he’s just mad that I’m not leaving him in charge here. I’ll have words with him about that later, when we’re alone.

We go over the whole plan one more time and then I let them go. Night has fallen outside, pitch black the way it can only get in an out-of-the-way forest. I was never a huge fan of the dark, probably because I have too much of it inside me. But it’s fitting now. Because the dawn is always brightest after the darkest night. And in a few days’ time, my dawn will come. Along with the revenge I’ve lived for.

The Devils really should’ve killed me along with my parents that day. Their mistake.