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

Chapter 6

Step one of Mission Eden is complete. I met her. It’s going well. I wasn’t prepared for just how vibrant, innocent yet hot she’d be in real life. But I blame that on my lack of getting any for the last couple of months. I’ve been too focused on reeling her in and putting the pieces of the plan into place to even think about women and we hadn’t brought any of the club hoes with us down here. But moving in to Hearts Fire Inn should take care of that right quick. There’s bound to be plenty of ass free for the taking at that place.

Speaking of ass, Eden’s is just about perfect. The good girl dress she’s wearing isn’t doing it justice, but then again nothing could really hide its glory. When I first hatched the plan to get back at Ice through one of his twin daughters, I was happy to find out they were a couple of beauties. It’d have been much harder to go through with it if they’d been ugly. But then again, what woman her age is truly ugly? Fresh blooms and all that.

I’m letting her walk about a step ahead of me down the sunny street of this colorful hippie town. To be honest, all the yellow and blue and white around here, coupled with the bright sunshine is making me slightly nauseous. But focusing on Eden and her perfect curves helps. She fits right in here, with her big smile and sparkling green eyes. But I’m sure there’s darkness in her somewhere. And not just in her hair that’s flowing like dark chocolate down her back. I’ll enjoy pulling that darkness out and seeing what she does with it.

“So what’s your favorite kind of pie?” she asks, smiling at me over her shoulder as we stop in front of the pie place, her perfect teeth gleaming and her eyes catching the sun, making them sparkle the way a forest does when the sun penetrates it.

There’s a line outside the pie shop and at least ten people crammed into the small space that I can see. The place is called Cherry on Top and that sounds about right. Eden is definitely the cherry on top of this plan of mine, the plan I’ve been working on since I was old enough to understand revenge is something you can take.

“To be honest, I’m not much of a pie person,” I say. “Never had anyone to make it for me.”

Overshare. Gotta be careful with that.

Her eyes cloud over for a moment, but in the next she smiles and they’re bright with sunlight again. “So it’s a good thing I brought you here. You don’t know what you’ve been missing and you’re about to find out. I suggest we start with cherry.”

I can’t help but crack a grin too. The way she smiles is contagious. “Cherry it is.”

I wonder if her cherry’s been popped yet. I don’t think it has. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

“You’ll love it,” she assures me and moves up a step in line as a family of three come out, carrying three large white boxes, presumably filled with pies. Mom, dad, and a son. I’m glad for the reminder of what my childhood could’ve been—and why I never got pie growing up—if it weren’t for Eden’s father. Because her smiles are doing things to me that they shouldn’t. Or more like, that I shouldn’t allow.

I give her a once over again, my eyes catching on her full breasts and round ass, as they would. “You don’t look like you eat a lot of pie though.”

She laughs, the sound reminding me of birds singing in the morning, for some reason. “I eat plenty of it. The only thing saving my ass is that I’ll forget to eat when I’m deep into a book. And I mean that literally.”

Deep into… ass… and those sparkling full lips of hers. Does she know what she’s saying? And what it’s doing to me? I’ve been half hard since I first saw her and it’s getting worse. If she were any other woman, I’d be eating that pie off her naked body in a motel room somewhere, which we wouldn’t leave for days. We’d probably be skipping the pie altogether.

Another family laden with boxes comes out of the store and now we’re practically next in line. Good.

“I thought you said you were in these parts visiting family,” she says, some doubt creeping into her eyes. That’s what I’ll get for telling her actual personal things and not staying completely focused on this mission.

“Not actual family. More like the places where my family is from.”

I do probably have some family in these parts. My mom was from North Cali. But fuck them. None of them wanted me when I was a six-year-old orphan and I hope they’re all dead by now.

“Oh, yeah? Where’s that?”

“A little town called Justice, you heard of it?”

She shakes her head. “Can’t say that I have. But what an interesting name… I bet some big Wild West shootout happened there, or something.”

I catch the door as another couple of people carrying boxes leave the pie shop. “Could be. It’s in the middle of the desert.”

“Oh, I don’t like the desert,” she says as she walks into the shop.

She won’t like it any better after I show her the town of Justice. It’s where my MC’s headquarters are and where I’ll take her once I’m done getting her to trust me. That’s why it was stupid telling her the name of the town. But even if she goes searching for it, she won’t find it, since it’s not on any map.

The pie shop smells delicious, of cinnamon, apple, cherries, and buttery crust baked to perfection. And as she waltzes over to the counter with a huge smile on her face and cheeks the color of ripe cherries, I just know I’ll always associate those scents with her from now on. Good thing I don’t like pie or sweet things.

“What will it be?” the woman behind the counter asks. A ridiculous old school chef’s hat is resting lopsided on her head, kinda matching the smile on her face. She’s being nice and friendly, but I can tell she’s fed up with the endless stream of people wanting pie. It’s all in the eyes. And hers tell me this is not where she expected to end up in life.

Eden is blissfully oblivious to all that as she chats with her, asking how her day’s been and which pies the lady would recommend. All that sweetness makes even the fed-up lady’s eyes light up somewhat as they go over the menu.

“We’ll take one of each.” Eden glances at me, grins and pulls me closer by wrapping her arm under mine. “He says he’s not that into pie, but I’m gonna change his mind today.”

I nearly stumbled from the sheer shock of her touching me out of the blue like that. The lady thinks that’s a great idea and proceeds to load up two boxes with a slice of every kind of pie they offer, rattling off the different flavors as she goes—pecan, cherry, apple, pumpkin, rhubarb, peach, apricot, chocolate, and on and on.

Eden orders us a couple of scoops of the vanilla ice cream on top of all that, then has me carry it all while she pays. Scorpio and the rest of my inner circle would be on the floor laughing if they saw me right now. And some of our other members, the ones I don’t know so well, would probably take me out back and shoot me in the head, thinking I’ve lost it and need to be put out of my misery.

But fuck it. If pie and ice cream and letting her pay is what it takes to win her trust, then so be it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you in there,” she says as she holds the door for me so we can exit.

“You didn’t.”

“I just thought, since you didn’t have a big family… and didn’t get a chance to enjoy pie until now…” she says and blushes even harder. “I just thought I’d fix that.”

Wow, she’s trying to make me feel better. I knew words can pack a punch, but not like this. Must be the smell of all this pie I’m carrying making me all sentimental though, not her sweet girl words. I never had any time for sweet, soft girls. They’re boring. Like vanilla ice cream. But damn if a part of me didn’t react to her kindness just now.

But what the fuck do I care?

Once I’m done with her, she won’t have any of that kindness left. So it’s good I let her use it while she still can.