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

Chapter 25

Tyler stayed in the uncomfortable back of the van with me for a long while. After promising I’ll correct the mistake of trusting him, I refused to speak to him. The bumpiness of the road was nearly unbearable at the start, but soon the road beneath the tires evened out and my nausea subsided. Not so the headache that started between my eyes when he woke me up and only got worse after everything that happened.

The near darkness of the back of the van helped. His presence did not. I ignored him and he gave up trying to speak to me after a few failed attempts. He then became just part of the darkness. Like he already always was. The darkness that will be my life now.

How could I have been so wrong about him?

He warned me so many times to stay away. Even rejected my advances. And like a total idiot I just kept pushing and pushing harder.

I should’ve known this was his plan all along. What guy that looks like him would ever be as interested in me as he pretended to be? Liking all the books I liked, taking me to see old black and white movies, smiling and laughing at all my weird ways?

I should’ve known it was all a lie.

I wish he was here now so could I tell him I know all that now and that I hate him.

But at one point the van stopped and he left me alone back here. I lunged after him and almost made it out to freedom. Right before he grabbed me and placed me back, laughing and telling me there’s nowhere to run anymore.

I hate him worse than I’ve ever hated anyone in my entire life. It passed through me like a surge of white-hot electricity, and if my hands were free, I’d gouge out his eyes. Or worse. Even if it were the last thing I ever did in this world.

I’m still seething that I didn’t get the chance to do it.

What I saw of the world when the van door opened told me nothing about where they were taking me. It was just an empty, desolate stretch of road, surrounded by desert and arid hills in the distance. We could be on our way to anywhere.

Once we were moving again, I tried kicking out the van’s back lights and calling for help by sticking my arm out, just like I was taught to do.

The lights won’t budge though, and I don’t think it would do me much good besides. I can hear the roaring of bikes all around us. It’s all those rough and gruff men that were in that parking lot with him. His MC brothers.

How could I have been such an idiot?

He showed all the signs of being an asshole and yet I naively believed he was harmless.

The next time I see him, he’ll also know I’m not as harmless as he seems to think I am.

I can be a killer too. Just like my father is. I just need him to let me out of this cage first.

Is this how my dad felt when he was held captive all those years? He’d been abducted too, made to fight in a cage for years in underground MMA fights and championships. He was the best of the best in those fights. But no one knew he wasn’t free to walk away. Until the Devils saved him.

They’ll save me too.

Knowing that is what’s keeping me from freaking out completely. Ruin saw who took me. Ariel did too. They’ll find me. They can find anyone. They always do.

And then they’ll give me Tyler’s head on a platter.

If I don’t take it for myself first.

The van slows, and the smooth road is replaced by a bumpy one again. My headache threatens to return by the time we roll to a complete stop.

The setting sun in the distance is a gorgeous bronze gold blanket over the horizon and its last rays pierce my darkness-acclimated eyes like jets of fire.

“Out you get,” Tyler says and helps me along by grabbing my arm and pulling me towards the edge of the van. Not hard, but not exactly gently either.

The ground beneath my feet is desert sand and dust is settling all around, sparkling in the golden light. We’re atop a hill, next to a two-story whitewashed Wild West-type wooden house, complete with a wraparound porch and curtains blowing in and out of windows.

Beneath us, a small town stretches into the distance. The town is surrounded by hills and the ones in the distance have snowcapped peaks. It’s some old gold rush mining town, it’s gotta be.

“Welcome to your new home,” he says, watching me watch the town. “How do you like it?”

I’ve never seen one so pretty and I hate myself for thinking that. All the leather-clad bikers walking along Main Street down there do take away from the quaintness of it all, but not by much.

Instead of answering, I just give him the ugliest look I can muster.

“Still mad at me? Maybe seeing the inside of the house will change your mood,” he says and drags me towards the porch by my arm. “It’s not quite Wuthering Heights level of fancy, but it’s a pretty nice house.”

I dig my heels into the sandy ground, which is somehow enough to stop him as well. He looks at me, a puzzled yet amused look on his face. I can’t believe I ever thought those cold eyes of his were pretty. They’re just ice. Immovable and terrible.

“You can drop the act now, Tyler… if that’s even your real name,” I say. “I know it was all a sick lie so I’d trust you. So stop pretending to be a nice guy and just get on with killing me.”

He laughs. “Such spice. As for killing you… that might come later, but I’m gonna have some fun first.”

He gives me one of those all over lust-filled looks that had me weak in the knees and soft in the head since we first met. To my horror, it still works. Despite knowing he’s just a monster, I still want to feel his lips on mine, his kisses on my skin, his cock… No!

I look at the distant hills, pretending as hard as I can that he’s not standing right beside me.

“And yes, my name is Tyler,” he says. “But everyone just calls me Joker these days. But you can still call me Tyler.”

“I think I’ll just call you Psycho,” I snap.

That makes him laugh. “Won’t work. Someone else is already called that. Now let’s go.”

And then he’s dragging me along again, up the wooden porch steps and into the house. It’s cooler inside than I imagined it’d be, and the hardwood floor feels very pleasant beneath my bare feet. The front door opens into a foyer dominated by a curved wooden staircase leading into the upper floor. To the right is a salon with huge windows overlooking the hills in the distance, and to the left is a dining room. I suppose the kitchen is in the back.

I don’t get to find out because it’s up the stairs he drags me. And to a bedroom that’s about the size of my apartment, complete with a massive wooded four poster bed, two matching nightstands, a dresser, and a wardrobe. There’s also a writing desk, a vanity table, a love seat and two armchairs and a bookcase. An empty bookcase—the saddest thing in the world.

I think the windows would overlook the town and the hills, but I don’t know because they’re covered by thick blackout curtains. The room is lit only by a chandelier that gives off an old-timey yellowish light and looks like it’s been here since this house was new. All the furniture looks that way, actually.

“So, how do you like your new home?” he asks.

I turn to face him. “I hate it as much as I hate you.”

He doesn’t like that one bit. The ice in his eyes seems to give off cold as it hardens.

He grabs the chain binding my arms and neck and yanks on it, pulling me closer so our faces are almost touching. The links are digging into my flesh painfully and I should be afraid. Why are my nipples tingling and my pussy pulsing instead?

Must be the alcohol that’s still not out of my system.

Or maybe I’m crazy.

“You’ll hate me a lot worse when I’m done with you,” he says. “So try to pace yourself.”

And with that, he steps away, yanks on the chain again and pulls me towards the four-poster bed. Before I even know what’s happening, he chains me to one of the four pillars.

“Sit,” he commands.

I just give him another nasty look.

He doesn’t like that at all either. His eyes are positively shooting icy shards now.

“Or stand,” he says. “I don’t give a fuck.”

He strides to the door.

“So what now? You’re just gonna keep me chained up like a dog in here?”

By rights I should want to be alone so I could figure out how to escape, but I suddenly don’t want him to leave.

“For now,” he says and grins coldly over his shoulder. “Until you learn how to behave again, at least.”

I meet him with hateful silence again. And after piercing me with his glacial eyes for a few more seconds, he leaves the room, turning off the overhead light, and slamming and locking the door.

I ease myself down onto the floor by the bed. The length of the chain he bound me with is barely long enough for that and I have to hold my arms up at an uncomfortable angle. But I don’t care. Pain is better than thinking about the pleasure I still want him to give me. There must be something seriously wrong with me for even thinking that. Because when he’s here, I’m strong and defiant. But with him gone, I’m just afraid. Petrified actually.

The intense hatred of Tyler kept me warm and brave while he was near, but now the darkness is like velvet all around me and it kind of feels like I’m dead already. I try not to think that, but being chained up in the dark, in a strange room in a strange town, like I am it’s very hard to hold on to hope.

My eyes soon adjust to the dark. Golden sunlight is valiantly trying to permeate the blackout curtains and somewhat succeeding. Even this darkness can’t keep the glorious light of the sun out.

That’s what I must be now. The sun. The strong, blazing sun, hot enough to penetrate any darkness and pierce through even the coldest ice.

I have to make him see me as a person. That’s my only way out of this. But how can I do that when I now hate him ten times more than I used to like him?