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

Chapter 30

I asked as many of my guys as I could find whether anyone told the Forsaken about where to find this town. Most of them just stared at me blankly and shook their heads, some got pissed off that I was accusing them of being traitors. I came away from those exchanges reasonably sure this town is still a secret from the Devils. Then I spent the rest of the night making sure the guard detail was on point. Even though we’d locked down this town so many times before all of us could do it in our sleep.

In the end, I fell asleep leaning on one of the few trees on the hills overlooking the small town of Justice. I have no idea what it was originally called. I named it and it’s a very fitting name. Seeing as this is where I will finally get my justice.

The tree where I slept is an oak and at least five bodies are buried under it, going by the homemade, roughhewn tombstones which have all been weathered down to a smooth surface, whatever names they once bore now forever lost. That’s why I didn’t chop down this tree or remove these tombstones. Because it’s all that’s left of the people who built this town. And it’s kinda peaceful up here.

I have no idea where my parents ended up getting buried. Their families didn’t claim the bodies just as none of them wanted me, and my father’s MC brothers all went the way he had. I kinda like to think this is their gravesite. When I’m in a weird mood like today.

The cold of dawn woke me and ever since, I’ve been watching the half circle of white light rising from behind the hill at the back of the farmhouse where Eden is. I should go and get it all over with. As soon as I realized I’d fallen asleep and left her chained up all night, I wanted to rush back to the house. That urge sickened me to my core. And made me drown in doubt and things I can’t explain, even to myself.

That’s why I didn’t go. Why I stayed here to watch the sunrise thinking of nothing.

But now it’s time.

I rise and my legs feel like they’re made of lead as I walk to my bike. I roll it down the hill and to the front yard, because I need the exercise to warm me up, and also because the sound of a chopper this early in the morning would echo across the whole town and beyond. I don’t want to cause any kind of unwanted panic.

Scorpio’s bike is parked in front of the house and the door is unlocked. I find him sleeping on the dusty old sofa in the living room, a couple of empty bottles of bourbon on the floor beside him and the ornate coffee table littered with the remains of his dinner.

He calls this keeping watch on Eden?

But I’ll deal with him later. If I don’t go up to see her now, another day might go by before I try to again.

This house creaks if you breathe on it, but I still manage to not make very much noise as I climb to the first floor and walk down the hall to Eden’s bedroom. Light is coming through the crack beneath the door, but I can see that the black curtains are still covering the windows when I open it.

I don’t put two and two together right away. Until I do. The overhead light is on and Eden is sleeping peacefully in the huge bed, her long hair spread out all over the pillow, looking like some kind of princess under that fluffy white duvet. There’s no sign of the chain. And one of the nightstands is littered with the remains of her dinner.

I don’t slam the door on the way out, but I want to. I do remember to lock it though.

Downstairs, I have to punch Scorpio in the arm pretty hard before he finally wakes up.

“Did I say you could feed her?” I ask.

He’s sitting up, but has the worst trouble keeping his eyes open and focused on me.

“Or did I tell you to leave her chained up and hungry?”

He nods and reaches for the bottle on the floor beside his feet. “That second one.”

I yank the bottle from his hand. “No more drinking. You’re falling apart bad enough without being drunk all the time.”

He yanks the bottle back, glaring at me. “I’m not falling apart.”

“Yeah, you weren’t,” I say. “Until you saw her chained up… “

The look he’s giving me now is a lot of things. Anger predominately, but there’s lots of sadness mixed in too.

“You want her pissing and shitting all over herself up there, fine. It’s your show,” he says and stands up. “But fuck you for bringing all the rest of that shit up. We don’t talk about it.”

We did make that pact after I saved him from a house of horrors where a married couple kept him chained up for weeks. We were sixteen. I never knew exactly what went on in there, what they did to him, and made him do, but I know it was bad.

“If you can’t handle this part of the mission, you’re free to go help Razor keep the Devils off our scent in Roaring Brook,” I say calmly.

My anger at him went away with the memory of those long-gone days. I should’ve just kept him away from this part of the mission. But there’s no one I trust to keep the others away from Eden as much as I trust him.

His eyes are shooting lightning at me again. “You know, for someone who can read people as well as you can, you’re pretty dumb and blind when it comes to reading your own self.”

His voice is firmer and more controlled than I figured it could be.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

He shakes his head and sits back down to pull on his boots.

“You’ll figure it out,” he says. “Maybe you’re right, this is too much for me. You do your thing here and I’m gonna follow Razor to Roaring Brook. He’s gonna need the backup when the Devils come.”

“Yeah, good,” I say and watch him leave.

I hope it’s not for the last time. Because he’s not wrong. Roaring Brook will run with blood when the Devils arrive.

But we’re all ready to die for the cause that is revenge against the Devils. That, at least, has never been a question. But I have no idea why Eden’s role in all of it suddenly is.