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

Chapter 38

My arm’s not just burning now, it’s also bleeding again. The cut on Eden’s forehead is bleeding too. Half her face is covered in blood, some dried, some fresh. And if I didn’t know it before, I know now. I’ll never be the cause of her bleeding.

She can barely stand but she’s tugging on my shirt and cut, trying to get them off to get to the source of my bleeding.

“Sit down, Eden,” I tell her.

I had to carry her the last few yards to the house and onto the sofa, but as soon as she opened her eyes again and saw the blood on my arm she was up, trying to tend to me.

“Don’t you have a doctor or something?” she asks. “Call him. You’re hurt.”

“So are you,” I tell her. “And as soon as the medic is done with Brick, he’s gonna see to you.”

“Let me see,” she insists. “I have to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.”

I can just tell she’s not gonna take no for an answer. She never seems to, anyway. So I do as she wants, take my shirt and cut off and then sit her down in my lap and let her clumsily press the shirt over the bleeding graze on my upper arm. It makes it hurt worse, but her soft body in my lap makes me feel good, so the two cancel each other out. Maybe the latter actually tips the scales towards good. Never in a million years did I imagine that would happen when I planned Mission Eden. So it’s no wonder I have no frame of reference to understand it now.

But one thing I do know.

Mission Eden is no longer about destroying her. Now it’s about keeping her. And for that, I need to speak to my men. Make them see it my way again. But after the shit Brick and the other two pulled tonight, I don’t know if I can.

“Thank you for saving me,” she says. “I’m sorry you got shot.”

“This isn’t from tonight. I got shot fighting your father and his friends,” I say. The fluttering gasp that escapes her lips and her wide eyes full of anguish as she looks up at me, hurt worse than taking a bullet.

“Is he… did you… “

“Kill him? No,” I say. “Not for lack of trying though. But you were right. The Devils are bulletproof.”

I’ll never have her while she loves them. Or while I hate them. I’ll never stop hating them. Or stop wanting her.

That circle of pain starts playing in my head and won’t stop. Not even having her in my lap is helping anymore.

“Let me go home,” she says. “Then the killing will stop.”

And that request hurts worse than a hail of bullets hitting my chest. And clears my head. If I let her go, I’ll never again have her. But I don’t have her now either. I’m just possessing her. And that’s not the same thing. Not by a long shot.

“How do you figure that, Eden?” I ask. “They’ll want revenge either way and they’ll come and get it. Like they always do.”

“You just want revenge too,” she says. “Isn’t that why I’m here?”

“It’s why you came here, yeah,” I say. Not why you’re gonna stay. But I don’t say that. We’re not on the same side. No amount of pretending will ever be enough to make me unsee that.

“I can convince them not to come after you,” she says. “Not to seek revenge.”

I scoff, amazed at the fact that a part of me actually wants her to try.

“All this killing,” she says. “All this blood and pain. It’s gotta stop. I want it to stop. Let it stop with me. Please.”

“Why would you do that?”

She stammers and recoils from my hard gaze. Anything she says will be a lie. Because that’s what women do. They lie. Especially Devil women. Which she is.

“Because I don’t want you to die. And I don’t want anyone else I love to die,” she says. “Because I think I love you.”

Fuck. If she’s lying right now, then she’s the most devious woman on the planet. A part of me really needed to hear that. But the saner part, the part that’s in control—thankfully—knows it can’t possibly be true. She’s just doing what all captives do. Sucking up to her kidnapper.

She just tried to run away a couple of hours ago. That’s how much she loves me. What the hell is wrong with me for even entertaining believing her words?

But she’s so damn sweet and pure and honest. She wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn’t know how to lie.

I’m getting nauseous from those thoughts that are bouncing from one extreme to the other, but I can’t shut them off.

“I won’t hurt you, Eden,” I say and that’s true on so many more levels than just the logical one. “And I can’t let you go.”

The medic, Sarge, and some of the others walk in before she can answer. Most of them are covered in blood.

“How’s Brick?” I ask.

“He’s gonna make it,” the medic, Stitcher, tells me. “Probably.”

“That’s good enough,” I say.

He comes to me, grimacing at my wound like he doesn’t like what he sees.

“Take care of her first,” I say, and I can just see he’s gonna argue, so I forestall it with, “I insist,” as I take her off my lap and place her on the sofa beside me.

I walk to Sarge who’s looking at me like the blood on his shirt is actually his and not that of his men.

“Call an Extended Family Meeting,” I tell him. That’s what we call it when I want all members in attendance. “I’ll be down as soon as I’m patched up. There’s a lot to discuss.”

“Like why she’s not a prisoner?”

I nod, no use denying it. “That and a whole bunch of other things. We have the Devils. They’re as good as destroyed.”

Behind me, Eden gasps again, making that pained sound that makes getting shot preferable to hearing it. But there’s no other way. I will spare her. Because I think that maybe I kinda sorta love her too.

But I will not spare her murdering family.

She’ll probably want to follow them in death. But I guess on that day, I’ll finally know if the words that came out of her mouth today were true or just lies.

I left her sleeping in the four-poster bed in the master bedroom, even though I wanted nothing more than to lie under the soft covers beside her and fall asleep too. But my MC is getting antsy. What Brick, Sonny, and Trip did tonight is just the tip of the iceberg.

Not everyone is back yet from the last battle, and some will never return. That needs to be commemorated too.

None of the buildings in Justice are big enough to fit all of us, so I’m holding the meeting in the dust of Main Street in front of the Saloon. It’s a mild night, smoke is rising from the few torches we’ve set up to give us some light. Everyone looks tired, including the hoes mixed in with my men.

I now know that Eden was able to run away tonight because some of our guys had returned from the battle and everyone was too interested to hear about what had happened to keep a proper watch on her.

I have their full attention, so I raise the bottle of bourbon I’m holding and spill some into the dust. “This is for our fallen brothers. Maybe they find the peace in death that they didn’t find in life. Once this is all over, we’ll ride for them.”

Many murmur agreements, some grumble and sound unsatisfied, but all raise whatever drink they’re holding, or even just their hands if they’re not, and salute our fallen brothers too.

“I know I haven’t been much of a leader lately,” I say once the noise of the crowd dies down again. “As you all know, I’ve always been single-minded in my pursuit of vengeance against the Devils. I promised you all that vengeance and now it’s time to deliver.”

Some voice agreement, others grumble again.

“But the plan has changed.”

That goes over about as well as I expected it to. A whoosh-like noise passes over the crowd, as though a strong gust of wind came out of nowhere. It’s followed by a couple of moments of dead silence. Then questions start raining down.

What changed? When are we attacking the Devils? When are we delivering Eden’s broken body back to them? Are we doing that?

That last one seems the loudest.

“You’re not giving the bitch back to the Devils, are you?” Razor asks from somewhere in the shadows.

“Obviously not,” Trip answers. “He wants her all to himself. Even shot Brick to save her.”

I figured we’d come to this and here we are. I wish I’d prepared words before I came here tonight. But it’s best to come clean, leave nothing unsaid now. It’s that kinda night. I don’t need preparation to do that.

“Yeah, I’ll be keeping her,” I say. “She’s mine, I claim her, and I’ll fight anyone who tries to take her.”

It feels nice saying that out loud. Kinda like taking a drink of cool, clear water on a hot summer day. Or more like after wandering the desert for days, weeks, months. Years.

But as good as it feels, it does not go over well with my men. They explode in outraged shouts, grunts, and yells. Even some of the hoes are cursing me out now. They might rush me at any moment and there won’t be much I can do about it.

“But none of that changes anything when it comes to the Devils,” I shout, speaking louder than the noise. “They’re still dead men walking. We will have vengeance!”

“How?” is the question that comes most often.

“Just because they don’t know they won’t get her back, doesn’t mean they won’t come to get her,” I say and watch the anger on their faces change to confusion. For the most part, anyway. Some remain enraged.

“The other MCs fighting the war have agreed to give me their allegiance and their men,” I say. “They’ll be arriving here over the coming days, ready to fight.”

They like hearing that. Good.

“Once they’re all here, I’ll tell the Devils where they can find Eden,” I say. “Right here, in Justice. Which we will get once they arrive.”

I pause again, for effect. No one is talking now. They’re hardly breathing.

“Just like we planned, we will lure them in via the one and only road,” I say. “They’ll be outnumbered three to one, maybe even four to one. And then our vengeance will rain down on them like fire from the sky.”

I blame all the books Eden made me read, while I was wooing her for this flowery language. But I don’t regret any of it.

“So tonight, we celebrate our fallen brothers,” I say. “And tomorrow we start planning our victory. Are you with me?”

I timed it well. They erupt in shouts of agreement.

“Make the Devils pay their debts,” echoes over the hills surrounding this town like a war song.

Not all join in, but most do. Enough do. And that’s all I’m gonna get for now.

Could be that some of them will never accept Eden. Could be that she won’t accept me after what is coming. But that’s a problem for another day.

Tonight is about celebrating all we’ve achieved after years of trying. And all we’re about to achieve.

It’s hard choosing between getting justice for my dead parents and keeping the woman I can’t stop thinking about. Even now, I’d still rather be lying in bed beside her.

But this way, I get both. And that too, is a thing worth celebrating.