Chapter 34
34
Scorpio
Damn Joker and his dumb jokes. He almost got killed and all he did was laugh when I told him to be more careful. I literally saw his life ending right in front of my eyes, while being too far to do anything to stop it, and he just laughed. Then he told me it’s all fine, because we’re moving to phase two of the plan tomorrow.
I’m still reeling from all that as I climb the narrow, steep stairs up to the room I’m sharing with Karma and Grim. Still seeing Joker almost die. Never mind that it’d be the end of all his well-laid plans for our revenge. We haven’t been apart for more than a week or two in the past sixteen years. I don’t know how I’d survive his death. Not well.
Karma and Grim are both still wearing their riding gear when I walk into the room. Grim is sitting on the edge of the unmade bed, and Karma is standing by the window, her arms wrapped tightly over her chest. They both hone in on me, blue laser heat and Karma’s not much softer gaze.
“What is going on here?” I ask as I slam the door shut. “I’m in no mood for another one of our serious conversations.”
The bottle of whiskey on the nightstand is calling my name. After I answer that call, I’m coming one way or another and then falling asleep, and that’s the sum total of my plans for tonight. I have no illusions that the sleep will be restful. Or that I’m getting any, judging by their serious faces.
“I didn’t fucking ignore you down there,” I tell Grim, who seems very pissed off. I figure this is the reason. “But we’re not supposed to be besties where anyone can see.”
“I’d say we were past just besties, wouldn’t you?” he says in that calm, deep voice of his that never fails to get every hair on my body to rise and makes me want to do whatever he wants.
I grin at him, walk over, and run my hand along the back of his wide neck. “Yeah, I’d say we were way past besties too.”
Maybe this is all we need to calm the hell down after tonight and get on with what we do best—making each other come like there’s no tomorrow. Which there suddenly isn’t if what Joker said is true.
His eyes lose some of the piercing heat and his cock is definitely more than half hard already. I’m just about to kneel down and make it all the way hard for him, when Karma asks, “Are you planning on abducting that girl Joker’s been dating? Is that his big plan for getting revenge on the Devils?”
The questions nearly knock me on my ass, driving all thoughts of blow jobs and pleasure from my mind.
I have no idea how to answer her, so I just stare at her blankly. It’s all the answer she needs.
“I knew it,” she says, stalking over to me and jabbing her long finger into my chest. “And what are you gonna do? Kill her? Torture her? Rape her?”
She punctuates each accusation with a sharp jab at my chest and I hate it.
“How the fuck do you know?”
Grim inhales sharply and Karma’s face drains of all color.
“We didn’t,” Grim says. “Not until you just confirmed it.”
How dumb am I? But what the hell, I’m done lying to them. If there’s any kind of future for us on the other side of the war we’re entering tomorrow, they’ll need to be by my side.
“You’re planning on torturing an innocent woman?” Karma asks. Her voice sounds like someone’s gripping her throat.
“That’s the plan, yeah,” I say and she grows paler still.
“But that’s not what’s gonna happen,” I say. “Joker’s got feelings for her. And, besides, he’s not big on hurting women.”
Karma scoffs. “Could’ve fooled me. He went after Ariel pretty hard downstairs.”
I sit down next to Grim, who’s as stiff as a board beside me. I don’t even know what I was hoping for from sitting next to him. Protection from Karma’s blinding rage, I think.
“I admit it was tactless and stupid,” I say. “But she was a pretty serious whore up until a couple of years ago. She cleaned up good though.”
I didn’t think Karma could grow angrier, but the rage in her eyes feels like bullets hitting my chest now.
“What? I got nothing against whores,” I say. “I was raised by one, remember? And was one for a while.”
I’m trying to diffuse the situation, but I just keep making it worse going by the growing rage on Karma’s face.
“Look, nothing’s gonna happen to any innocent woman,” I say. “We’re taking her tomorrow and you’re coming with us, so you can make sure of that.”
Grim laughs harshly. “And you think the two of us are gonna stop Joker? Or are you saying you’ll help us stop him?”
His words propel me back to my feet. I thought his silence so far meant that he was on my side in trying to calm Karma down. Another thing I misjudged.
“The plan is what it is and it’s happening,” I tell them. “You’re coming too, so you better make your peace with it quick.”
Karma crosses her arms even tighter around her chest and glares at me. “We’re not gonna be a part of torturing and killing of women. How can you be on board with this?”
She glances at my wrists and I fight the urge to hide my hands behind my back.
“What do you mean?”
I know what she means. But my other options here are either to talk about my worst memories some more or storm out and end this conversation that way. Both of those options are shit. The trip down memory lane got a little easier since I shared it with them and I don’t want to spoil that. And I need them with me when we leave here because I don’t think I can actually, physically leave them behind. If they don’t agree to come, I might just stay with them, and that won’t do at all.
Honesty it is then. It’ll probably take no less than that to wipe that angry glare off Karma’s face.
I sit back down on the bed and run my fingers through my hair. Then I glance at both of them, and look out the window, at the trees I know are there in the darkness. Trees hiding the campsite where so much changed. I want to visit that place with them again. And all other places.
“I don’t like Joker’s plan any more than you do,” I say. “But he came up with it for me… because of what happened to me after the Devils killed my family.”
The silence that follows my words is as thick as a wall.
Finally, Karma clears her throat and it sounds like bricks cracking. “Tell Joker you don’t want that kind of revenge then. He’ll listen to you.”
I shrug. “It’s a good plan. It’ll hurt the Devils in ways just war and death never could.”
Losing one of their most precious daughters will destroy them. And they have no hope of finding her after we snatch her. Because the place we’re taking her to doesn’t exist on any map.
“But she’s innocent,” Karma says, her voice taking on a pleading tone, all anger gone. She walks over to me, the floorboards creaking under her boots, the dust she’s raising making my nose itch. “She didn’t do anything to you. She’s not the reason for all the bad things that happened to you.”
Grim has gone completely silent and still again. But I won’t make the mistake of thinking that means he’s seeing things from my point of view.
“I was innocent too,” I say. “I was five years old when they killed my father and older brothers. Joker was six when they killed his mom and dad right in front of him. They were willing to sacrifice us to get their revenge. This is just giving them a taste of their own medicine. That’s how I see it, anyway.”
Karma sits down next to me, so I got one to either side of me now. She takes my hand, has to pull hard to get to it, because I was clutching my palms together hard and didn’t even know it.
“You don’t see it that way. You know it’s wrong,” she insists. But she’s wrong.
Sometimes I don’t see it that way. Sometimes I do. And the sum total of that has been that I haven’t mentioned any of it to Joker. I’ve just let him get on with the plan.
“Lots of things are wrong,” I say. “It was wrong for us to have to pay for the sins of our fathers. It was wrong that my father’s whore decided to try and raise me… she should’ve just left me in some orphanage. I was a cute kid… someone would’ve adopted me and I probably wouldn’t have remembered anything about my past.”
“Or she was right to do it,” Grim says.
“Sure, maybe,” I say. “At least she taught me how to survive on my own. And she’s about to get her revenge for the thing that destroyed her life too, even though she did nothing to deserve it. She probably wouldn’t have gotten beaten to death by some john if the Devils hadn’t killed my father and all the other men of Satan’s Spawn MC. So you could say she was innocent in all this too.”
Karma and Grim are both very quiet. If Karma wasn’t still holding my hand I’d think they were both gone. They probably already are. Checked out. Don’t want anything to do with me or any of this.
“And we all deserve our revenge. Just like Ice and the Devils deserved it against our families. Just like you two deserved it against the ones who killed Reaper.”
Karma inhales sharply and Grim seems to be holding his breath. Maybe I finally said the right thing.
“Those guys had families too,” I add just to drive the point home. “So you could say their kids will deserve to get their revenge on you too. If they want it.”
Karma squeezes my hand tighter and that’s the only response I get. Check mate, I guess. Or whatever that position in chess is called where there are no good moves left, but you’re not defeated yet. This is worse than being defeated, so I understand their silence.
Grim slides closer to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. Maybe it’s not worse. As long as you’re still kicking there’s hope.
“You’ve given this a lot of thought,” he says and I nod, leaning on him while I still can.
“There’s no good answers,” I say. “But I can tell you that Joker cares about this woman. And as soon as he realizes it, he won’t be able to hurt her. I think he probably already knows that.”
Whether he can stop the others from doing it is another matter though. Every last member of our MC has an axe to grind with the Devils and they’ll all want a piece of Eden to get it done. But we can figure that out when we get to it.
Karma interlaces her fingers with mine. “I never saw it that way. But I still hate it. I hope you’re right about Joker.”
I chuckle, finding it amazing that I can still laugh after all that. It feels good. “I usually am. He’s not a bad guy. He just wants everyone to think he is. And he’s good at playing the part.”
“Well, he sure fooled us,” Grim says, sounding skeptical. He takes his arm from around my shoulders. “But I think it’s time to stop talking about Joker now.”
He slides his hand under my t-shirt, brushing his callused hand over my stomach as he pulls it up. The sparks of lust it causes fire away at the darkness left by our conversation. I take my shirt off but stop him when he clutches my belt buckle while already nuzzling my neck.
“You know how you like to hold me down when we’re fucking?” I ask. “I don’t like that.”
Most of the blood has now drained from my brain to my cock. That’s probably why I thought it’d be a good idea to bring this up now. Or maybe it’s all the honesty flying around. Or maybe it’s just because he was talking shit about Joker.
He stops kissing me but keeps his hand on my belt. It was probably a bad idea to stop him from doing what he wanted. I’m sick of talking too.
“You know why I do that?” he asks hoarsely, his blue laser eyes burning straight into my brain.
“Yeah, I do. It’s so I won’t move away from you,” I say. “But it just makes me want to kill you.”
He freezes for a split second, his eyes still burning, but they’re hard like ice now. Then he slides his hand up my stomach again, leaving goosebumps in his wake. So maybe I didn’t fuck this up. “I’m sorry to hear that. I just want you to feel good.”
“I know, that’s why I let it happen,” I say, hoping there’s still a way to backtrack from this hard conversation.
“You’re right, I do it to stop you from moving. But not in the way you think.”
Oh, this is gonna be good.
He leans down, his hot breath on my neck making me shiver. “It’s because I can’t get enough of you. And I never want to be far from you.”
I gasp at that, the thousand sarcastic comebacks to whatever he came up with gone like so many soap bubbles.
Karma climbs into my lap and hugs us both. “Aww, I like this so much. I love you both.”
And she proceeds to kiss us both on the cheek. I suppose I could say I feel the same way. It’d be the truth.
But instead I say, “So you’re coming with me tomorrow?”
Which is basically the same thing as saying I love them.
“Yeah, we’re coming,” Grim says and Karma nods and I don’t remember being this happy, ever. Which given the past few weeks with them, is saying a lot.
Now I just gotta convince Joker this is happening. Which might not be the easiest thing in the world. But that’s tomorrow’s problem. Right now, all I gotta do is show them how much I love them both too, even if I can’t say it yet.