53. Delilah
Chapter fifty-three
I giggle as Joker leans his entire body weight onto the vacuum bag, forcing the air out of the duvet and pillow packed inside.
I’d packed my clothes and a singular blanket from my storage room nest before Joker lost his mind and brought me to the nesting room and insisted I pack more of the things I’ve squirreled away in the nest. We filled one full duffel bag each, now we’re working on packing as much of the nest into the tote as we can.
“How the hell are we going to fit all this stuff in the van?” I ask in disbelief, hearing footsteps passing by the open door to the nest.
“It’s bigger than you think,” Joker says with a suggestive smirk.
I roll my eyes, but let out a soft laugh, purposefully glancing at his crotch. “I know exactly how big it is.”
Joker laughs at my quip before rolling more onto the bag to force more air out. “It’ll fit, I promise. Well…that already has. But we’ve got things sorted with packing, love. This isn’t our first time moving house.”
I frown thoughtfully, pausing as I fold a blanket to look at him. “Why are we doing all this? Once we lose Tyler, why can’t we come back here?”
“Because this location is compromised.”
I jump as Phantom’s voice comes from the doorway behind us, and I whip around, eyes wide.
He’s still looking tired and stern, and my heart skips a little, remembering his promise from earlier this morning.
I’m not sure what to expect from his punishment, and the anticipation is killing me.
But I force myself to focus on the current conversation and not the anxiety in my belly.
“He’s right. The used cum rag knows about this location and could just as easily come back here to find us again, or worse, tip off the police to this location. Which is why we’re going scorched earth,” Joker adds, voice lifting with noticeable excitement toward the end.
“And what does that mean?” I ask, though I have a fairly decent idea what it could mean if Joker is this excited.
Joker laughs maniacally, and I can’t help but smile. Yeah, that’s about all the confirmation I need. Whatever plan is rattling around in that ginger head of his is going to be something to behold.
Once he calms down he looks at me with a patronizing smile. “Don’t you worry your pretty head one bit, my little wisp. The next house we’re going to is even nicer than this one,” he says, even patting the top of my head lightly for emphasis.
“How many houses do you guys even have?” I ask, speaking the question as it occurs to me.
Phantom hums thoughtfully. “Six? Eight? I can’t remember. Siren would know better, since they manage our assets.”
My eyes go wide and my jaw goes a little slack. “H-How?”
Phantom chuckles, sliding his hands into his pockets casually. My heart skips a beat as the motion causes his biceps to flex. Joker shoots me a knowing look, and I roll my eyes, cheeks heating.
“We sell the data we get from our raids on the black market and the dark web. And it’s safer to have our wealth tied up in assets like real estate and shell companies. Harder to trace back to us,” Phantom explains.
I nod thoughtfully. “Is that why you guys raided Love Wins? To get more data to sell?”
Phantom’s eyes shift to Joker for a moment, some silent but brief conversation happening between them. But after a moment, Phantom sighs, his shoulders dropping slightly.
“We raided Love Wins to shut down a trafficking ring. We’ve been doing similar raids all over the country for years. Or at least Bones and I have,” Phantom says, suddenly serious.
“It’s how they found me,” Joker says casually, dropping the now flatten vacuum bag into the tote before flopping onto the next one.
I suck in a sharp breath, my heart aching. “You…you were…”
“Picked up and sold to the highest bidder? Yep. How do you think someone with this glorious accent ended up all the way across the pond?” Joker says, laughing at his own joke.
But neither Phantom nor I laugh. My heart aches for him, only imagining the horrors he must have seen in his life.
“I’m sorry, Joker,” I whisper empathetically.
Joker’s expression sobers as he looks up at me, his smile softening. “It’s okay, luv. I’m here and I made it out mostly okay. Can’t say the same for the bastards who omega-napped me but…” He trails off with a false grimace before laughing at something again.
I turn and look at Phantom with a confused pinch to my brow. But I find the alpha pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, exasperated.
“When we did our raid, we expected to find armed guards, alarms, the whole production. But instead we find a particular omega guarding the rest, covered in blood, shooting his mouth off like he had bullets for breakfast,” Phantom explains flatly, his accent coming forward slightly.
Joker laughs out loud, a hand coming up to his chest as he cackles. “Your cornbread is showing, mate.”
Phantom rolls his eyes, but his smirk is fond. I look between them, half alarmed and half amused.
“You killed…” I whisper, a little hoarse.
Joker looks up at me smiling. “Twenty-two rapist scumbags and omega traffickers. Save your pity for the omegas who were being sold off like cattle. The real victims.”
I mouth the number, looking down at my lap.
I knew these men were dangerous; I would be fooling myself if I tried to think otherwise.
But Joker taking out nearly two dozen people on his own, presumably mostly alphas, put him in a new light.
Not a bad light, but it does make his behavior make more sense.
But I remember how he saved me from the facility, specifically when he shielded me from watching him kill more people.
“You know I’d never hurt you, right? None of us would,” Joker says, voice suddenly very close.
I look up and find Joker kneeling in front of me, our knees practically touching. He takes my hands in his and brings one then the other to his lips, kissing my knuckles tenderly. I melt a little, nodding softly.
“We only hurt bad people, and you are the furthest thing from that, beautiful,” Joker goes on, dropping his voice to just above a whisper. “But I won’t hesitate to kill or hurt anyone who has ever or will ever hurt you.”
“Same here, baby doll,” Phantom agrees from across the room.
I nod, smiling despite myself. Joker’s scent is bright and sweet, honey and expensive vanilla swirling around me like playful tendrils of smoke.
I believe them, and instead of making my instincts light up with fear, I find myself relaxing, trusting them.
I realize then how much anxiety I’d been holding onto about this mission, how I’d been worried about Tyler hurting them to get to me.
But now I understand how capable these people are, and my stomach unclenches from the tight knot it’s been in since last night.
“Why are we standing around? We are going wheels up in an hour twenty. Let’s go.”
Bones’s voice from the hallway makes me jump slightly, but Phantom chuckles, throwing him a sarcastic ‘Yes, Alpha’ before winking at me and Joker and moving off down the hallway back to his room. But Joker keeps hold of my hands and pulls me toward the bathroom.
“What are you doing? We already packed there,” I ask skeptically.
Joker pulls me into the bathroom and closes the door behind me before pushing me up against it with a low rumbling purr.
“We’ve got an hour twenty left. And when I’m done with you, we’ll still have an hour and ten to finish packing and get ready.”
I laugh, throwing my head back before Joker leans in and cuts me off with a fierce kiss, melting away any resistance I might have had.