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I shake my head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“I told Hawk about them and he’s getting back to me,” he says. “I also caved and checked in with Rook, admitting that we might be losing our grip on this job.”
“You what?”
The last thing I need to worry about is being seen as incompetent with the MC. With my bad discipline and blood lust issues I was just a bottom feeder for a long time, and I’d only just started to crawl out of that gutter.
“Relax,” Edge says. “Rook says the only things they know were told to them as bait, to see if they’d get out. He also said it’s better if they’re kept away from the clubhouse for now. So us staying at this Inn works for now. We even got the double duty of keeping an eye on Joker now.”
“And he’s still here on his own?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Seems that way. Though he knows a lot of people in there. Including these Forsaken Outlaws. I’m guessing he stays here often.”
I’d be worried about discussing this so openly, but between the noise from inside the bar and all the shouting, revving of bikes, puking and fighting in the parking lot, I can hardly hear what Edge is saying myself.
I peer in through the window again. Joker is playing poker with our brothers, two other guys and a woman I’ve never seen before. Her long blonde hair is braided close to her scalp like a Viking’s along her temples, but otherwise loose. She’s wearing leather riding pants and serious looking boots, but she ditched her riding jacket and is sitting there in just a white tank top that puts her boobs and tatted up arms front and center. Most bikers I know swear by scantily clad club girls, but a lot of them seem to be salivating over this blonde who looks like she can hold her own in any fight.
“Who’s the rider babe?”
Edge glances through the crack. “That’s Karma, one of the Forsaken Outlaws. The other two guys are Forsaken Outlaws too. Grim and Psycho. Why you asking about her? Didn’t you just spend the whole day with Ariel?”
His eyes are still shooting dark, angry lightning at me, so I’d prefer to keep Ariel out of this. Truth is, I don’t know exactly what happened between us today. But I know I want more. Sooner rather than later.
“Yeah, I did.”
“And don’t I know it,” he snaps, like he’s just been waiting for this opening. “On top of dealing with the ton of shit here, I’ve been getting calls all day asking if I know where the two of you are. Chance called literally five times. I don’t think he’s called me that many times in the last year. Couldn’t you check in?”
“I figured she had,” I say.
Though honestly the question of whether she told her sister—Chance’s girlfriend—where she was all day didn’t even cross my mind. In hindsight, it probably should’ve, given how everyone worries about her all the time. Figures they’d be ten times more worried after she freaked out today.
“So she’s fine?” he asks and I can’t tell if he’s mocking me or actually wants to know.
“She’s home.”
He scoffs. “You can tell me all about it later, I can see you want to. But now we need to plan our next moves here.”
“We go in and continue watching them,” I say. “What else can we do?”
“Joker’s been trying to get friendly with all of us,” Edge says. “By the looks of things, they don’t know each other from before, and I doubt our threesome are skilled enough actors to fake that. Plus, they’re drunk all the time. So I doubt they’re spilling secrets to him.”
I peer into the room again. The card game is still going strong and still looks peaceful enough. Although Bane is gnawing at his bottom lip, which is a sure sign he’s getting agitated.
“It’d be good to know who these Forsaken Outlaws are,” I say. “And whether we gotta worry about them.”
The way things stand after our recent victories in this war we’re fighting is that there’s a buffer zone in a radius of about thirty miles around Pleasantville and the MC’s HQ where we can be safe. We’re watching the borders, we’re keeping our ears to the ground and we’re only letting in people who we can be reasonably sure won’t come against us.
“Like I said, Hawk didn’t seem to know who they were.”
I scoff. “Doesn’t know? Or won’t tell us? I’m starting to wonder if this Joker guy is who they say he is too. He seems to be a bigger loser than Bane, Archer and Fossil put together. Drunk all the time. Passing out randomly and regularly. Playing cards and fucking in dirty rooms all day. And Hawk thinks he’s ready to lead the war against us? I fucking doubt it.”
The three pukers are now sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall. One of the guys eyes me as I say that last.
“What?” I bark at him. “You listening in on our private conversation?”
He raises his hands in surrender.
“No, nope, nothing like that. I heard nothing. Honest.” he slurs. “Just getting some air.”
