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“What the hell’s going on with you?” Edge asks. “Did hanging out with Bane and the rest make you wanna be just like them again?”
That accusation feels like a slap across the face. A sobering one.
“Not on your life,” I say. “So what’s been happening? Did I miss something? I figured you could keep watch over four hungover dudes for the day.”
Edge shakes his head again and looks like he’s trying real hard not to roll his eyes. Good. Because he looks like a spoiled brat when he rolls his eyes.
“I had no problems with Bane, Archer, or Fossil for a change. They haven’t been awake for long,” he says. “But Joker’s been gone for the whole day. He only just got back with his hair freshly braided and carrying a book.”
“What did he do, spend the day at the library?”
I can’t help but laugh at my own joke. Edge doesn’t find it amusing.
“It was some romance book,” he says. “Like the ones Eden likes to read.”
“OK,” I say, clearing my throat from all the laughing. “That is a little weird. I didn’t have him pegged as a romance reader.”
“What if he’s stalking Eden or something?”
The thought gives me pause. And definitely doesn’t make me want to laugh. I owe Eden’s father Ice my life, me and Edge both do. I’d protect his daughters with my life, and I’m sure that goes double for Edge, seeing as he’s now dating one of them. But what if we already fucked up on that count?
“I’m sure Ice is keeping a close watch on Eden,” I say. “They’ve got the town locked down pretty tight.”
“Yeah, I’m not so ready to bank on that,” he says. “I’m going into town to make sure everything’s fine there.”
He strides towards his bike and I don’t try to stop him. In fact, I want to join him. But Joker can give me answers right here. And I can make sure he doesn’t go anywhere before Edge comes back with what will hopefully be good news.
I doubt anyone back in Pleasantville is in any danger. Even before Summer was kidnapped not long ago, the town was locked down by Devil’s Nightmare MC. I’m sure security is tight. And I’m also sure Edge just wants an excuse to go see Summer. I can’t blame him for that, and I don’t. I just wish this mission was over and we could go back to our regularly scheduled lives. I think I’m gonna try and speed things along tonight.
Edge wasn’t exaggerating when he said Archer, Bane, and Fossil were barely awake. In fact, the first two are napping against the table as I walk into the stuffy bar, while Fossil is sitting upright, but seems to be sleeping with his eyes open. Cigarette smoke, old and new, is thick in the air, but not masking all the other scents I’d rather not be smelling. Like piss and vomit and blood. And wood that no one’s ever washed since it was used to build this place.
“You look all fresh,” Fossil says as I join them at the table. “How’s that possible?”
Joker is sitting at the next table over, seemingly engrossed in that romance book Edge was talking about. But he looks at me over the top of it like he would really like the answer to that question too.
“People to see, things to do,” I say and sit in one of the chairs in a way that allows me to watch them all.
“What people?” Fossil asks. “What things?”
Bane raises his head too, and now only Archer is oblivious to me. The rest would really like to know more, it seems.
“If I thought you could keep a secret, I’d tell you,” I say. “But I know you can’t.”
I’m desperate to speed this mission along and get them to include me in whatever they’re doing, but I have to rein myself in or they’ll see right through me.
“You ain’t got no secrets,” Bane says and lays his head back down on his folded arms.
“But Joker here does,” I say, nudging the cover of his book, which has a picture of a young woman wearing a pretty ball gown on it. “Never would’ve pegged you for a romance fan.”
He closes the book and slams it down on the table. “This is a highly sophisticated tale of intrigue, history and yes, romance. But I don’t expect any of you to appreciate the finer points of any of that.”
Apart from a couple making out in the shadows at the back of the room, and a few guys sleeping off their hangovers hunched over tables, we’re the only ones in the room. Even the waitress and bartender are nowhere to be seen.
“Is your girlfriend making you read it?” Fossil asks.
“No. My little sister, if you have to know,” he says. But he shot Fossil a look that was very clearly meant as a warning. And Fossil looked cowed by it.
“Don’t gotta bite my head off,” Fossil mutters, looking pissed off as all hell. He’s always had a hair trigger when it comes to getting reprimanded for anything. I’ve seen him beat guys unconscious for complaining after he’d spilled his drink on them.
