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Personally, I wouldn’t be talking this harshly to the people that just helped us, but I’m sure he has his reasons.
“It didn’t seem right,” Karma says. “First you and your buddy were nowhere to be seen, and then those other three Devils were gone too.”
“And we’ve been suspicious of Joker for a while now,” the bearded guy says. “He’s not what he seems.”
“He sure as fuck isn’t,” Ruin says. “We’re gonna leave now and then my MC’s gonna go after him. Thanks for your help, but being onetime friends of Joker, I wouldn’t hang around and wait for my brothers to arrive.”
He gives them all a hard look. Karma and the bearded guy nod.
“Sounds about right,” Karma says. “But we know where they’re going.”
Ruin was in the act of walking over to one of Joker’s men that had been shot and left behind, but he turns back to her sharply on hearing that.
“You do?” he asks. “Tell me.”
“No offense, but we’d prefer to deal with Cross from here on out,” the bearded guy says. “Make the introductions.”
Ruin narrows his eyes at him, his lips stretching up into a mirthless grin. “All right, Grim, I’ll do it. But fair warning. Cross won’t be in a good mood for meeting new people after his niece has just been snatched. Especially when those people might’ve been in on the plan to abduct her from the get-go.”
A long-legged beauty with purple hair gasps and another guy with a teardrop tattoo under one eye turns our way sharply.
“Let’s get out of here while the getting’s good,” he says to the bearded guy. “We don’t need the Devils.”
“We don’t need the Devils as enemies,” Karma corrects him. “So we can’t leave them thinking we had anything to do with this. Joker is headed for his main compound in a town called Roaring Brook on the Nevada border. We’ll be at the Inn if Cross wants to know more.”
And with that they all walk away and mount their bikes.
Ruin watches them ride off, holding me tight against him.
“We have to go too,” he says once the worst of the thunderous noise dies down.
I want him to keep holding me, but I know it’s impossible. So I hang back while he collects a gun and a phone from the dead man beside us. I don’t follow him as he goes inside to check on his three dead brothers.
The bike we leave on isn’t his. But having him in my arms, with the wind in my hair and fresh air in my face is enough to finally tell me I’m free and safe. And as soon as Eden is saved, I’ll be whole too.
He goes fast, so the ride is short. He drops me off at my doorstep, giving me a deep, lasting kiss that makes every nerve ending in my body come back to life.
“I have to go now,” he says. “You stay inside and lock all your doors. And I’ll be back for you as soon as I can.”
“How about I just go with you?” I ask. “Maybe you can use me somehow to get Eden back.”
It’s not a joke. I mean it with all my heart. But he smiles anyway.
“We’ll get Eden back, don’t worry,” he says, his eyes turning serious. “And I couldn’t live if anything happened to you, so you promise me you’ll stay safe.”
I can see how much it means to him, so I nod. He hands me the gun he took off the dead guy.
“You know how to use this now,” he says as he places it in my hands. “So you use it if you have to.”
I can’t deny the cold surge of pure power that runs through me as I touch the gun.
“I will, I promise,” I say and it’s no lie. “But you come back to me, you understand? I need you to fight the darkness with me.”
He grins and kisses me softly. “Nothing can keep me away. Not even death.”
Then he releases me and rides off before I can say anything. Before I can protest. Make him take the word death back. Make him promise he’ll never die on me.
But at the same time, it’s the best promise he could’ve given me. Because it means he’ll be with me forever. And beyond. Even in death. Even after death. And I feel exactly the same.
