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Karma’s eyes flash to mine, then she swallows hard and clears her throat.
“Joker has a hundred and fifty guys in his MC,” she says. “At least as far as we’ve been able to count. They’re all totally loyal to him and their HQ is in the town of Roaring Brook on the Nevada border. It’s an old miner’s town that they’ve taken over and fortified. It’s in the desert, so they’ll see you coming from miles away.”
She pauses, eyeing Cross fearfully. Probably because she just killed our hope of solving this problem quickly without meaning to.
“I mean… a large enough army could?—”
“We’ll worry about the plans,” Cross interrupts. “What else do you know? Weapons? Tactical? How well trained are they?”
“Joker has them practicing daily,” Grim says. “Target training and fighting. Seeing that was when we first began suspecting he’s not just some guy trying to capitalize on the fallout from this war you’re fighting.”
“Why are you telling us all this?” Cross asks. He’s standing over him, looking down and Grim has the same trouble meeting his eyes as most people do. But he’s trying to hold eye contact, so points for that.
“We’re not interested in entering any wars,” he says. “We take on jobs when the opportunity arises, and we helped Joker take over a few strip clubs and offload some drugs.”
“But we draw the line at the abduction of young women,” Karma says.
“We gave you what you need, so we’d like to be on our way now,” Grim says.
Cross glares at him, making him look down while scratching his beard.
“We’ve yet to see if your information is worth anything,” he says. “So, you won’t mind enjoying our hospitality a little longer.”
He motions for some of the brothers hanging back to come closer. “Take them to the bunker.”
“What? No!” Karma says, leaping to her feet. One of my brothers grabs her arm before she can do anything more than that.
“That wasn’t a request,” Cross says.
She’s looking at me pleadingly, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do for her. Or want to do for her.
“If your information is solid, you’ll be free to go,” Cross tells her then marches out of the room.
“So now we ride?” Ice asks him.
“Yes,” he says. “We’re gonna go check out this town tonight.”
“Good, I just need to get some weapons,” I say. “Joker took all of mine.”
Cross turns to me. “You’re staying here.”
I was already on my way to my bike—or Bane’s bike, because I didn’t have time to look for the keys to mine and his were still in his pocket—but I stop dead in my tracks. “Why?”
I think I know. I’m not to be trusted in case I’m part of some game Joker is playing too. That’s not what Cross says.
“You’re staying here to clear out the bunker where Joker took you,” he says. “Then we’ll burn the place down with the three traitors in it. But let them rot for now.”
No, I’m coming with you to get Eden.
I don’t say it though. I have my orders. And I’m done with the days when I considered those optional if they didn’t suit me.
I watch them ride off, the sound of their bikes making the ground beneath my feet vibrate. I’m torn between wanting to follow and relief that I get to stay here and make sure Ariel is safe.
It’s been less than an hour since I last held her and I’m already missing her the way I’d miss an arm or a leg that was chopped off. She says I helped her find her way out of darkness, but she’s given me so much more than that. She’s given me the courage to be more than just the bottom feeder I was existing as. She’s given me purpose, meaning, and a chance at redemption. She’s given me life.
34
Ariel
