Page 211 of Joker

I step over Cal’s body and head for the door before anybody can get clever with a comment. The night air hits melike a slap, cold and clean after the heat inside the cabin, but it doesn’t cool a damn thing in me.

Because now that he’s down, now that the first part is finished, all I want is one thing.

Her. Not abstractly. Not sentimentally.

Raven.

Her face. Her hands. The sound of Lexi breathing safe and warm and alive somewhere I can reach.

I want the proof that this ended where it was supposed to. With me standing. With them untouched. With his blood on my hands instead of theirs.

By the time I get back to the clubhouse, the adrenaline’s burned off enough to leave behind the ache. Split knuckles. Bruised ribs. Cut cheekbone. The kind of pain that feels almost clean after a night like this.

The garage is lit up when we pull in. Men moving. Voices low. A shape on the floor where they dragged Cal in and tied him to a chair like exactly the kind of problem he is.

I don’t look at him. Not yet.

Because before anything else, before the rest of the promises get collected, I need to see my family. That thought lands with enough force to stop me in the middle of the yard for half a heartbeat.

My family.

No flinch. No hesitation. Just truth.

I head inside.

Raven is in my room exactly where I knew she’d be, Lexi asleep against her shoulder in the bed, Bunny hanging by one ear from a limp little hand. The lamp is low. The room smells like baby shampoo and my sheets and the last of Raven’s tears.

She looks up the second I step in. And everything in her face changes at once.

Fear first. Then relief so sharp it nearly takes me out where I stand.

She sees the blood. The cuts. The swelling. But she also sees me upright. Breathing. Back.

That’s all that matters.

I close the door softly behind me, rip my soiled shirt over my head and cross the room fast enough that she’s already moving before I get there, sliding Lexi carefully onto the pillow just long enough to throw her arms around my neck.

I catch her. Hold her. Bury my face in her hair for one brutal second and breathe.

She’s here. She’s warm. She’s real.

Lexi stirs but doesn’t wake, just rolls closer until one little hand pats blindly against my side like she knows I’m there too.

That about fucking ends me.

Raven pulls back just enough to look at my face. “Are you hurt?”

“Nothing important.”

Her eyes flash. “Don’t do that.”

I almost smile. Because that’s her. Even now. Even after all of this.

I slide one hand to the back of her neck and the other around both her and Lexi, pulling them in so close there’s no room left for air.

“It’s done,” I tell her.

The words come out rough. Low. Final.