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“So we cool?” I asked, ready to get the shit out of the way.
He snorted. “Brah, she took two bullets for me. We’re cool as fuck. Hell, I trust her more than I trust you now.”
I nodded and chuckled without joy. Honestly, I preferred it that way. Tori had won over Joker, meaning he would also protect her. Anything that kept her safe was a good thing.
“Good. Although, it doesn’t matter. Once she pulls through this, I’m staying the fuck away from her.”
His eyes flared, almost as if he was angry that I was going to leave her.
“Everything that’s gone down, and you’re just going to walk? That’s cold, my dude.”
He didn’t know what it meant to love someone more than yourself. He didn’t understand that I needed to stay away from Tori to protect her from the bullshit surrounding us.
“It’s not safe. Look what happened to her, man,” I said, pointing at her.
He leaned back and spread his long legs. “That shit could happen anywhere. Fuckers get shot grocery shopping these days. You might think you’re protecting her, but there’s no such thing.”
Well fuck.
“Way to look on the bright side.”
“No bright side. Only darkness. We both know how it is.”
I nodded, but I disagreed entirely. I could protect Tori and Gracie. I would do all I could. Even stay the fuck away from them. I also knew that Joker would watch their backs beside me no matter what he said.
“You need to sleep. You’re not thinking clearly, Saint.”
My brain was a clusterfuck of past, present, and future. My synapses were jumping from one thing to the next, but somehow, I had never been so clear on what was right.
“I’m thinking clearer than I ever have. I love her, man. I can’t let anything else happen to her.”
He tensed at the word love, his cold stare narrowing at me. Joker didn’t believe in love. Even if he adored Everly, he didn’t understand what she and Skull had. He would never understand what I have with Tori, either.
“Love is bullshit. Man up. Keep her safe if that’s what you want to do, but being away from her will make that shit harder.”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t going to fight him about emotions and shit I barely understood myself. I knew how I felt, but explaining that to someone who couldn’t feel anything was next to impossible.
He stood and stretched his long, lean body with a growl. “Text if you need anything or if anything changes.”
“I will.”
He squeezed my shoulder as he passed, but Crow showed up at the door just as he was about to leave the room. His expression was shuttered, but his wide eyes stared back at me in a way I had never seen before. His face paled before he stepped into the room and fell into the chair Joker had just left.
“What is it?” I asked, panic climbing its way up my body and wrapping itself around my brain.
I hadn’t had an anxiety attack in a long while, but Crow’s expression was making the ball of unease grow in my gut.
“I found her sister,” he muttered, dropping his head and breaking our gaze.
My heart drilled in my chest. “Where is she?” I held my breath, knowing I was about to catch a blow.
He looked up, his solemn eyes raking across my face.
“She’s in the morgue downstairs.”
37
Tori
