Page 31 of Insidious Heart
The prospects all give a firmyes, sirbefore they scatter, and Joker stands on the porch for a few seconds before he spins on his heel and heads back inside.
Perfect.
Looks like the universe is on my side tonight.
If he’s the only one I have to worry about being upstairs, then I won’t have any issue checking on my girl before I take off to try to catch Beau. Not that I want to leave Stevie alone with that sick fuck of an enforcer, but he’ll probably just do what he’s been doing all week; falling asleep in the bedroom across the hall after he jerks off for almost an hour.
Dude is such a bastard he can’t even get himself off.
I wait about fifteen minutes for everyone to do what they were told before I smash out my cigarette and start creeping toward Stevie’s house, my heart rate kicking up a notch as I do.
As a matter of fact, the closer I get to the two story farmhouse, the faster my heart beats.
My stomach churns, my palms begin to sweat, and some voice in the back of my head is telling me something is wrong.
Really fucking wrong since I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this before in my life.
As casually as possible, I walk up the driveway, my heart in my throat the entire time, and just when I’m about to clear the front porch, movement has me darting forward.
I flatten myself against the side of the house and wait, listening intently as the front door opens and one of the numbskulls on watch steps out onto the porch. I hear the click of a lighter, followed by another set of footsteps, then the front door closes.
“You think we should say something to Cal?” one dipshit asks.
Then the other replies. “No way. I’m not looking to have Joker come after my ass cause we narc on him.”
“Yeah, me either, but don’t you think—”
“Just drop it, man. It ain’t any of our business what he does up there, and I don’t want to blow my shot at joining the club if I open my mouth.”
“But you heard what Prez said. The princess is off limits, even to someone like Joker. He shouldn’t be alone—”
“Quit your bitching and enjoy the fact that this is earning our patches. He wants to risk his own shit by banging that freak, fine, but I’m keeping my trap shut.”
I don’t bother to keep listening.
No, instead I take off like a bat out of hell to the back of the house, do a quick scan to make sure no one else is around, then race toward Stevie’s window.
It’s open, thank fuck, but getting to it is going to be tricky. Unfortunately, the tree I’ve been climbing to look in on her at night isn’t close enough to get me to her window, and the only other option is a beat to hell trellis that most likely can’t support someone my size.
But the second I hear what sounds like furniture crashing and a muffled scream from that open window, I lunge at it.
Fuck it.
If the trellis breaks, so be it. I’ll just climb the fucking rain gutter if I have to.
I move quickly and efficiently, shimmying up the goddamn trellis as fast as I can. It starts to creak about halfway, but the sound means jackshit when I can clearly hear Stevie crying and begging for help.
And my god, the level of rage I feel when I finally grab the window sill and hoist myself up… it’s nothing short of volcanic.
The room is trashed; the mattress is cockeyed and hanging off the frame, the sheets twisted and ripped off in places. Stevie’s lounger and ottoman are flipped over, the chair most likely broken, and her dresser is completely disheveled, her jewelry box and everything else from the top of it strewn all over the floor. And Joker… Joker has my girl on her back stretched out over her desk.
He’s got her wrists pinned up over her head in one hand, her legs trapped between his and there’s some sort of makeshift gag in her mouth, which is definitely what’s muffling her cries.
The deadman’s free hand points in her face as he pants, “Fighting makes it better, princess. I like it when they fight. Makes things more fun for me.”
He slaps her as I climb through the window and I swear to Christ I see fucking red. Especially when Stevie’s crystal blue eyes find mine and go wide.
But I shake my head and lift a finger to my lips.
