Bitter Sweet Hell (Hell Night 2)

I pull up to Judge and Jenny’s house a few minutes later. My steps are heavy and quick as I walk up the steps and through the front door without knocking. My eyes immediately lock on Eden’s. She’s sitting at the bar, a cup of coffee in her hands. It pleases me when her eyes give away her relief when she sees me. Judge and Jenny are on the couch. I ignore them as I stalk over to Eden. She’s on her feet before I get to her. I don’t stop until I have my arms around her waist and her face is smashed to my chest. I love the way she feels against me. It feels familiar, like we’ve been doing this for years and not just days. She shudders against me, but when she pulls away a few minutes later, her mouth is set into a firm angry line.

“I need to leave,” she says, her chin lifting. “I can’t stay here any longer.”

“Like fuck you can’t,” I growl and tug her closer. “You aren’t going anywhere, Gypsy.”

“Listen to me. All I’m doing is bringing trouble here. If someone else were to get hurt because of me….” Her throat constricts. “I couldn’t live with myself.”

“You’re still not leaving.”

“Damnit, JW, just let me leave,” she argues foolishly. “I’ll find somewhere to hide out until Diego forgets this whole thing.”

I narrow my eyes and bend my knees so we’re eye-to-eye. “Do you really think he’s just going to give up? You know Diego better than me. Does he come across as the quitting type? Especially when you saw what you did and it could come back and bite him in the ass one day.”

She huffs out a breath and a small growl of frustration leaves her lips.

“Why are you doing this?” she demands. “I know you said it’s your job, but how can you know for sure I don’t have the chip he wants? How do you know I’m not lying to you?”

I pause for a moment, because I’m not sure how to answer. How do I know she doesn’t have the chip? I don’t know for sure, but I have a gut feeling, and my gut’s never led me astray before.

“I just do,” I give her the best answer I can.

The fight leaves her eyes and her forehead thumps against my sternum. I look over her head to Judge and glare at him. I didn’t miss the subtle glance in his direction when she asked how I knew she wasn’t lying. I also didn’t miss the misery in her eyes when she did so. Judge accused her of something, and I’ll damn sure find out what later.

I lift her chin with my finger. “Go grab some clothes. You’re coming home with me.”

Her shoulders slump, but she gives me a nod anyway. Before she walks away, I peck her lips with mine then wait until she leaves the room. I cast Judge another glare as he gets up from the couch.

“What in the hell did you say to her?”

He straightens his spine and glares right back at me. “I asked if she had the chip.”

I laugh, but there’s nothing humorous in the sound. Nope. It’s bitter and filled with loathing. Judge may be my brother and I love him, but he really pisses me off sometimes.

“You,” I point my finger at him, “just stay the fuck away from Eden. You don’t get to give your opinion anymore.”

“The fuck I don’t,” he grates. “That bastard threatened Jenny’s life. Like it or not, I’m smack dab in the mid

dle of the shit now. And fuck you, JW. You’re so Goddamn far up that woman’s ass that you can’t see the possibility that she very well could be lying to us. I’m not one bit sorry for caring for this town enough to think of all avenues. She’s a fuckin’ stranger, and you’re willing to put everyone here in danger, over someone you don’t fuckin’ know.”

I seethe. My chest goes crazy as I breath in and out rapidly. Red clouds my vision, and before I know it, I’m in Judge’s face. He doesn’t move, not even an inch, as I invade his space. Not that I expected him to.

Jenny squeaks from the couch at my sudden advance, but we both pay her no mind. I’ve never been tempted to hit one of my brother’s before, but right now, as I stare at Judge with contempt, it takes everything in me to not pound his face in.

“You don’t think I care about the people of Malus?” I ask with a deceptively calm voice. “You don’t think I’d give my life for every single one of them? You, Trouble, Emo, and I came back and rebuilt this town into what it is today. It’s not just a town and its people, it’s my fuckin’ family. I may have been born into a shit one, just as you, Trouble, and Emo, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what a real family is supposed to be. It doesn’t fuckin’ mean I won’t do whatever in the hell I have to do to protect them.” Reaching in my pocket, I pull out my phone and bring up the picture I got earlier from an unknown number. I shove the phone under his nose. “But it also doesn’t mean I’ll let an innocent woman end up like the one in that picture. It doesn’t fuckin’ matter if she has the chip or not, but you want to know why I know she doesn’t? Because of that picture. Because anyone with any sort of survival instincts would give it up to avoid becoming that.”

I turn away from him, and because I’ve got so much pent up anger pouring through me, and I’m trying not to release it on Judge, I snatch up a glass from the coffee table and hurl it across the room. It smashes against a wall, pieces of glass raining everywhere. My hands go to my hips, and I drop my head. I suck in deep breaths, willing my body to calm down.

“That’s her.” I turn at Eden’s hesitant voice. Tears swim in her eyes when they meet mine. “That’s the girl Diego had chained to his wall.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I recognize the tattoo on her arm.” She glances back down at the picture, only to lift her eyes again. “But how? Where did you get this?”

“From an unknown number.”

Judge snaps his eyes to me. “Was Emo—?”

I’m shaking my head before he can finish. “No. It was sent from a burner phone. The phone was broken and dropped in a trash can; no way Emo could trace it.”