Finally, Joker relaxed and started chuckling.

She kept going.

“So yes, I’d say with all that, you got through.”

“Good,” he muttered, still laughing.

She took a hand from his back to put it on his cheek and she slid her thumb across his heavy stubble but did it holding his eyes.

“I’ll survive whatever he has in store,” she said quietly. “But you may have to bear with me.”

That made Joker stop laughing.

“I’ll bear with you, Carrie, but while I do it, you’re gonna have to accept the honesty.”

And finally for her, with that, she smiled. “I like your honesty.”

“Good,” he muttered again.

“I also like couch sex,” she declared.

“Got that yesterday when I rode you here and you got off for me.”

She kept smiling.

It started to die as she lifted her head and touched her mouth to his before she dropped it back to the cushion. Her face was dead serious.

“I’m still falling in love with you, Carson.”

Fucking brilliant.

“Same here, Butterfly.”

She gave him what he needed with her eyes.

So he gave her what she needed by taking her mouth.

They made out. They cuddled. They felt each other up. They whispered about important things, like Linus and Mrs. Heely and her dad and gramma. They did it a long time and through all that, he got her to peace.

And putting their plates in the sink to soak was the last thing he did before joining her in bed, where Carissa fell asleep against him wearing his tee.

* * *

His phone on the nightstand rang and Joker opened his eyes.

Carissa was pressing against him, stretching and lifting her head as he reached out and nabbed it.

He looked at the display, saw who was calling as well as the time, and he tensed and took the call. “Yeah?”

“Sorry, brother, know you’re in Carrie’s bed so fucks me to say this, Nightingale found Heidi,” Tack told him. “But not the Nightingale you put on it. Hank.”

Lee’s brother.

A cop.

Shit.

He had a feeling this was not good.

“Joke, hate sayin’ this more, but what was found was ugly. I gotta call all the brothers in.”

“Where?” he grunted.

Tack gave him the address and finished with, “Mount up.”

“You got it,” Joker replied, disconnected, and turned to his girl.

“Is everything okay?” she asked immediately.

“Club business, Carrie, gotta go,” he told her.

Through the shadows she looked beyond him to the alarm clock.

“Club business at two thirty in the morning?” she asked.

“I gotta go,” he repeated. “I find out what’s happening, when I get back, I’ll explain.”

She pushed up to her forearm. “Is someone hurt?”

“No,” he lied. “Not in the Club,” he gave her the truth. “But I don’t think it’s good, and I gotta go.”

“I… um… okay, sweetie.”

It was hesitant but he had to take it, so he took it by leaning in to give her a quick kiss.

Then he rolled out of bed.

He was on his bike and at the address Tack gave him in thirty-five minutes. But Tack could have given him the vicinity and he’d have been able to find it. There were cop cars all around, lights flashing, crime scene tape cordoning off the alley, and bystanders even though it was the dead of night. That much police activity, they crawled out of bed or stopped on the road to find out what was happening.

Joker rode to the line of bikes, parked his, and saw his brothers huddling on the sidewalk beyond the thin line of bystanders and police tape. Tack was there and had already been joined by Hop, Shy, Boz, High, Roscoe, and Snapper.

Lee Nightingale and his right-hand man, Luke Stark, were with them.

And last, Hawk Delgado, Mitch Lawson, and Brock “Slim” Lucas were there too.

In other words, essentially every badass in Denver, outside the rest of Lee’s team, the rest of Hawk’s team, the rest of the Chaos brothers, and Knight Sebring and his crew. Joker wasn’t surprised to see Knight wasn’t there, since Knight was not on the right side of the law or even straddling the line like Chaos, Nightingale, and Delgado.

But with what Knight did as a side business and what Joker suspected he was about to learn, Knight Sebring would get interested.

And if he did, this shit that Joker knew in his gut just got messy would blow sky high.

Joker approached the large group of men watching Tack.

But when they adjusted to allow him in the circle, it was Lee who spoke.

“Sorry, Joke, Hank caught the case. He knew I was on it for you so he could give me a heads-up if he heard anything. He heard something and called me.”

“Heidi bought it,” Joker guessed.

“Yeah,” Lee confirmed.

“Joke, brother,” Tack called him, and Joker looked to him. “There’s a reason the brothers are here. You need to see. But before you go behind the tape, you need to get your shit tight.”

“You said it’s ugly,” Joker said.

“This kinda thing is never pretty,” Tack replied quietly. “But this is worse.”

“Valenzuela?” Joker asked.

“Absolutely,” High growled, and it was a pissed-off growl that was beyond Valenzuela making a move and doing it using a woman.

So Joker knew he wasn’t going to see ugly.

He was going to see ugly.

He looked to Tack. “Show me.”

Tack nodded and turned to Lee, but Luke Stark had already peeled off and was standing at the tape with Lee’s brother, Hank.

Tack and Joker moved that way, and after chin lifts, Hank pulled up the tape. Joker and Tack ducked under. Hank dropped the tape and started walking. Joker and Tack followed.

“Anonymous nine-one-one called her in,” Hank muttered. “Probably a junkie usin’ this alley for his fix or to hook up to buy.” He stopped and looked to Joker. “You good?”

No. He wasn’t. He couldn’t say he liked Heidi, but he could say he didn’t want whatever happened to her to happen to her.

“I’m good,” he answered.

Hank nodded and kept walking.

Cops were milling around, taking pictures, putting markers on the asphalt, writing crap down, huddling, and conversing.

They finally got to her.

She’d been covered.

“Do me a favor, yeah?” Hank called, and a uniform looked his way, got his message, and crouched by the body.