Page 129 of Priest

“What the fuck are you doing snooping around my warehouse, bitch?” Joker snarled. “Did that no-good son of mine send a woman to do his work?”

“No.” Lena shook her head violently, the word breaking on its way out. “No. I came to tell you he wasn’t there. Priest wasn’t at the clubhouse. He didn’t get your message.”

Joker stared at her.

For a second, the room went silent except for Sadie’s baby making small, distressed noises against her chest.

Then Joker laughed.

It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t wild. That made it worse. It came out low and slow, full of disbelief at her stupidity.

“You think I’m stupid?”

Lena tried to step back. There was nowhere to go.

Joker dragged her fully into the office and shoved her forward hard enough that she nearly dropped to her knees before he yanked her upright again.

“You got all the way here and thought what?” he asked softly. “That you were gonna outsmart me? Lie to my face? Save the doctor and run home to your husband like you didn’t sell little pieces of him every chance you got?”

Lena’s mouth trembled. “I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know it was this.”

Joker’s smile sharpened. “That’s the funny thing about women like you. Always thinkin’ you’re smarter than the men holding the leash.”

I thrashed against the chair, ropes biting deep into my wrists, the gag swallowing the scream building in my throat.

Joker pressed the gun to Lena’s temple.

Her composure broke all at once.

Tears streamed down her face as she turned her head just enough to look at me. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed. “This is all my fault. I never meant for it to go this far.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. I shook my head, pleading with her through the gag to stop talking, to stop handing him more pieces of herself to destroy.

“Please,” she cried. “Please tell Ledger I’m sorry. Tell him I explained everything.”

Joker’s eyes lit with cruel interest.

Lena tried to swallow, but the gun pressed harder into her skin. “It’s in my journal. Locked in the safe in the corner of my closet, tell him he knows the code. Tell him I’m sorry for all of it. Tell him I should’ve…”

Her voice cracked.

Joker barked out another laugh. “Ain’t that sweet.”

Lena shook under the barrel.

“You really think she’s gonna pass on your little love note?” he asked. “No one’s getting out of here alive to tell nobody nothin’.”

Sadie made a sound behind him, soft and strangled, but Joker didn’t even glance her way.

He kept his eyes on Lena, and the joy on his face made my blood go cold.

“You were never the plan,” he told her. “You were a bonus. A little house mouse with big dreams and a loose mouth. The intel you gave wasn’t worth much on its own, but that wasn’t the point.”

Lena’s face crumpled.

“The point,” Joker continued, “was showing Saints we could get inside their house. Show ’em even their Old Ladies would sell them out if you pushed the right bruise.”

His gaze slid to me, then back to Lena.