Page 20 of Joker

I look back at her over my shoulder.

She lifts her chin, even in that ridiculous cap and wig, and I can see the pride there under all the fear and exhaustion. She does not want to be handled. Does not want to be another fragile thing men move around while telling her it’s for her own good.

Interesting. Also inconvenient.

“Can you carry a bag and a kid at the same time?” I ask.

She opens her mouth, probably to tell me yes on principle alone.

Lexi picks that exact moment to yawn and lean harder into her leg with Bunny still clutched to her chest.

I arch a brow.

Raven looks down at her daughter, then back at me, and I can practically watch the fight between pride and practicality happen behind those amber eyes.

Practicality wins, barely.

“I can carry Lexi,” she says.

“Then do that.”

I don’t wait for agreement. I just step into the hall and shut the door most of the way behind me.

The clubhouse outside the room feels different than the ones I’m used to in the same way all chapters do. Familiar bones. Different skin. The low murmur of men downstairs, a TV somewhere farther off, the smell of coffee gone stale and cigarette smoke sunk into old wood. A prospect near the end of the hall straightens when he sees me, then thinks better of whatever he was about to say and goes back to pretending he has somewhere else to be.

Good call.

The bags are in the small adjoining room they must’ve been using for overflow storage or maybe just to keep their exit cleaner. It takes me all of five seconds to locate them.

One duffel. One small backpack.

That’s it.

I stand there a second too long looking at them.

One bag for her.

One bag for the kid.

No extra tote. No box of keepsakes. No stack of folded blankets. No sign of a life interrupted beyond the fact that these two pieces of luggage look packed by someone who knew she might need to move fast and still somehow hoped she wouldn’t have to.

I hook both in one hand and head back toward the exit.

As I pass the common room, I catch a couple of Louisiana brothers glancing my way, then away. Not nosy exactly. Just aware. That’s probably as respectful as men like us get under the circumstances.

Grinder is waiting by the back exit when I get there, jaw set hard enough to crack teeth. Raven stands a few feet away with Lexi on her hip now, the kid half-curled into her mother’s shoulder, Bunny trapped between them. Up close like this, the disguise looks even more ridiculous. The wig is too cheap to move naturally. The cap sits low. The oversized shirt hangs off her frame enough to blur the shape of her body, but not enough to hide the fact that she’s beautiful anyway.

I don’t know why that annoys me too.

Maybe because the point is for her not to be noticed and something about her still catches the eye despite all of it. Maybe because she looks too young to be carrying this much fear in her bones. Maybe because I’ve been here less than twenty minutes and already know I’m going to be thinking about her more than I want to on the drive back.

I set the bags by the door and glance at Grinder. “Route?”

He hands me a folded piece of paper with two alternate roads marked in pen. “Take the one you need. If you think you’re being followed, you don’t come back here. You keep moving.”

“I know how to lose a tail.”

He nods once, accepting that.