Devil's Spawn: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #6

by Manda Mellett

  “Will you be keeping Shayla close, Mace? Thinking of claiming her?” Beef asks.

  “Yeah to the first, nah, to the second.” How can I fuckin’ claim a woman who never wants to be property again? But I am starting to think I might want to keep her.

  “Look, let’s cut to the chase so Mace can have his shower before sitting down with the rest of the brothers.” I take it that’s Demon’s way of letting me know I do indeed stink. “We’ll update everyone but head off any suggestion of tackling Major head-on. Red’s got eyes on him, Mace, so if he looks like he’s heading our way, we’ll revisit the subject again. Shayla’s safe here, as long as she doesn’t leave.” He stares at me.

  To me, what he’s said, is unacceptable. If the club’s not going to do anything, I’ll go to Vegas, take out the fucker myself. Knowing they’ll try to stop me, I keep my thoughts quiet.

  “No going it alone, Mace.” The VP glares at me. I startle, not having known mind reading was one of his skills. “Yeah, I know what you’re thinking as I’d do the same in your place. I was in on the call with Red, okay? None of us like this but going head-to-head with a man like Major wouldn’t work. He’s so well fuckin’ protected no one knows anything about him. Rope and Cuff are going to try to get on the inside, well,” he grins, but it quickly fades, “while they’ve got peculiar tastes, they can exaggerate the lengths they will go to, and Twister’s already got an in. Any retribution will have to be worked on carefully. Us rolling in hot and heavy won’t help for now. The important thing is keeping your woman safe.”

  “We’re not letting him get away with this.” I glare at Demon. “Let me go to Vegas and help smoke him out.”

  “And leave Shayla here? Or take her with you?”

  At Prez’s challenge, I realise neither option is attractive. My shoulders slump as I realise, I’m defeated.

  “Second thing before you go get that shower, Mace. Lizard.”

  “What about him, Prez?”

  “He asked Thunder whether he knew if his FXDR was at the shop or here at the club.”

  I sit up fast. “He asked about his bike?”

  Thunder grins. “Yup. I let it go by and just said no idea. Didn’t make a big thing of it. You know the funny thing? He wouldn’t have been able to afford a brand-new model Harley when it first came out if he’d been paying support for his wife and kid. Strange how things work out.”

  I shake my head, not certain where Thunder’s going with that and getting back to the point in hand. “He’s remembered more about the time when he served. He asked why I called Ink ‘Leatherneck’ but not him. I wasn’t conscious I’d done so in his hearing, but wasn’t sure, and like you, ignored it.” I raise my chin at Thunder. “Didn’t push as I couldn’t be certain I hadn’t either. And…” I break off.

  “And?” prompts Beef.

  “Nothing.” My cheeks feel hot.

  “And?” Beef’s not letting up.

  I sigh. “When I’d cut his hair and he left my room, he wondered why it made him think of ginger.” I glare, but it does no good.

  “There’s a fuckin’ story there.” Thunder leans back, crossing one ankle over the other and linking his fingers behind his head and chuckling loudly. “Want to share, Brother?”

  “I’d bet sharing is at the root of it, isn’t it, Mace?” Beef cottons on fast and laughs loudly. “Ginger root at least.” He snorts. “Can I assume it was on a female victim and not Lizard himself? Scrub that. If it is, please don’t tell me. I don’t need that visual.”

  “It was Titsy and Breezy,” I say fast. I don’t want that picture in my head either. Much as I like my brother, I don’t want to get anywhere near his ass.

  “So things are starting to come back,” Demon starts slowly. He seems to have a silent conversation with the VP, ending with a nod. “What we’ve been discussing is bringing him into church, seeing if the discussions will prompt more of his memory.”

  I raise my hand. “Wearing my enforcer hat, I’m worried about that.”

  Thunder copies my action, flashing his fingers briefly. “As sergeant-at-arms, I am too.”

  Raising my chin toward him, I take over, “He seems to be settling in, but hasn’t mentioned staying after the month has passed. He talks about going back to Denver with Vanna if they can make it work. What if he walks away carrying our information in his head?”

  “We get people to prospect so we can find out if we can trust them to bury a body and keep its location locked down. I don’t know this man, Lizard now purports to be. Mace is right. It’s dangerous.” Thunder nods my way.

  “So we keep talks of bodies and burying to a minimum.” Beef looks far less worried than me.

  “What’s he going to hear? Our finances and how our businesses are doing? Not exactly trade secrets. Buzz does submit everything to the taxman.”

  “Not quite everything, Prez.” Beef grins.

  I sit forward, clasping my hands and lowering my head while I think. I address my next words to the floor. “If he comes to church, he has to wear his cut.” I look up to see their reaction.

  “Too fuckin’ right,” says Beef.

  Chapter Forty

  Lizard

  “Church?” I stare up at Demon. “Isn’t that your secret meeting, no non-members allowed?”

  He glares down at me. “You’re a fuckin’ member. This here is proof of it.” He pushes the leather vest I’d hidden at the back of my closet at me, but the last thing I’m going to protest is how he got hold of it. I’m more concerned with why he wants me to wear it, and whether or not I do myself.

  I’m surrounded daily by these men wearing their leather so can’t escape the smell. But there’s something about the scent of the vest now in my lap that triggers a flash of light behind my eyes. My eyes squeeze shut.

  “Brother?”

  I wave my hand. “It will pass in a sec.” It does. I open my eyes again to see Demon looking concerned.

  “Perhaps it’s too soon.”

  Maybe I’m more like my son than I think, or probably that should be the other way around as now he’s suggesting I don’t go, I stubbornly want to do the opposite. I struggle to my feet, balancing on just one crutch, and realise I should have put my cut on sitting down.

  Demon’s huffs good-naturedly as he sees my predicament and helps me get myself organised and my arms though the right holes. As the weight settles on my shoulders, I realise it doesn’t feel alien in the slightest. It feels… right.

  Hating my right arm’s still wasted and weak, and my right leg isn’t much help to my left, I limp behind Demon, pausing as he does in front of the prospect holding a box full of phones. Realising what’s being asked of me, I take out my own and place it in with the rest. Then, I step inside the hallowed area where only members are allowed. Mace, Thunder, and Beef are already sitting down, but the other members haven’t arrived as yet.

  There’s a tingling sensation within my skull, not pain, sort of as if ice is melting. Used to odd feelings now my brain’s been fucked with, I ignore it, and walking around to the opposite side of the table, head for a seat halfway down.

  I notice Mace cocking an eyebrow at Thunder, and the sergeant-at-arms answering grin. When they don’t say a word, I speak.

  “What? Should I sit somewhere else?” I hadn’t thought to ask.

  “Nope,” Mace pops the ‘p’. “You’re fine right where you are, Brother.”

  The door opens to reveal Judge who comes in and sits down. Seconds later, Wills walks in. Now the door is constantly opening as one by one, everyone else arrives. Each spares me a surprised glance, then a grin or a chin lift.

  “Fuckin’ good to see you there, Brother.” Ink sits his ass opposite me. “Been too fuckin’ long.”

  As soon as everyone’s seated, Demon kicks off by banging the gavel. “Right. How we doing, Buzz?”

  I listen as Buzzard runs through the financial health of the club, talking about the strip club takings increasing on nights when guest dancers make a
ppearances and suggesting to Sparky and Wills, they should try to get more in as they’re a good draw. He comments, with a wink in my direction, that the accounts for Devil’s Ink are better produced than they’ve ever been before. I should think they are with Vanna having put my handwritten notes on the computer now.

  I touch my hand to my head as I hear a noise like the buzzing of a saw, but as no one else notices, I realise again, it’s only in my head like some form of tinnitus.

  The auto-shop is good—Shayla’s providing much-needed assistance—and Devil’s Pins is still getting sufficient customers in through the door.

  Ink gives his update when asked. “Dirt’s nearly finished with plumbing in the showers and heads. Drywalls are up. Just the decorating, and the purchase and installation of equipment to complete now. Then the final inspections and we’re good to go.”

  “Give us some warning so we can get publicity done. Have you talked with Buzzard about membership fees yet?”

  “Yeah.” Ink nods toward the treasurer. “If we can get enough people signed up, then it should pay for itself.”

  “Staff?”

  “Got a couple of hopefuls lined up for interviews.”

  “That sounds great.” Demon looks impressed.

  “You’ll get more uptake in memberships after Christmas,” Mace observes. “People will join up as part of their New Year’s resolutions and then won’t turn up more than a couple of times.”

  “But keep up with their membership just to say they’ve joined a gym,” Judge chuckles.

  “Shame Christmas is six months off,” Bomber puts in.

  Ink stares across at me. “Tomorrow, Brother. I want you downstairs trying that elliptical out.”

  I give him a nod. Not sure how much I’ll be able to do, or whether I can get the thing moving at all, but if I don’t try, I won’t get anywhere.

  “Moving on.” Demon sighs, pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment, then continues onto the topic that looks like it’s one he doesn’t want to broach. “Red’s found Major.”

  Major. Why does that name have significance? Something akin to an itch I can’t scratch is twinging in my head, but I can’t quite catch hold of it.

  I content myself with doing what everyone else does and look toward the head of the table for more information.

  “Prez?” Thunder starts, leaning forward so he can jerk his head in my direction, then back to Demon.

  Demon stares at me for a moment, then shakes his head, leaving me to wonder what the silent conversation was about. Something to do with me.

  Whatever it was, Demon moves on. “Major runs a tight and lucrative business. If you want a girl you can do with what you like, you go to Major. If you want to choke a girl until she expires, if you’ve the money, Major will supply her and deal with the remains when you’ve finished.” There are gasps from around me as I watch the members reactions. From what I’ve learned about them, their expressions of disgust are what I expect and genuine. Far from my previous thoughts, Satan’s Devils don’t mistreat women.

  “That makes me feel sick.” Judge glances down the table at Mace.

  “Brother…” Hellfire starts, but his voice trails off. He too is looking at the enforcer.

  Mace answers as if he’d completed a question. “I don’t know, Hell. She hasn’t gone into any detail at all.”

  “How does he get his business? Man providing services like that can’t advertise on the street,” Sparky asks.

  “People with particular appetites will know where to go to,” Ink observes through gritted teeth.

  “And that’s how Red eventually found him,” Demon confirms.

  “Satan’s Devils going after him? Shut that crap down?”

  Beef jerks his head toward Demon and takes over answering Bomber. “Take him out, someone will step in and take his place. Where there’s an appetite there will always be someone offering what people want to take. Important thing is to make sure he’s not heading our, or the girls’, way. Red’s got people going in undercover, we’ll wait to hear what they find out.”

  Wills’ hand slams onto the table. “Not good enough. I want to deal with Major personally for what he’s done and what he planned to do with that kid.”

  “I second that,” says Bomber. “Don’t want that fucker to live.”

  “Major’s something you grind into the dirt,” Rusty adds in.

  “Major’s a piece of shit,” Hell states. “But Demon’s right. He’ll have money and backers behind him. The services he supplies don’t come cheap. And Red’s in his town. If Satan’s Devils aren’t in his sights, then why risk all our lives just to take one motherfucker out, when Beef’s right, someone else will step up and do the same as him.”

  I notice they’re talking openly in front of me. But I’m not uncomfortable with this conversation at all. They’re not talking about killing an innocent man. I realise I’m just as bloodthirsty as them.

  “Doesn’t sit right with me, either,” observes Cad, but in a more measured tone. “But Red’s got boots on the ground. I’d like to know what info he has. If it’s okay with you, Prez, I’ll talk to Keys. Might be more that he can give me about Major to explain the stand Red’s taking.”

  “I agree,” Demon responds to the too-pale man. “Presumably a lot of his business is run on the dark web. See what you can dig up. The situation doesn’t sit easy with Red either, but we’re not dealing with a two-bit pimp. Major’s a powerful man.”

  Major. Major. Major. Major.

  “Vi get Shayla’s fuckin’ property tat sorted?” I ask, when at last I remember the words which are worse now I know the implication. Property of Major. Not a patch inked by a loving man, but the worst kind of ownership, signifying he can do anything he likes.

  The table falls completely silent.

  “Liz?” Mace starts, speaking slowly as though to a child. “What the fuck did you just say?”

  My brow creases, and I run back over my words. Can’t see anything wrong with them, I just asked a simple question. “Has Shayla gotten her tat covered?” I realise I should check in at the shop. I might not be able to use my hand to lay down ink, but I can check whether shit’s running okay.

  “What do you remember, Lizard?” Demon signals for silence from everyone else.

  My eyes widen as an explosion ignites in my head, every bit as powerful as the one I can’t remember but fucked up my brain at the start. I stand, stagger as my right leg crumbles, and crash to the ground, cradling my hands around my skull which feels simultaneously like ice water flooding it, followed by red hot lava.

  “Liz? Liz?”

  “Rusty, help him!”

  “Call a fuckin’ ambulance. We need medics here.”

  “Christ, this was too much for him, too soon. Shouldn’t have invited him in.”

  Synapses are firing, neurotransmitters going wild. I’m Lizard, otherwise known as Norton James. I ride with the Satan’s Devils MC and have done for the past ten years. I’m thirty-eight years old, and my birthday is the tenth of January. I’m a tattoo artist and I run Devil’s Ink on behalf of my brothers. I’ve got a wife and child.

  I flail my hands, blindly seeking contact with someone, anyone, grabbing hold when I feel someone’s hand. “No doc, no medic.” I gasp as though I’ve run a marathon. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” I repeat it again. “I’m okay.”

  “Liz.” It’s Mace’s voice dripping concern. “Liz, Brother. You need to get checked out.”

  “No,” I say, this time more firmly. Bracing my left arm beneath me, I push up into a sitting position. My right arm and leg have needles and pins, a pricking sensation like blood returning to dead limbs.

  “Yes,” Demon says in a voice that brooks no argument. “You’re going to the hospital.”

  I look up into the eyes of my president. “I can remember. Everything.” The pressure in my skull is receding, leaving behind a new clarity of mind, and bringing with it a whole new level of pain. “Tell me. Someone please tell me,
I did not forget my wife and kid for twelve fuckin’ years.” Of course that’s what everyone has been telling me. But remembering the dick I’ve been in the intervening time makes me want to believe that’s a figment of my imagination.

  But the silence tells me I’m not hallucinating, and that perhaps for the first time since I returned from that final tour, I remember everything.

  I wish I could forget all over again.

  Is remembering just temporary? What if my brain implodes and I lose it all? What if this is a final reprieve before a massive brain bleed or stroke takes me out? Maybe they’re right, and I should see a doctor.

  “I’ll go to the hospital,” I tell them. “But please, don’t tell Vanna. Not until I know what the fuck’s going on.” How can I face her, knowing what I do now? Being told you left your wife and kid and were happy living a new life while they were struggling is one thing, remembering it, totally different. Accepting that albeit unknowingly, I was an asshole for ten years. Remembering Hatch dying, being there when he did, seeing that truck take him out far worse than just hearing that he was gone. Seeing everything in full technicolour. And, oh shit, fucking the whores… with Mace of all people. Being unfaithful to my wife. Right now I wish blackness would flood over me again. Coming to terms with who I really am and living with what I did, well, that seems like too high a mountain to climb.

  “Judge,” Demon instructs, “go into the clubroom. If Vanna’s there, distract her. Mace can take Liz out the back way through the kitchen and get him to the emergency room. Let’s see what he’s dealing with before worrying her.”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Mace

  Once again I’m at the hospital, and once again I’m with my brother. I don’t know what to think. Liz getting his memory back should be a cause for celebration, but he’d collapsed the first time right outside my door, and nearly fuckin’ died. To see him fall yet again in church, well, the worst of thoughts had gone through my mind.