Devil's Due: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #3

by Manda Mellett

  “Drummer spoke to Chaz as he said, who had talks with Stinger, the prez covering the LA Wretched Soulz area. Think they had a conference call with RIP in Colorado. Well, RIP was the one who’s been in touch. Wretched Soulz will stand back and let this one play out. They don’t want or need to be associated with any injury coming to a federal witness.”

  Good on Drummer. He would have explained the risk of possible blowback were it to be shown the Soulz had played an active part. Not that Demon isn’t a good prez, but he, like me, is too close to the situation. Drummer, reviewing it from afar, had come up with a suggestion.

  “So all we need to do is protect her from the Warped Jokers.” And from whatever bastard is too close to her trail.

  “Not so fast, Beef.” I’d expected Demon to be pleased, but he looks anything but. “The dominant had a request in exchange for them to step back.”

  “Which is?”

  “Except under circumstances where an MC sets up without permission or where there’s a dispute over territory or direct involvement in another club’s business, MCs don’t turn on their own. The Wretched Soulz don’t want to be anywhere close to the intimidation of a witness, but neither do they want to be seen as supporting the feds over the MCs whose charters they’ve agreed to.”

  My brow creases as I try to work through what he’s just said. There’s a cold feeling in my gut, and I hope I’m reading things wrong. I put one interpretation on it that’s not as bad as the next. “They’re stepping back and leaving us to fight it out with what remains of the Warped Jokers?” A club with its officers and half its members in jail. No leadership, just foot soldiers. No problem to take them on though I’d have preferred to avoid more bloodshed.

  “Nah.” Now Demon’s eyes rise and look directly into mine. “They’ve asked that we do nothing to help her. That she’s left as the US Marshals problem. Sorry, Beef. Can’t risk this chapter. Can’t risk this club. This is what the dominant wants. They’re neither giving support to the Jokers, or to us.”

  “But protecting a federal witness isn’t the same as offing them…”

  His eyes gentle. “We’re protecting someone who holds the key to the worst nightmare affecting an MC. RICO.”

  “I’ll take her away.” She’s going nowhere with that motherfucker Lennox. I don’t trust him. Even if he didn’t directly betray her, he and his organisation failed to keep her safe.

  “I thought you’d say that. Drummer did too. We both saw the way things were heading.” He pinches the bridge of his nose in that familiar gesture. “Fuck this is hard, Beef. You’ll need to turn in your patch. Ain’t enough that you’re nomad.”

  The words are hard for me to say, but I voice them without hesitation. “I’ll do that.” I mean them. There was a reason I was turned back at Satan’s doorway; my time hadn’t been then. I’m convinced I was brought back to take care of Stevie.

  “Her dog?” Demon asks.

  “We’ll take him too. He’s recovering fast, Prez. Better than I expected. I’ll,” I choke over the next words, “I’ll leave my bike. Borrow a truck.” Then get rid of it and swap it at the earliest opportunity. “Can Cad sort us out new identities?”

  “You trust the club more than the marshals.” It’s a statement, not a question, but I reply anyway.

  “If Cad can’t, Mouse can.” I’m quickly thinking through everything that’s necessary. “Mouse has underground contacts—”

  “Don’t underestimate Cad. Nor think if he has a problem, he doesn’t consult Mouse, or Hard Token in California, or Vegas’s Keys.”

  I can respect a man who asks for assistance if something is beyond his capabilities. I raise my chin to show I’ll leave my future identity in Cad’s capable, if very pale, hands.

  “Knew that was going to be your answer. Cad’s already working on it. Should have something airtight by the morning.”

  At least they’re not kicking us out tonight. That gives me time to talk to Stevie, to convince her and reassure her. “Once the court case is over, I’ll want to come back.” With Stevie in tow as my old lady.

  “Agreed. The Wretched Soulz should be fine when she’s no longer working with the feds. Unless there’s going to be retribution…”

  I just meet his eyes and raise my chin. He knows I’m accepting it may be far longer than that.

  For now, I’m just focusing on the shorter period. Two months. I can manage to ride, or drive as it seems more likely, alone for that. Heart went out for six months on his own. Mind you, he went looking for trouble and eventually found it. I’ll be trying to evade it.

  I’m itching to get back and start talking to Stevie, but there’re things I need to find out first. “You get anything out of the Warped Jokers we brought back?”

  “Mace and Thunder have been questioning them. Last I heard was they hadn’t said anything of importance yet, but Mace’s view is that they’re foot soldiers who don’t know anything.”

  Could well be. But, “I’d like to ask them myself.”

  “Yeah, let’s go down catch up with the latest. Might have discovered something while we’ve been chattering.”

  Offering up a silent apology to Stevie that I’d dropped the bombshell on her about my feelings then abandoned her, I follow the prez down the stairs leading to a locked and extremely well soundproofed door. He unlocks it, we enter.

  There’s a quiet sobbing coming from the centre of the room. A man is hanging by his wrists attached to hooks in the ceiling, the other is tied to a chair. The man strung up is bruised and bloodied, but it’s the seated man who’s making the noise.

  Mace comes over. “They’re blood brothers,” he says, quietly. “That one would prefer to be hurt rather than see his sibling abused. Think he might break soon.” Then he turns back around. When two pairs of distressed eyes focus on him, he jerks his head toward me, raising his voice, “Well, lookie here, reinforcements.”

  Thunder’s a big man, Mace not small either. But my build makes me both taller and wider and is why Drummer’s used me for muscle in the past. Just one look at me and men are intimidated and start calculating their odds, which are never good. I don’t just look the part, I can back it up. Not many men can best me in the ring.

  I bash one fist into the palm of my other hand, a warming up gesture. It doesn’t go unmissed.

  The man on the chair starts thrashing at his bonds. “He’s had enough. Use me. Please, not my baby brother, no more.”

  The man hanging can’t take his eyes off me. They’re wild, whites showing. His mouth opens, but to his credit, he doesn’t beg as I step closer.

  “Look, Seeker, this is crazy.”

  Hanging from arms which must be really aching, Seeker exchanges a look with his brother. “Cray—,” he starts, his voice scratchy.

  I interrupt. “Only one way out for you, painful or easy. Up to you whether you want to go to your grave with your teeth intact or gone.”

  Demon puts his hand on my shoulder. “Or we can make this even easier. Way I see it, you don’t have a club to betray anymore. The question is whether the feds will take all of you down, or just those already convicted. You tell us what we want to know, I could be persuaded to let you ride out of town.”

  Another look exchanged between them. Then Cray’s attention turns to Demon whose proposal clearly seems more attractive than mine.

  “You’ll really let us go?”

  Demon shrugs. “Depends how much of the truth you tell us. Keep playing it dumb, I’ll let Beef here take his time.”

  I might fight, but I don’t like it. I prefer it when they can fight back. I haven’t got the ability to distance myself in the same way as an enforcer does it. After Blade’s finished with a man back in Tucson he throws up, that’s no secret though we don’t talk about it. I wouldn’t mind betting Mace, who’s currently looking calm and collected and ready to go a few more rounds, is similar. But if it’s to help Stevie, I’ll swallow my repulsion down and use that anger inside me to use an unarmed and helple
ss man as a punchbag. When they stay silent, I take another step forward and draw back my fist.

  “Stop! For the ever-lovin’ fuck of God, stop!”

  “God’s not here,” I growl menacingly, though staying my hand. “You’re dealing with Satan.”

  “We were just following orders,” Cray cries out. His betrayal causing tears to roll down his cheeks.

  “Who gave you the orders?”

  “Mad Bull.”

  “Your president? He’s in the pen.”

  “He got a message out.”

  “Your orders were to…?”

  “Find the blind bitch and take her out of the picture. He gave us the info about where she was. There’s an app on my phone, it traces the dog’s tracker.”

  “Took his phone from him, Prez.” Thunder steps up and passes it over.

  Demon looks at it, then moves over to Cray. His hands are tied behind him, Demon manages to awkwardly get his finger on the right spot. He plays with a few keys, then nods. “Okay, I can open it myself now. I’ll get Cad to look at it.”

  He shows me the screen. He’s found the fucking tracking app easily. Every step Stevie had taken with her dog, they were able to follow.

  “Why didn’t you come immediately after she was reunited with the dog?” I question, harshly.

  “At first we didn’t think the dog would recover. It spent so much fuckin’ time with that vet. Then thought she’d moved on without it. Didn’t bother to check, then one day we did. Then we went after the signal. Buck came up first and was watching the cabin from a distance as we still didn’t know she was with the dog. We saw you, saw your patch. Then saw the dog and the bitch. Knew we had to come prepared. Needed to get brothers up from LA.”

  “So you came prepared to kill her?” Demon asks, his tone more reasonable than mine. Mind you, he’s not talking about the woman he’s coming closer and closer to claiming.

  Both men nod, or Seeker does the best he can in his painful position.

  “That was my woman you were going to kill,” I observe through gritted teeth. My comment makes Demon’s eyes flash to mine. I reply to his unspoken question with a slight raise of my chin. No doubt about it in my head. The intense rage I feel faced with these two men tells me my gut feeling’s right. She’s mine. I’m never going to let danger come close to her again or risk losing her.

  “Man, we weren’t going to kill her.”

  “You threw a fuckin’ bomb in her house.” I round on Cray incredulously.

  “We were told to silence her. After she proved difficult to take out, we came up with a different plan.”

  Seeker, not seeming to realise the danger he’s in, adds, “She’s a good-looking bitch. And being blind, she wouldn’t have minded who she was opening her thighs to.”

  Before anyone can stop me, he has my fist in his stomach. As he tries to draw his legs up and gasps for breath, I turn on the man tied to the chair and he gets my fist to his jaw so hard I feel bone crack.

  “Way to get them talking, Brother,” Mace casually observes, but there’s no censure in his tone. He knows, as well as I do, we’ve probably got all we’re going to get out of them for now.

  It’s who gave them access to the app that’s the question we need answered. We might punch them to within an inch of their lives, but they’re not going to be telling what they don’t know. I’ve been around clubs long enough to know this pair are typical foot soldiers. They follow instructions, they don’t issue them.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “They’ve told us everything they can,” Demon throws back over his shoulder as we make our way out of the Colorado chapter’s basement-come-torture-chamber. Once the door is closed behind us, the sounds of partying in the clubhouse reach us, along with the aroma of cigarette smoke and stale beer. A stark contrast to the begging and pleading, and odour of fear and pain we’d left behind us.

  “I agree.” It’s up to Cad now to investigate and find out what he can. “Be useful if we know anyone in the pen with Mad Bull.”

  “I’ll ask around.” He pauses outside his office. “You going ahead with this plan, Beef?”

  “It’s not that I want to, Prez. But with the Wretched Soulz breathing down your neck, can’t see any other option but to take Stevie away.” I’m still in the clubhouse but already I’m feeling the loss.

  “You’ll let us save face. But you need to be in the loop. Keep your burner phone with you so I can keep in touch.”

  Cad gave it to me. He’ll be certain no one can trace either it or Stevie’s. If they could, the Jokers would have been at the cabin long before they had. I’m glad Demon wants to stay in contact. I’ll be off the grid, but not entirely. If someone’s coming for us, I’ll want to get a head's up.

  “You going to let them go?”

  “Yeah. Don’t want to pile up the dead bodies. Now the tracker’s removed from the dog, they won’t be able to find Stevie that way. Looks like they don’t have anything else.”

  They might not. Doesn’t mean anyone else won’t.

  “I’ll keep them on ice until you get clear tomorrow.”

  Having heard what they’d planned for Stevie, I would have preferred that they shouldn’t be breathing. But it’s Demon’s call, and this is his clubhouse. As long as Stevie and I have a chance to get far away and can’t be followed, that’s all that matters to me.

  I’m anxious to get back to Stevie, we’ve got a lot to discuss. I’ve got to persuade her to put her life in my hands rather than that of the marshals. As Demon indicates I should follow him, I sigh, regretting yet another delay. Turns out though, it’s worth my while as he leads me over to Cad.

  Animatedly Cad turns his screen around to face me. There’s a driver’s ID on it, my picture, with the name Ben Carter on it.

  “Ben?”

  “Closest I could get to Beef. If Stevie fucks up, it might be close enough to pass scrutiny or give you a chance to come up with an excuse.”

  I shake my head, it’s going to be hard getting used to a new name. At least my surname’s close to my original, Carter instead of Carson.

  “I was going to go with Wayne, but that would be even more alien.”

  To me too. I can’t remember the last time I used my government name, Dwayne. Always hated it, was glad to stop using it.

  “What about Stevie?”

  “She’s going to be Sophie. You’re newlyweds. So if she slips on the surname, it will be put down to the recent change.”

  I’m not going to remind him Wraith’s old lady is called Sophie, and Stevie and she are about as far apart as you could get. He’s gone to the trouble of getting everything organised. It will have to do.

  “You’re getting these printed?”

  “As we speak. Got a man I use to make them authentic, he’s got a stock of the right paper and ink. You’ll have them first thing tomorrow. Oh, and Mouse is helping me set you up with a decent history. Once we’ve done that, I’ll let you know the details. Keeping as close as we can to the truth.”

  A hand lands on my shoulder. “Had to stop Mouse putting your previous career as an exotic dancer.”

  I swing around fast, then slap my hand on Paladin’s back, pulling him to me. “Asshole,” I tell him.

  He returns my man hug then pulls away. “Pole dancing was going to be your speciality.”

  “Yeah?” I grin back. “Like to see a pole that could take my weight.”

  “That was the reason you gave it up. You took too many steroids.”

  “Steroids my ass,” I snarl, punching his arm. “Hard work in the gym more like.” But he’s made me laugh for the first time today.

  “Ignore him, he’s jealous. Mmm, you’ve got manly muscles, Beef.” Jayden’s sweet voice sounds as she comes up alongside her man.

  “Don’t hear you complaining about what I can do with what God gave me,” Pal stage-whispers into her ear.

  “Well, if you lovebirds are winding up to a demonstration, I got things I’d rather be doing.” I thrust
my hips leaving them in no doubt as to my intentions. Then, when they both start laughing, I flip them my finger as I walk off.

  I’m still smiling as I go up to my room, or rather, Demon’s old one. Seems I won’t have spent enough time in it to lay claim to ownership. I was pleased to see Pal and Jay looking so happy and settled in their new environment. If they can move somewhere totally different, grow to call strangers friends, perhaps there’s a chance for me too. Mind you, they were moving to what they could already call family. Stevie and me? Well, we’ll be totally on our own.

  Doesn’t mean we can’t do it.

  And, when it’s safe. We can come back.

  I pause before turning the door knob. Got to get my head around it might never be safe for her to return. Tomorrow I might be walking away from the Satan’s Devils forever. Am I doing the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life? Giving up everything I am for a woman I’ve known two weeks? I rest my forehead against the wood, examining my feelings as honestly as I can. What I’d told her earlier is the complete truth. It might not have been long, but the time we’ve spent together has been intense. I may not know facts or figures, or who she was before she had to hide, but I know her, the woman inside. I know she’s who I want to spend the rest of my life with. It’s not that she’s different from Sally, what I feel for her is on another level too. If I have to leave everything behind me, she’s worth it. Despite my sadness, there’s an undercurrent of excitement too at the thought of taking a step into an unknown future, a new reality that we can shape to our will. With her, beside me, I believe I can be happy. Yes, this is the right thing to do.

  Ready, I turn the handle, mentally preparing to now persuade her.

  On entering the room, all that greets me is the thump thumping of Max’s tail on the floor. He may have overdone it today, as he doesn’t leap up to meet me. I go to him, sinking to my haunches and stroking him. “That leg hurting, Max? You’ll soon be up chasing rabbits. And where’s your mistress, eh?”