Devil's Dilemma: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #4

by Manda Mellett

  “You kidnapped me,” she accuses, sulkily.

  “Were we rough?”

  She eyes her hands still tied. I step up and though she flinches when she sees me produce my knife, she relaxes when she sees all I intend to do is to cut the zip tie off.

  “Give us Don’s phone number, sweetheart.” I soften my voice.

  “What will you do if I don’t?” Her voice hardens. “You’ll hurt me then?” Her eyes flick nervously toward the implements on the wall.

  Red puts his hand on my arm, and gently moves me back, standing in front of her himself. “You see Clare, Skull’s got some answering to do. To us, and maybe to you, and definitely to a woman upstairs who’s five months pregnant.”

  Her brow creases, her eyes widen, and her cheeks flush.

  Red nods. “The father is Skull. Donavan Jordan, as you know him.”

  She gasps, and her hand covers her mouth. Her head is shaking violently now. “No. You’ve got the wrong man. Don would never cheat on me. He’d never do that. That’s something he’d never do…” Her head bows, then she raises it again. Her voice now cunning. “That woman, she’s lying.”

  I bristle, but Red shoots me a warning look, before turning back to Clare. “Is she? Perhaps your husband should have the chance to defend himself.”

  “You’re wrong,” she says strongly.

  “Then let’s give him a call so he can tell us the truth himself.”

  Now her eyes become slits as what she’s been told starts to sink in.

  No longer so certain in her initial denial? Perhaps.

  What’s she going to do? Some women, if they find their husband’s been cheating on them will turn a blind eye, telling themselves he’s a man after all. Finding it within themselves to forgive them. Others? Well, they’re out for blood. Hard to tell which camp Clare falls into.

  I get the impression she might veer toward the latter one when she suddenly rattles off a number, so fast I have to ask her to repeat it, then key it into my phone. Then, as she’d done an hour or so before, put it on speaker.

  I’m not surprised when it’s immediately answered. “Who’s this?”

  “Pyro.”

  “Where’s Clare?” I’m not surprised it’s the first thing he says. “If you’ve hurt her…”

  “We’ve got her,” I confirm. “Pretty bitch, your wife. Of course, she might not be so pretty much longer.”

  “You touch one hair on her head…”

  “Whether I do or not is up to you, Don.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Come to the Vegas Satan’s Devils MC compound.”

  “You’ll kill me,” he breathes.

  Clare gasps.

  “We might, we might not. But if you don’t come, your wife will suffer. Every minute you’re late, we’ll treat her like we treated you, remember? I assure you the basement in Vegas is just as well equipped as the one in Pueblo, and Twister is as good an enforcer as Mace.” He’ll know exactly what I’m referring to.

  “Clare’s got nothing she can tell you.”

  “Neither did you.” It was the reason he took so much punishment. We were torturing him for information he couldn’t give. “Didn’t stop us then, won’t stop us now.” Well, it had. As soon as we knew the truth, we stopped. But it’s likely in his panic, all he’ll remember is the pain we inflicted first, and imagine it happening to the woman he presumably loves.

  He’d told Mel he loved her.

  His voice hardens. “I’m warning you, Pyro. You touch her, and it will be the last thing you do. One scratch, one bruise…”

  Twister steps up behind Clare and yanks on her hair. It surprises her rather than hurts her, but the scream she lets out is convincing.

  “I need a couple of hours.” Skull’s voice sounds desperate now.

  “You’ve got one.” I start to rattle off the address, but he interrupts.

  “I know where it is!”

  Does he now? Interesting.

  I end the phone call, then look at his wife as Twister steps around to her front.

  “Sorry about that,” he tells her, not sounding apologetic at all.

  Her hands are already up, retying her ponytail, proving she hadn’t been hurt if worrying her hair is out of place is her main concern. She looks annoyed she’s been used.

  “You know what your man’s been up to?” I ask her. “He must go missing for months, years. You know what he does?”

  Before she can answer, Red steps up, and takes me to one side. “Just spoke to Demon. He said he’s catching the first flight that he can, but he’s okay if we do the questioning. Any vote must wait until he’s here.”

  I nod. That’s fine. Suddenly I realise we’ve got an audience. I had been vaguely aware of the thuds of boots that have been echoing down the stairs but hadn’t realised that most of the club have crowded into the basement. I don’t give one fuck. Skull had disrespected every member; doesn’t matter which chapter he’d joined. At the very least, and if he can come up with a justification for his actions which makes any sense—doubtful, where Mel’s concerned—we’ll be making sure he leaves the club properly with a beatdown. And if I have my way, any vote will make sure he leaves his life too.

  Turning back to Clare, I repeat my last question.

  This time, she replies. “It’s his job. He doesn’t speak to me about it.”

  Once again, Red’s eyes catch mine. He flashes a message at me, and I raise my chin back.

  “What’s his job?” Red roars, stepping forward fast as though he’s lost patience. “Who does he fuckin’ work for?”

  Stubbornly she shuts her mouth.

  Red’s unperturbed as he snaps, “He a cop?”

  I’m watching her carefully and see the betraying twitch of her face. A confirmation of what I’ve gradually been coming to suspect. The unmarked cars stopping Wills and Cuff was the first clue, and what we found of Don in that house wasn’t the biker we knew.

  Well, won’t be the first time a cop’s disappeared. Only problem is, she would have to go as well, and no Devil likes killing a woman. Though it might be kinder than leaving her wondering, to suffer like Mel, never knowing what happened to her man after he’d said goodbye that last time.

  But they’ve got a kid. Fuck, more complications.

  I’m glad Demon’s flying in. Right now, I’m representing Colorado, but I can’t see further than justice for my woman. My prez though, he’ll do right for the club. Maybe Skull will walk out of here alive, but meet me alone, one dark night, when he least expects it, and then I’ll make him pay the ultimate price.

  Red continues to question her. “He goes away for a long time, Clare. You ever see him in that time?”

  He’d been with the Devils eighteen months straight. Except for the month he disappeared fuck knows where. Though now I suspect I know who he ran to.

  “When he’s on a job, no.”

  “Except nine, ten months ago?” I ask to confirm it.

  Her expressive face answers for her again.

  Now it’s me pushing Red out of the way. “You know what he got up to?” I don’t wait for her to respond or not. I tell her myself. “He became one of us, a member of the Satan’s Devils, acted the part well, too. Soon as he was patched in, he went with the whores.”

  A slight tightening of her face and a shake of her head suggests she’d rather not know. Then she gives me words. “If he’d otherwise have drawn attention to himself, Don would have done what he needed to do.”

  Why do women come up with excuses?

  “Possibly, Clare, though we’d not have thought that suspicious. But, it wasn’t just him fuckin’ a whore to keep up appearances, it was worse than that, Clare. Much worse. He decided to take a woman as his own. Claimed her, which in our world is as good as marrying her. He lived with her. Slept with her every fuckin’ night. Forgot to use a condom, twice. Then he upped and left leaving her pregnant.” What Skull had done makes my voice harden.

  She’s now ha
nging onto my every word.

  “He come home and fuck you? After he’d been with his old lady without a condom?” Her widened eyes suggest yes. “And what about her? What about the woman he said he loved, the woman he’d promised to spend his whole life with? He never came back, left with no warning. She found she was pregnant with no man to tell. You’ve got a kid, Clare. What if your husband left for a job and never came back? Disappeared off the face of the earth and you never had any answers. Can you imagine that, Clare? Can you imagine the fucking hurt?”

  “No.” Her hands cover her face, her denial I suspect more that those things had actually occurred than her answering my question.

  “Yes,” I insist. “She’s five months pregnant with your husband’s baby. It’s a boy. Your little girl will have a brother.” She won’t. I won’t let my kid anywhere near hers. But hell, I’ll lay it on as thick as I need to. “What about her, Clare? What about the innocent woman he used and discarded? What about her?”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Melissa

  So intent on questioning the woman sitting on a chair, the men haven’t noticed me. I’ve got a wall of leather to hide behind as the men crowd around the woman. While I can’t see, I can hear every word. Skull’s married? With a child? I stuff my hand in my mouth to stop a gasp escaping, while every syllable causes a sharp pain as though knives are piercing my heart.

  An undercover cop? I was shacked up with a man who presumably wanted to bring the club down. That was the only reason he’d joined it. Everything he’d ever said to me, and to them, must have been a lie.

  I can’t hold back any longer, and I scream out three words, “What about me?”

  The men blocking my view of her, part. No one makes any attempt to prevent me stepping forward, my hands huddled across my stomach as though protecting my baby bump. No one lifts a finger as I walk straight up to the woman in the chair.

  “What about me?” I scream again, spittle landing on her face.

  She makes the connection easily, her eyes flicking to my face then my stomach. A myriad of expressions appear on her features, anger, disbelief, sadness. It’s hard to predict what she’s going to say.

  Finally, she settles on denial. “I don’t believe you. The baby can’t be his.”

  “You don’t believe me?” I scoff. “Well, in about four and a half months I’ll have proof. Do you know what it’s like, Clare, to be in love with a man you then find out doesn’t exist? To mourn the death of a man who’s still alive? To be carrying the baby who came into being through falsehood and deceit? Can you even begin to imagine it?”

  She focuses on my eyes, as though trying to find something she can use to disbelieve me, but I know my expression is telegraphing pain and hurt.

  “If what you’re saying is true, you’re right, I can’t begin to imagine it,” she says at last. “But if what you say is the truth…” She swallows. “I don’t know,” her voice drops to a whisper. “It was his job… Maybe he had to…”

  “Job?” I rasp back, interrupting. “I was part of his job?”

  But it’s the explanation I’ve been wanting, even though never dreaming I was nothing more than someone he was using. Of course he walked away without a backward glance, I never meant anything to him. I look at her, ignoring her tear-streaked face, and analyse what I’m seeing. She’s pretty with high cheekbones, generous lips and her body? Well, she’s slim and has certainly regained her pre-pregnancy weight. Unlike me, who, I suspect, will never lose it. Why would he want me, when he had her?

  “This hurts me too.”

  Four words, but spoken with such anguish, through my own distress I suddenly spare some measure of compassion for her. I’m the living, breathing evidence of her husband’s betrayal. Could she forgive him? I can’t, and if I was in her shoes, couldn’t.

  “He’s married. I feel sorry for you, but he was mine first.” Her mouth twists as she thinks of the practicalities. “Of course, if it’s a question of support we can discuss…”

  “No fuckin’ thing to discuss,” Pyro roars, then comes to stand behind me, his palms gently resting on my upper arms. “You don’t need to be here, Mel.”

  But I do. I can’t take my eyes off the woman Skull clearly prefers to me. He married her, put a ring on her finger, fathered a child with her. No wonder he didn’t want one with me.

  I glance down to where my hands still protectively rest over my stomach. “This is his fault, he forgot to use a condom.” Suddenly it’s important she understands. “I’d have never gone with him, would have turned him down when he wanted to date me if I’d known he had a wife and child. I’m not that woman.” Pyro’s hands tighten slightly as if confirming he knows that. “I would never go with a cheating man.”

  “Don doesn’t cheat.” But she has the grace to look sheepish, and her cheeks are glowing red.

  I suspect it’s dawning on her that she’s been played too. Did he promise he’d be faithful? Did he tell her there’d be no one else?

  “I don’t believe you,” she suddenly spits out. “Don’s faithful to me. He promised he would be… I don’t know why you’re saying all this, but it has to be lies.”

  Whatever justification or defence she was going to offer goes unsaid as she’s interrupted by a noise at the door. Bodies part again, this time to let Skull through. Ignoring everyone else, he runs straight to the woman on the chair.

  “Clare, oh my God, Clare. What have they done to you?” He’s examining her, running his hands over her as if to see whether she’s been hurt.

  “Red, Crash? A word?”

  I ignore whoever it is that’s called the prez and VP away. My eyes instead focus on the man I haven’t seen for almost four months. I can’t look away. It’s strange, there are little differences about him. His voice seems deeper, older somehow, and his bearing is different. It had been hard to believe he was even the age that he’d told me, now he seems to have grown into his years. There’s a new confidence about him. Even though he’s surrounded and in the proverbial lion’s den, he’s self-confident and poised as if it’s the other men who should be the ones unsure.

  “Let her go,” he states in a voice full of authority. “She’s not part of this. She knows nothing.”

  “Oh, I think we’ll be extending our hospitality to Clare a little longer.” Pyro steps away from me.

  Red reappears. He doesn’t bother to lower his voice. “Skull, here, brought company. Cops. They’re outside the gates. His insurance policy to make sure he, and she, walk out unscathed.”

  Pyro gives a bellow of fury. He stomps across the room and smashes his fist into a wall. I suspect he’s wishing it was Skull’s face instead. He turns, nursing his hand.

  “You brought the fuckin’ heat?”

  Skull jerks his head in a back and upward motion. “They’re waiting out front to make sure both of us walk out unhurt.” His voice deepens further, he becomes a man more used to giving orders than taking them. “You lay one hand on me, you go to prison for assaulting a cop. I don’t walk out of here? They’ll take you all down.”

  Pyro’s voice is full of fury. “You were undercover all this time?”

  Skull doesn’t bother to nod.

  “You were trying to dig up dirt on us?”

  Again Skull stays quiet and says nothing in response to Pyro’s question. But I know Pyro’s right. There’s only one reason a cop would go undercover and infiltrate a club. To bring them down.

  Did he find anything? Should I be worried Pyro’s going to be arrested? Has Pyro done anything wrong? But four months have passed. Surely, if anything was going to happen, it would have happened by now. Did he leave as he hadn’t found anything?

  Red steps forward and demands, “You working for the cops or the feds?”

  Again, Skull stares back impassively.

  “Why did you disappear?” I cry out. The tone of my voice gets Red looking at Pyro with narrowed eyes. It’s like he’s warning him.

  This time, Skull does an
swer. He shrugs and, giving me a look with none of the heated emotion I used to see on his face, replies coldly and succinctly, “Job done.”

  I stare in disbelief at the man I thought I had loved, feeling only hatred for him now. It’s my turn to speak, and no one’s going to stop me.

  I can’t stop my voice shaking, or sounding more like a wail. “What about me, Skull? How could you do that to me?”

  His lips narrow, but he utters a lame and inadequate apology, “Sorry, Mel.”

  “You wanted a woman to fuck while you got your information, so you picked on me.”

  Clare gasps as I put it so bluntly.

  “It wasn’t like that.” Skull looks at his wife and puts his hand on her shoulder.

  “If it wasn’t like that, if you loved me, then you would have told me about your wife, left her and stayed with me.” Not that I’d want him under those circumstances, but it would have showed he cared. Wouldn’t have left me feeling so used.

  He looks up and gives it to me straight. “Look, I couldn’t, Mel. I’m sorry. I love my wife, and could never leave her.”

  “If you love your wife, why did you betray her with me?” The wheels are turning rapidly inside my brain. What if he had been single? Would it have turned out differently? Would he have told me who he was and have taken me with him?

  I’m an honest person, my civilian life more aligned with his real career than his biker persona. If Skull had talked to me, I might not have liked the fact he’d been living a lie, but I wouldn’t have been upset to know I was dating a lawman. That he’d run with a one-percenter club was one of the reasons I’d been reluctant to get into a relationship with him in the first place.

  But then, after I’d met the club, met Demon, Violet, all the women and men… My eyes flit to Pyro as I wonder, could I really have played an active role in bringing the club down? Seeing all the people I’d come to love and respect hauled off to jail.

  But all that assumes Skull had any feelings for me. I have to accept, he has none now, and had none then. Skull had used me. I still don’t understand the reason.