“Considered that, Prez.” I notice all the Vegas members are listening avidly. As Red had said, we’re all Devils. Feds get a RICO indictment against one of our chapters, the others probably wouldn’t escape unscathed, or not without eyes being firmly placed on them. “The only thing I can think of is when we took out Taser. But Runt was locked in his room at the time with a prospect on him. He didn’t know what went down and left immediately after.”
“Always wondered why he came back,” Demon says.
“Well, now we’ve got our answer.” Beef provides his analysis, “He got patched in, which had been what he was after. Earned himself a seat at the table.”
“The Silvestri—”
“You didn’t kill Angel, Prez. He was already ninety-nine percent dead when old-man Silvestri brought him in,” I reassure him, having already revisited the events in my head. “He was beyond salvageable at that point. Sure, if you could have revived him you would have, if only to have struck the killing blow yourself. But fact is, Angel didn’t die by your hand. Skull did help bury him, along with Liz and myself. But we were burying a dead man on the instruction of his closest relative.”
“I agree with Pyro. I was there, remember? The Silvestri destroyed much of your clubhouse. You were simply standing your ground defending your home, any men killed were either them or you. Even if he wanted to build a case, there was no evidence to be found. The boss, Lucio took his men, both bodies and the living.” Red pauses as if he too is reliving that day. One of the Devils had lost his life defending our club, and he hadn’t even been from our chapter. The Utah crew had ridden home without one of their own.
“Skull left your club, what, four, five months ago?” Red continues in a reasonable tone. “RICO concerns organised crime. If you’d planned murder they might have been able to build a case against you, but the Silvestri came to you, and you were acting in self-defence. The Silvestri were the ones who planned the attack, they would probably have more to worry about than yourselves. I think the feds would have raided you by now if they had anything that would stick.”
“That’s my immediate thinking, Red,” Demon replies. “I’m hoping he found nothing to go on, so that’s why they pulled him out. Fuck knows what he’s doing now, but maybe they had bigger fish to fry.” I catch sight of Judge nodding. “I will warn the Silvestri, as you say, they were the ones who brought the battle to us, and Skull knows the ringleader is dead—as Pyro said, he helped clean up and buried him. I’ll also speak to Drummer and warn him. He needs to know as he’s the mother chapter prez.” Demon purses his lips as though he’s not relishing that conversation.
But Beef reassures him, “I know Drum, Prez. Look, in hindsight we always knew what happened with Skull raised questions. But I’ve seen him in the club, and his behaviour wasn’t suspicious. Any questions I may have had were allayed, and yeah I admit, I had watched him. He played his part too well. This isn't on you, Demon, or on Hell who patched him in, or anyone else in the club. He fooled us all. Drummer will see that.”
“No one could see this coming, Prez,” I back up the VP. I know Demon well. He’ll be second guessing himself that we had trouble within the club and he didn’t know it.
“Didn’t know him,” Red puts in, “but I know you, Demon. Hellfire patched Skull in, which needed a unanimous vote. Seems the facts speak for themselves. Won’t be the first time a cop has infiltrated a club and won’t be the last either. We deal with the outcome, can’t revisit what went prior except where there are lessons to be learned.”
Demon acknowledges what we’ve said but gives no indication whether he’s accepted the absolution or not. Instead he turns back to me. “How’s Mel coping?”
“Terrible,” I say without hesitation. “She’s completely broken up. Would have been better to have the confirmation he was dead.”
“She need Vi here? I can fly her down.”
I consider his suggestion for a moment. “Nah. Not right now, Prez. Let me see if I can handle her first.” And fuck I’m hoping she’ll start letting me in. Couldn’t stand to lose her. Just one more crime to lay at Skull’s feet.
“Red?” Red raises his chin toward Demon. “Your town, your mess to clean up if we confront Skull again.”
He means move it to the physical level. I want nothing more than to get my hands on the man who’s hurt my woman so badly, and hopefully in a dark alley. If I do, he won’t be walking away alive. But as Demon has suggested, me satisfying my lust for revenge would bring blowback on the Vegas club. Cops will be watching the Devils carefully, and particularly if Skull gets so much as a scratch. While I don’t like it, Demon’s right to take any decision out of my impulsive hands and give it to Red instead.
“That’s what we’re about to thrash out, Demon.”
Demon nods, and sits back, folding his arms across his chest, giving Red the floor.
The Vegas prez looks around the table. “To sum up, we found the fucker Colorado wanted found. Most of you were outside heard him admit he infiltrated the club as a plant.”
“Agree with what I heard,” Crash, the Vegas VP offers. “He’s found nothing, Colorado got away clean. Like us, they don’t run drugs or guns or take part in organised crime.”
“He could have been put in there to get dirt on other clubs,” Sparky suggests. “We cross paths with the Wretched Soulz from time to time.”
The Wretched Soulz are the dominant club across a lot of the states. Yeah, they’re into shit we wouldn’t touch, but they don’t normally involve us in any of their business, though they do have closer links with the Tucson chapter. But if that’s what Skull was hoping to find information on, he’d wasted eighteen months of his time working out of the Pueblo club.
“Why did he take an old lady?” Indian throws a look of sympathy my way.
I frown as I remember. “He encouraged Mel to get close to Vi, get her to talk about the club. When she reported back she’d learned only the rules and regulations, he wasn’t happy.”
It’s Red who takes over from me and expands my answer to their sergeant-at-arms, named because he rides an Indian instead of a Harley. He glances at Demon then suggests, “I surmise he wasn’t getting anything from discussions around the table. Maybe he thought there were things as a new patch he was being excluded from. Things which may have been discussed with a prez’s old lady.”
Demon snorts, and a ripple of chuckles go around. Shows how desperate Skull was becoming if he thought for a moment club business was shared as pillow talk.
“He was playing the long game.” Again, my brow furrows as I think back. “He brought Mel to the club before he went about claiming her. Wanted to make sure she was a good fit, he said, and that she could accept the club. Didn’t seem unreasonable at the time.”
“He’d have ditched her if there was going to be any problem with her, if she didn’t get on with the club, or them with her,” Titch, an older member with grey hair puts in. “Gave him a chance to see whether he’d found someone suitable. Your woman,” he raises his chin to me, “she must have proved herself.”
It might have been better if she hadn’t, given the way things had gone down.
“What no one’s brought up, is are we going to let him get away with it?” a biker called Hammer asks.
Red glances at Demon, then Beef, then looks my way and raises his eyebrow. I toss him a glare, but I can see why he’s silently asking me. I, in turn, look at my prez and VP. Demon raises his hand slightly as if inviting my views.
“If he’d have been any other man, I’d have taken him out, killed him and buried him in the desert. But, he’s a cop.” As I say it, I realise that the situation would never have occurred if he’d been anything else. “And him being a cop, you can be damn certain, if he even gets a bloody nose, fingers will point directly our way. And that, as Demon said, would leave you in a mess, Red.”
Red nods. “My thinking exactly. I do worry about why he was in Vegas, but maybe it’s his home base. He was here with his wife
after all. Now his cover’s been blown…”
“I’ll circulate his photo to all clubs and associations I can think of,” Keys puts in, earning himself a nod. “Put it on the dark web.”
“He might never be able to work undercover again.” Red gives an evil smirk. “And there might be someone just grateful to know who and where he is.”
“He won’t be here long,” I suggest. “He was going to up and leave everything. Whether it’s cops or feds they’ll know it’s too risky for him to stay close now. They’ll set him up somewhere else, maybe with a new identity. We were just fuckin’ lucky his wife wanted that toy for the kid.”
“Yeah, what’s with that?” asks Titch. “Surely they could buy another?”
There have been no babies in the Las Vegas club for years. I, at least, have experience of Theo.
Demon for one understands as he enlightens the childless members, “My kid won’t go to bed without his blankie. Screams the fuckin’ place down without it. Yeah, kids can latch on to something. Skull’s wife probably thought the risk was worth taking.”
Thank fuck she did.
Crash is nodding. “But now, I think it’s safe to assume they’re in the wind. Key’s is doing the right thing, he might pop up somewhere.”
“Hopefully dead,” Rope offers.
I slowly nod my head. Yeah. I’d like that. While I want to be the one to see him take his last breath, knowing he’s six foot under would give me some satisfaction.
“He’s mighty young for an undercover cop,” Judge puts in. “He told us he was twenty-three when he started as a hangaround and twenty-five when he met Mel.”
I bristle and prepare to defend my woman should Judge mention the age difference.
Red shakes his head. “Some men don’t look their age. I would have taken him to be older, just from the way he carried himself. But he picked an age that he thought would make him acceptable to the club. Young enough so he doesn’t have to explain a long history, old enough to have some experience of life.”
“We think he’s going to run. Shouldn’t we have followed him?” This from Twister.
“No.” Red’s reply is short and sweet.
“So, you’re proposing he gets away scot-free?” Crash’s eyes are wide.
Now Red shakes his head. “No, Mel came up with the right idea.”
I was wondering whether Red was going to address her suggestion. The more we’ve agreed that our hands are tied, the more I’ve been thinking of doing things her way. Though it wouldn’t provide me with the same satisfaction, locking him up and throwing away the key could be a good solution. Once he’s in prison, well, we’ve got friends who’d be delighted to have something to relieve their boredom.
Red continues, “She wants to take him on legally, and I reckon she’s got a good case.”
Murmurs and growls of discontent go around the table. Words like bikers and cops don’t mix can be heard.
Red’s unperturbed. “Look at it this way. He used sex and a woman who’d have been unwilling if she knew what she’d been getting into. Can’t believe that was sanctioned. Even cops working undercover are bound by rules. I’m hoping we can get him where it will hurt and not in a physical way. At the least get him disgraced and cost him his job.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I start with a menacing growl. I was going to say that was far away from what he deserves.
But Twister gets in before I can complete that thought. “I like the way you think, Prez.”
Twister does? I don’t. “I want him to hurt,” I yell. “Lose his fuckin’ job? He needs to go to prison and we’ll take it from there. He should lose his life.”
Twister leans down the table and looks directly at me. “Oh, he will. We’ll just have to wait until he’s no longer a cop.”
“Could take years, Prez,” Crash warns.
“Yeah. We’ll need legal advice. But I say that’s what Pyro’s woman needs to do.” Again, Red’s eyes are full of sympathy as they meet mine. “Say you take him out, Pyro. Go to her tell her he’s dead. She’s got questions with no answers going around her head, no closure, and she’ll have done nothing to right her pain. I might only have known her a short time, but she’s an intelligent woman, and as I told you earlier, women don’t think like us. She needs to be involved, needs her own retribution, something that allows her to take back control. Don’t like the idea of putting a gun in her hand, women tend to be better with words. Which means she sits in the driver’s seat on this.”
Demon says firmly, “I know Mel, and I think Red’s correct.”
That pulls me up. They had read Mel right. She might want him dead but wouldn’t want it to be by her hand. Taking control and bringing a case against him like she had suggested, well, that does, as Red said, put her firmly with her hand on the wheel.
Would it help her get her head on straight?
“One more thing, Brother.” Demon’s dark eyes find mine. “Skull didn’t deserve the patch that he wore. He wasn’t even the man he said. Under those circumstances, he can’t claim a woman, or keep her claimed. You’re free to do whatever you want in the eyes of the club. I know what all the brothers will say, don’t need to take a vote on this.”
Hands bang the table in support of my prez’s words. Men here might be a different chapter, but we all wear the same patch.
I raise my chin in acknowledgement of what I’d love to have heard even a few hours before. Right now, there’s a woman upstairs who may never want to be claimed by a biker again.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Melissa
I might be a grown woman in my thirties, but right now I need my mom. Rosa’s doing her best, but I’m longing for my parents, for the only two people in my life that accept me for what I am, and who I have absolutely no doubt, love me.
“You going to give your man a chance?”
“How can I?” I turn my face toward Rosa, wiping away another tear. “I trusted Skull. Oh, I didn’t at first, thought he was too young, that someone like him wouldn’t be attracted to someone like me. I was right, wasn’t I? Should have run a mile then. But I believed him, believed all the lies that came out of his mouth.”
“What do you mean, someone like you?” she says, sharply.
“I’m thirty-four years old. And I think I’d be described as the homely type. Not biker chick material. I’m curvy…”
“Mel, hon. Lots of men like curvy. Have you seen Angel?”
I shake my head, not knowing who she’s talking about.
“She’s one of our club girls. She’s curvy, and much in demand. When visiting members come to the club, it’s often her they head straight for.”
“Bet she’s young.”
Rosa shrugs. “I’m forty-eight,” she offers. “I met my man at twenty-eight. Didn’t put him off none. You’re thirty-four which isn’t over the hill. And, under those tears, you’ve got a really pretty face.”
“Didn’t make Skull stick around though, did it?” I should start calling him by his real name, but Donavon, or even Don, doesn’t seem right, even in my head. “I work for the local government, Rosa. I could have been a cop’s wife. But he never gave me the chance. If he thought half of what he’d led me to believe, he would’ve never just walked out.”
“He already had a wife, Mel, so that wasn’t an option. He was in a tight spot, albeit one of his own making.” Rosa plays devil’s advocate. “He obviously wanted to keep his career choice away from the club. If he’d told you, you might have told them. He couldn’t take the chance.”
I can’t contradict her. I’ve gotten close to the club. I couldn’t risk Vi’s man being sent down without warning them. Skull admitting he was undercover would have had to have led to an explanation that he wasn’t free to pursue a relationship with me. Yeah, my loyalties may very well have switched to my new friends, instead of the man I professed to love.
“They’d have been out for his blood.” Rosa continues, “He probably wouldn’t have made it out alive. This be
trayal is too great.”
“But he’s protected…”
“He is now, but then? If he’d told you, he’d have never gotten out of town.”
Stubbornly I tell her, “But he could have contacted me and explained after he left…” I remember the despair I’d felt when day after day passed and I’d heard no word.
“Same thing. There was a risk you’d tell the club, and they’d never have given up searching for him.”
I still can’t get my head around how he walked away earlier without even a backward glance. “Rosa… he was so cold. Even when I told him about the baby. He,” again the sobs rise, “he, he asked me to do a DNA test.”
“You probably shocked him.” She snorts. “That’s probably the last thing he wanted to hear in front of his wife. Fuck, that has probably destroyed their relationship.”
“You sound like you’re on his side, Rosa.”
“The only side I’m on is yours. Look. What he’s done is despicable. Looking at the cold hard facts I’m not surprised you’re feeling as bad as you are. I’m trying to help you. Right now, you’re looking at black and white.” As she says the colours, she holds out one hand then the other palm facing up. “Somewhere there’s the truth, and it probably sits more to one side than the other.”
I shake my head. “The truth is, he lied to me then deserted me. Can’t get any plainer than that.”
She purses her lips, and a moment passes before she speaks again. “Yeah, try as I might, I can’t find a way to soften that blow.”
“He raped me, Rosa. I’d never have consented had I known I was being used. He violated me. Took my trust and gave it back to me in tatters. He broke my heart when I thought he was dead, then, when I found he was alive, I had to mourn all over again, this time because he’d knowingly left me. Now?” I put my fist to my mouth. How the hell do I go on?
She tilts her head to one side while she examines me. “What’s Pyro like?”
Devil's Dilemma: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #4 Page 25
