Rufus nods. “Did Skull know there was an undercurrent of distrust?”
“We didn’t discuss it in front of him. I can’t tell you whether he picked anything up.”
“Okay. Moving on. When did he approach you, Melissa?”
I raise my hand. “Mel doesn’t know the implications of the timeline. I’ll say this first. It wasn’t long after he patched in that he said he had a woman he’d like to bring around the club. See if she liked us, and if we were going to accept her.”
“That the usual way you do things?”
“Not normally, but then, Colorado doesn’t have many old ladies. Pal arrived with his woman, Jay, Buzz has been married to Sindy for years, same with Bomber and Hellfire with their old ladies. But going by the other clubs, when members find a woman they like, they’re prepared to walk through hell and high water for them, even offering to give up their patch if the club doesn’t vote them in.”
“So what Skull was proposing was different?”
“He was a new member, fresh to the table. Didn’t think too much of it at the time. But if Mel hadn’t liked his new brothers, or we didn’t take to her, it might have made him reconsider getting deeper into a relationship with her. In a way it seemed sensible to check her out, and for her to see if she liked the lifestyle.” I glance her way, but she doesn’t seem hurt, just interested.
In fact, she speaks up for herself. “That’s the way he sold it to me too. Though, to me, he said he’d leave the club if I didn’t like it.” She pouts, then adds, “Which was just another one of his lies.”
“Yes,” Rufus surmises, sparing a glance of sympathy toward his daughter. “If Melissa hadn’t worked out, his intention was probably that he’d move on to another woman who was more suitable.”
I glance at Mel quickly. Her father’s gotten to the heart of it. Her face has gone tight, but I think she’s already accepted she was the means to Skull finding out more about the club.
“Looking back,” he addresses his daughter, “does this fit the facts as you saw them then?”
Mel takes over. “Yes.” I reach for her hand, it trembles. “He targeted me as he thought I was someone who’d fit. I was not a person anyone would be suspicious of meeting. It was an odd coupling, as he was so much younger.”
“Appeared to be,” I put in tersely.
“Well,” she shrugs, “his appearance worked. What woman wouldn’t be flattered that a younger man wanted her?”
“Any man in his right fuckin’ mind would want you, Mel,” I growl, vowing I’ll spend the rest of my days making her believe it.
I notice a hard look has crossed her dad’s face as he realises how little self-confidence she has, and how much Skull weakened even that.
“He inveigled himself into your life. You brought him to meet us.”
Mel nods. “He led me to believe it was serious.”
“Your mom and I thought it was.”
Rufus hasn’t seen serious yet. Just wait until I can demonstrate how much I feel for his daughter. Now, though, is not the right time.
“Tell me about getting pregnant.”
I can see Mel’s shifting a little awkwardly in her seat, uncomfortable addressing the topic in front of Rufus, so I wink at her. “Well, you see a man has…”
“Pyro!” she gasps.
Her dad chuckles. “I don’t need that level of detail. Though I do need to ask some personal stuff. Who was responsible for contraception?”
Mel’s now bright red. I send her a chin lift of encouragement, while wishing I didn’t have to listen to this. But if it gets to a court, she’s going to need to become immune to discussing the private details of her life.
“He was,” she says, after taking a deep breath. “He used condoms. One night he didn’t, and we got away with it. The next time, well, you know the rest.”
“Was there any discussion about using them or not? Did he give you the choice?”
Mel shakes her head. “It was, er, in the throes of passion shall we say? He forgot, and I, well, I didn’t notice.”
“Tell your dad what happened the next time,” I prompt. “Skull’s reaction when he realised.”
“It was when Beef got patched over. We’d both had a few drinks at the party which followed, well him a lot more than me. When he realised what he’d done, he became angry when I refused to consider the morning-after pill.” She wipes her eye which is clearly watering. “He said something about bad timing and walked out. Stayed away all night but came back the next morning and said he’d come to his senses. Then not quite two weeks after that, he was gone.”
Now it’s Rufus’ face that’s gone red. “He was angry?” He leans forward. “Did he hurt you, Melissa?”
“Only with words,” she says fast. “He was more annoyed with himself than me.”
“Hold on.” I motion to them both to give me a moment. “He mentioned 'bad timing'? Did he explain that at all?”
She shakes her head.
Rufus sits back. “Could be he already knew his assignment was ending. This is a man who in his real life already has a woman and child. Of course, he didn’t want to take risks with you. Yet, down to his own stupidity, he did.” He pauses and breathes deeply trying to get himself under control. I realise then how hard this will be as a father representing his daughter, and how difficult it must be to separate his professional interest from the personal one.
“He didn’t need Mel just for sex,” I explain. “He could, and before he got with Mel, did, get that easily from the club girls.”
Rufus looks at me sharply. “You have women hanging around your club?”
I come clean. “We have five sweet butts, club whores.” At his thinly veiled expression of disgust, I explain, “Whether or not we’re into legal or illegal shit, we like to keep club business close. By having women who depend on the club, we can keep it in the family, if you like. They are there for the benefit of the members and for what they get out of it. And before you ask, they’re there voluntarily and free to leave at any time.”
“And what exactly do they get out of it?”
“Board, lodging, pocket money, and bikers who give them a good time. If they didn’t enjoy what they do, they wouldn’t stay.”
He seems slightly appeased.
“You said Skull went with these women?”
“Yes, when he was first patched in. Though not from the time he met Mel.” I’ve confirmed that. I asked them. “He wouldn’t have been thought any the worse of if he had an old lady and used the whores too. Not that anyone in our club does that, but in others? Well, it’s considered part of the lifestyle. But the fact is, Skull did not.”
“He was, however, stepping out on his wife.”
My shoulders rise and fall. “What we saw was a man who committed to his ol’ lady once he found her.”
I notice Mel’s still holding the water she’d been given an hour or so ago and hasn’t touched it. Leaning forward, I take the glass out of her hands and place it on the desk in front of us. “You okay, darlin’?”
She gives a small rise and dip of her head. I send a pointed glare toward her father.
He takes the hint. “Let me get a few more details, then the two of you can get some rest. Just talk me through what happened when Skull disappeared.”
“Mel was a mess,” I speak for her. It’s hard for me not to choke up as I take my mind back to those initial days. “We didn’t know whether he was dead or alive, whether he left voluntarily or had been taken. Club took the decision to go on lockdown, that means bringing everyone in who might be a target so we can protect them, family as well as club members. When nothing happened, it seemed the most likely scenario was that he’d had an accident, and we just hadn’t found him.”
“You reported him missing?”
“To the cops, yes. Mel found out she was pregnant. Skull had known it was a possibility, but he never checked.” At this point I’m speaking through gritted teeth. “I stepped up, at first because he was my
brother, and then, well, I’ve always held Mel in the highest respect. My feelings grew and changed as we spent more time together.”
Rufus looks from me to Mel, then back to me again. “Your relationship…” he starts, pauses, then continues, after coughing to clear his throat, “you became close… physically?”
“No,” I say fast. “Not that I didn’t want to, can’t deny that. But Mel was grieving, she needed time to come to terms with her man’s disappearance. We moved slowly, until the point came when both of us were ready to take the next step. But events interfered with that. Mel and I became…” I’m equally at a loss as to how to admit to him I’ve fucked his daughter, “close, only very recently.”
His eyes widen a little as though he hadn’t expected that. “Because, four and a half months later, Skull turned up?”
I raise my chin in confirmation.
Rufus copies the gesture back. “Tell me how you found him.”
Mel takes over the story. “If my friend from work, Beth, hadn’t seen him and taken his photo, we might never have known. But she went to Vegas for the weekend and stumbled across him. Pyro and I, along with other members of his club went to see if we could track him down, and we did. That’s when we found out he was nothing I’d believed him to be, and then I lost…” She starts crying.
I get out of my chair, pull her up and hold her tightly.
“That’s all for tonight,” I tell her dad, gruffly, then, even if it is rude, I lead her out of the room without saying anything else to him.
“I don’t give a fuck,” I start, as I take her into the room she’s been allocated, “if your parents want to keep us apart. I’m not leaving you. This evening’s been fuckin’ hard on you.”
“And on you too, Pyro. But we do have to dig it all up. If I’m taking him on, my dad’s interrogation will be nothing in comparison to a defence lawyer.”
That she’s right doesn’t mean I have to like it.
“You didn’t want whisky. Is that in case?”
She gives a tiny nod. “If we’re not going to do anything to prevent it, I want to do this right. From the very start.”
“You did nothing wrong before,” I tell her, willing her to believe it, not wanting her to carry around any guilt. “If the stress contributed to or brought on the miscarriage, then that’s all on Skull, nothing on you.”
“But my reaction…”
“Was the same as any normal person’s, Mel.”
“I just want to be careful, you know?”
I do. I help her undress. Then, in deference to being in her parents’ home and not in my assigned room, I leave on my jeans and, like I have so many times before, do nothing more than lie on the bed and wrap her in my arms.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Melissa
“Sleep well?”
As Mom gives a pointed look to Pyro he replies without missing a beat. “Like a f… baby.”
I hold my breath wondering if she’s going to say anything, reminding myself I’m in my thirties and shouldn’t be scared of my mom knowing what I get up to with my man.
But when she winks at me before turning back to getting breakfast going, I know we probably did exactly what she expected and ended up sharing the same bed.
Biting back my desire to defend myself and tell her we didn’t get up to anything, I ask instead, “Where’s Dad?”
“In his office. He’s been there since early this morning. He wants to see you both when you’re fed.”
Well, that’s the reason we’ve come here. We eat, then waste no time going to the room where Dad’s holed up. There are papers all over the desk which last night was tidy.
“Ah, come in, sit,” he says distractedly after only a brief glance up. “I’ve been doing some research. This is where I’ve got with my thinking.” He removes his glasses, polishes them, then replaces them on his nose. “First, Skull was at the MC as an undercover cop, more likely a federal agent, placed there to unearth criminal activity. By drawing Mel into it, by making her part of the club, he was knowingly involving her in any illegal activity that may have been committed.”
“But there was nothing…”
“Pyro, it’s not what he found, but what he expected to, or could have, found.” Dad gives him a hard stare which makes him shut up.
“Now, he offered an inducement to Melissa.”
“What inducement?” It’s my turn to interrupt.
“The inducement of having a relationship which you were led to believe was serious and long-term. Would you have gone with him otherwise?”
“No,” I say, indignantly. “I wasn’t, and have never been, someone who’d want a fling. Any relationship would need to have at least the potential of being permanent.”
“Exactly. Secondly, the FBI’s own guidelines for their agents say that no undercover activity involving an inducement to an individual to engage in crime shall be authorised unless the subject is engaging, has engaged or is likely to engage in illegal activity.”
Pyro raises his eyes at me.
“Of course,” Dad continues, “their guidelines also say that it is okay if the person is predisposed to engage in the contemplated illegal conduct, which could be their out.”
“Because she’s remained with the club.” Pyro’s quicker than me.
“Yes. Though we will counter that she discovered, as presumably Skull did himself, that the club is not involved in illegal activity. At the time Skull, presumably, believed that it was. Of course, there are exceptions. An innocent can be dragged in if it’s necessary to protect life or prevent other serious harm.”
“That’s not the case.”
“No, I don’t see how that argument could be offered up. Oh, they might try, but I think we’ll be able to refute it. They’d need to offer proof, but I doubt they could find any.”
“So that’s the legal ground? What about what happened to me?” It’s all well and good talking about whether I was potentially being dragged into a life of crime when other things are more important instead. “What about how it affected me mentally? I lost my baby.”
“Hush.” Pyro’s reached for my hand and is now squeezing it. “I don’t think your dad has finished.”
Dad’s eyes view me with a parent’s concern. “That, obviously, sweetheart, is the crux of the case. But first I have to use the lawyer speak to show Skull was acting wrongly. It’s the personal hurt and distress to you which was the damage caused. Now we look at how to measure it.” He pauses, again, and looks at some notes on his desk. “First, if Skull was doing this with the blessing of his handler, then I don’t doubt there will be written reports about you. The first thing I’ll do is demand we get copies of them. That will show how far the invasion of privacy went.”
“And if he didn’t involve his superiors?”
“The rest of our case stands and perhaps is strengthened. Secondly, there was the psychological torture when Skull disappeared. You had no clue he was still alive and went through the process of grieving.”
“Can we go back a step, Dad? Wasn’t it rape? The man I lived with was not who I thought he was.”
“No, beating a dead horse there. Obtaining sexual consent due to having a false identity is not a crime. And feds specifically give immunity from prosecution for their undercover agents for using a false identity. I think we’d waste time and would lose that point.” At my look of disbelief, he continues, “There’s precedent where cases of misrepresentation haven’t even reached the court. Think of the can of worms it would open, a man, or a woman, who portrayed himself as single, but was married—well, if there was a conviction of rape in those cases the prisons would soon be overfilled.”
“Skull was married.”
“Yes. But if that was the sole complaint, would you be reporting him for rape?”
I’d want to slap his face, scream, rant and rage, and accuse him of acting without my consent. Dad’s right. I would not. “So, what do we go on?” I’m not happy I can’t throw that charge at S
kull, but Dad knows his stuff, and I’ll have to concede on that point.
“That he used you, an innocent civilian, for a purpose you were not aware of. That he left without a backward glance shows while he tricked you into what you thought was a permanent relationship, he had no such feelings for you. That he took responsibility for protecting you from pregnancy, that he failed in that and again, didn’t check to find out whether or not there were ramifications. There were, and then you lost the baby, possibly due to the stress. I know there’s no medical evidence to support that, but also none against it. If it goes in front of a jury, that’s something that could sway them.”
“I’ve got the DNA results back,” Pyro informs him. “I found Skull’s old toothbrush in the box of his belongings that someone packed up. I’ve sent both results to an expert Demon’s used in the past.”
Of course, we’ve no doubt Skull’s the father, but the court may have.
“So, we can prove whatever he says, it was his baby.”
Was. I blink rapidly to fight back the tears. My son’s true father might have been a bastard, but Pyro would have raised my son well and showed him the rights and wrongs of the world, which don’t include being a cheating liar.
I feel my hand being squeezed. Pyro showing his support yet again.
Dad drums his fingers on the desk. “The initial step is to file a claim with the FBI. They will either agree or dismiss it.”
“If they don’t agree we’ve got a case?”
“Then you can file a lawsuit against the agency and raise a civil suit against them in the United States District Court. Of course, they may not respond, in which case we can go straight to court. We might want to consider a Federal Tort Claim. Section 28 applies as you were injured by the wrongful or negligent act of a federal employee while he was carrying out his official duties.”
“Injured?” I query.
“In this case, mentally. We have to show that, of course. There’s no doubt Skull misused you and went against the FBI rules when he blatantly tried to corrupt you and involve you in, what he believed at the time, was an MC conducting illegal activities.”
Devil's Dilemma: Satan's Devils MC Colorado Chapter #4 Page 31
