“Oh?” I’d like to protest. I like the thought of staying in my man’s bed, even if he’s not in it with me. But if he hadn’t disappeared, neither I, nor the club, would be in this mess. So I settle for, “Where will I be staying then?”
“In my room,” he says, adding fast before I can object, “but not with me. I’ll be elsewhere.”
I glance up at the man so much taller than Skull. He wasn’t kidding about people being moved around. It seems lockdown is putting him out, and under the circumstances I can’t complain.
The only room I know is Skull’s. I’ve no idea where Pyro’s is, so I let him lead me up the industrial metal staircase, taking in the doors along the corridor off to the right and the left. Something looks different. I stop when I see what it is. All the door handles are now upside down.
“Er,” I speak, my voice making him stop. “Is this some new club fetish? A charm against evil spirits, perhaps?” It reminds me of stuff I’ve read about the Winchester House where it was built deliberately to confuse.
“What?” Then he notices where I’m pointing, and again, laughs. “Nah, that’s to stop Bitch getting into the rooms. Darn cat can swing on the handles to open them.”
I know that. Skull had always locked his door to keep her out. Once when he’d forgotten, he’d asked me to lift her up and carry her out.
“Yeah,” Pyro continues with his explanation, “our new VP got them turned around as one of his first jobs.”
I spare a longing, lingering glance at Skull’s door, as we pass. Pyro notices, for a second his hand squeezes my shoulder. Then, two doors down, he opens another. He’s right that the handles have only been changed recently, it seems to take him a moment to work out how the mechanism now works.
“Fuck.” He swears as he opens the door. “Sorry, Mel. Give me a sec.” He rushes in, picking up bundles of clothes from the floor and moving, well, I don’t know what it is, but it looks like part of an engine.
I notice his saddlebags containing my stuff have been placed on his bed. I step toward them.
“Prospect brought them up. I’d have tidied if I’d remembered, well…” his voice trails off. I don’t need the explanation he’s an untidy man.
But it doesn’t take long for him to make the room cleaner, most of the clothes go into a linen basket. He opens the closet and nods. “There’s some space to hang your clothes, just push mine aside.” Then he moves to the drawers and starts emptying one. “Will this do, for now?”
“Yes, I just need somewhere to put my underwear.”
He tenses slightly as men sometimes do when a woman’s unmentionables are brought into the conversation.
“The bathroom’s through there.” I nod. Same layout as Skull’s room, perhaps a little larger. The bed, itself, is massive, but then Pyro is a big man.
“Right.” He’s stopped busying himself. “Okay then. I’ll leave you to get settled.”
All of a sudden, I don’t want him to go. “What happens now, Pyro?”
His hand rakes through his hair. “Jeez, Mel, I wish I could tell you otherwise, but all we can do is wait. Cad and the others are still working their magic. Hopefully they’ll turn something up, or not. Once they’ve searched everywhere, if they don’t find him, it’s a good sign. Might mean he’s holed up with a friend.”
“Or someone’s holding him.” Or there’s a body to find that hasn’t been discovered yet. But I don’t voice that fear aloud.
Pyro slowly nods. “If they are, I’ll put money on it that it wouldn’t be long before they make contact. I mean, without someone stepping up and taking responsibility, it sends no message and makes no sense.”
Chapter Fifteen
Pyro
“It makes no fuckin’ sense,” I slam my hand down on the table. Sure, I’m feeling irritable. Five nights sleeping on the all too small couch in the clubroom will do that to a man. Now the brothers attending our normal Wednesday church are bearing the brunt of it. “He’s been gone over a week, and we’ve found no fuckin’ trace. Neither he, nor anyone else has made contact.”
“Hate to say it, but the obvious answer is he’s gone dirty side up and is lying in the bottom of a ravine somewhere,” Lizard comments, the corners of his mouth turned down.
“Our search parties have found nothing. Skull is a good rider,” Thunder observes.
“Could have been oil on the road, an animal run out. Accidents happen, Brother,” Mace counters.
“Or it could have been fuckin’ deliberate,” offers Buzzard.
“That doesn’t make sense either.” Prez wipes a hand over his tired face. “Someone wants a Devil dead, they’d step up and take responsibility.”
Wasn’t that what I just said? Truth is, we’re going around and around in circles, making no headway at all. I’ve been out enough times trying to find signs of an incident anywhere an unreported accident might have happened. A damaged guard rail, debris on the road. Anything I’ve found I’ve stopped and investigated. Trouble is, there are miles and miles of road where Skull could have upended his bike, we don’t know which direction he was headed. There’s always the possibility that however eagle-eyed we try to be, we might miss something. At the end of the day there’s an empty seat around the table that should be filled. That I find unacceptable.
“It’s fuckin’ worrying he hasn’t used his credit or debit cards at all. Would he have had much cash on him?”
Trust our treasurer to think of the money trail.
“Who the fuck knows?” Thunder leans back and folds his arms. “If he’s staying with a friend, maybe he isn’t paying for anything.”
“Before anyone asks, his phone’s not come back to life,” Cad puts in.
“How’s Melissa coping?” the VP asks, his brow furrowed as he too tries to work through the conundrum of Skull’s continued absence.
“She’s being brave,” I tell him. “I think the fact she’s pregnant is helping her through. She’s trying to be strong and doing the right things for the baby. She’s got an appointment with Vi’s OB/GYN arranged.” Mel had decided to tell everyone she was pregnant, Vi’s advice apparently. It had been good advice too. Everyone would have supported her as I’d already told her, but knowing she was carrying a Devil inside had somehow made all the brothers more protective than they would otherwise have been.
Demon’s nodding. “Good. It gives her something to focus on. I’ve asked Violet to get her involved with Theo, talk about baby shit. Anything to keep her mind off where Skull could be.”
“How long are we going to be on lockdown, Prez?” I glance at the person who asked the question. I swear Hellfire gets a glint in his eye when he refers to his son with that title. As if he’s pleased he’s no longer got the responsibility of sitting at the head of the table, and proud he raised a son good enough to be voted in in his place.
Demon glares, a hidden message of ‘ask me something easy, will ya?’ then rubs at his beard. “How’s everyone managing?” He sees the look on my face, then grimaces.
“Mo’s complaining. Wants to get back to her yard. Reckons she’s got plants needing watering.” Hellfire raises his hands in a what can you do gesture when the mention of flowers brings snorts.
“Well send a fuckin’ prospect to do it,” Prez snarls. Followed up with, “It poured down yesterday, how much water do fuckin’ plants need?”
Hellfire shrugs.
“Sindy’s fine. Long as she gets out to do her job, she’s happy enough.” Buzzard’s wife is a receptionist at our auto-shop. Prospects are on a rotation taking the old ladies to work. Mel started back a couple of days ago, but I’ve been following her myself.
“So, apart from Mo, no one’s going stir crazy?”
“Not as yet, Prez. But it will come.”
Demon acknowledges Mace. Then thinks for a moment. “To sum up, Skull’s still missing. Wretched Soulz had nothing, as you know, and the Silvestris are having enough internal problems without trying to start a war with us. If anyone has got Sk
ull and is enjoying making us sweat, they may be holding on before issuing their demand or threat. I appreciate everyone’s cooperation, no one likes being cooped up. And agree, this can’t go on forever. At some point, we’ll let people go home.”
“Can you firm up on a date? It might make Mo happy to know there’s an end in sight.”
Demon gives a slow nod. “We’ll reassess at next week’s church. If nothing happens by then, we can only assume Skull’s dead, or decided to fuckin’ walk out on the club without turning in his patch.”
“You going to strip him of his membership?” Beef asks.
As growls go around the table, Prez bangs his fist. “If we find him breathing, got to be done, Brothers. We get patched in because of our loyalty to the club and the trust we’ve earned. Skull left with no word. This time next week he’ll have been gone almost three weeks. He won’t deserve his patch unless he’s got a good fuckin’ excuse.”
“If he’s not breathing?” I ask.
“Then he’s still a member, even dead.” This time there are murmurs of agreement.
“If he is in the land of the living, or dead by someone else’s hands, Prez, we got another problem. We’ve a cut in the wind.”
“Like that about as much as you, Beef. But until the man turns up, got to assume it’s lost.”
No club likes losing one of their cuts. It’s not unknown for someone to impersonate a member of a different club to get them into trouble. As glances are exchanged no words need to be said, but one more possible reason for Skull going missing has to be acknowledged. Someone didn’t want him but wanted our colours instead.
“Time will tell,” Demon says, pragmatically. “All we can do is record its loss. If it ever turns up with the wrong man attached to it, he’ll fuckin’ wish he’d never been born.”
Amen to that.
I remain seated as the others move on out.
Demon starts to move past, and then stops. “You okay, Ro? Apart from having to sleep in the clubroom?”
At the reminder my hand goes up to the back of my neck and I rub it. “I’m just wondering how the fuck I can tell Mel we’re giving up.”
“Not giving up, Ro.”
“Seems like next week we will be. If we call lockdown off, to her it will appear we’re assuming Skull’s dead.”
“You think he’s not?”
I shake my head. Can’t deny that I do, though of course, I’m keeping that from Mel. “I just expected a body to turn up, you know? Have a funeral, bury him with club honours. Give her and us closure.”
Demon’s finger and thumb find the brow of his nose. “Melissa’s been pretty tied up with all this pregnancy stuff. Worrying whether she was, then, wondering how she’ll cope. I reckon early pregnancy under normal circumstances is stressful enough.”
“What’s on your mind, Prez?” My senses sharpen. Something definitely is.
“I’m wondering whether she’s got info she hasn’t shared.”
I scoff, “You think she’s holding out on us? She’s not. I can assure you of that. Girl’s fuckin’ distraught.”
“Sometimes people know more than they think they do. Things which seemed insignificant at the time, can add up.”
As I stare at him, I realise he may well have a point. “Want to talk to her now?”
“No time like the present, as they say.”
Mel’s out in the clubroom, she’s actually chatting to Mo. That’s one person whose attitude toward Skull’s woman did a complete turnaround once she knew she had a child on the way. I interrupt, having to say quickly there’s no news when her eyes light up briefly, and then ask that she come with me to see Prez.
“Need to pick your brains, Melissa,” Prez starts after she sits down opposite him. I stand against the wall behind her. “Sometimes people let things slip when they don’t mean to, and we’ve been wondering if that applies to Skull.”
“I’ve told you everything I know.” She looks mystified.
The door opens, I move out of the way.
“Yeah, come in Beef. Thought it would be useful to have the VP in on this. You mind?”
Mel shakes her head. “I just don’t know how I can help you. I’ve told you everything that happened. If I’d have thought of anything else, I’d have let you, or at least Pyro, know.”
Beef raises his chin toward Demon and gets a jerk of the prez’s head back. He takes a breath. “Something’s been playing at the back of my mind like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Wasn’t able to grab hold of it until Prez mentioned he was going to speak to you just now. Something that Steph said months back. That day when we’d returned from the cabin.”
Mel looks confused. As do I. I fold my arms and wait for the VP to elaborate.
“I was going to have ‘the chat’ with her,” he uses air quotes, “about the club. Turned out most of the things I was telling her, she already knew.”
None of us are up to speed yet.
“I’d left her with you, Mel, VI, Jeannie, and I think Jay was there too. I asked her outright whether she’d asked about the club, and her reply was no, that was you.” Beef pauses and sends an apologetic look toward Demon. “This may be nothing at all, and I’m not accusing you of anything Mel, but it’s been bugging me as to why you would have to have asked. Skull must have surely had ‘the talk’ with you? You’d been together a while by then. I know he wanted you to get comfortable with the club before he claimed you, and us with you. In that case I would have thought he’d have explained what to expect before you set foot on the compound.”
“He did.” Mel frowns, then puts her hand to her head and rubs at her temple.
Beef opens his mouth, but she holds her palm toward him. “Wait a moment.” We give her that minute, then another. Finally, she opens her mouth. “He’d asked me to ask about the club. I’d forgotten about that. Yes, you’re right. He’d told me all the stuff about the cut, what it meant, the brotherhood, but… he kept asking what Violet knew.”
We look at each other, then back at her. She’s shaking her head. “The day before he left, he’d asked me what I’d been talking to Violet about. I told him Theo’s new tooth. It wasn’t the right answer. Oh, he wasn’t angry, he was disappointed. I don’t know what he meant. He never told me exactly what to ask, or what he wanted me to find out.”
“Did it strike you as odd?” Demon asks in a deceptively quiet tone.
“No. I was more confused.”
Her head is bowed, and her eyes are half closed.
“Mel?” Beef asks, like me, wondering if perhaps she’s become overwhelmed.
But when she looks up, she gives a quick shake of her head and her eyes contain a spark. “You’re right! There’s something else. Something I hadn’t thought particularly odd at the time, but now you’re asking… That night when he walked out of the room and I said it looked like he was going to make a call… I was more shocked that he’d got dressed and I couldn’t understand what he was doing.”
Demon’s already shaking his head. “There was no call. Cad’s already found that out.”
Mel ignores him and carries on, “He had a phone, but not his phone. Not the one he normally used. He fumbled in the back of a drawer and brought it out. I’m sorry, I didn’t even register it at the time. I was too shocked at his reaction. Didn’t think it was important. It’s only when you asked if he’d said or done anything strange.”
My jaw drops. He could still have indeed made a call, but from a burner that we didn’t know about. The questions are, why, and who to?
Demon stands so fast his chair falls over. “Come.” He’s looking directly at Mel, but she’s not the only one to follow him out of the room. Both Beef and I are hot on his heels as he clangs up the metal stairway and along the hall, pausing only to rap hard against the door before slinging it open. Then closes it fast.
“I did not need to see that,” he snarls, then raps the door again. “Get your fuckin’ clothes on fast. I need to come in.”
The door opens a
gain and Hell’s standing there wearing jeans with the button undone and a smirk.
“You’ve fuckin’ scarred me for life, old man,” Demon rasps, while behind him, Beef and I are trying our best not to laugh.
I do have some sympathy. Who wants to walk in on their mom and dad having sex?
“Where’s Mo?”
“In the bathroom,” Hell responds. “What’s so fuckin’ urgent you stopped me, well…”
“Fuckin’ traumatising me.”
Yeah, but as he supplied the word fucking, Beef and I lose our battle and crack up.
Hell ignores us. “What do you want?”
In turn, Demon ignores Hell, turning instead to Mel. “Which drawer?”
Stepping gingerly into the room, Mel points it out. Beef goes across, yanks it out, and feels behind it, then shouts in triumph. I go across and look. It would be too much to hope that we’d find the phone, but what we do discover is that the drawer has a fake bottom. All manner of stuff could be hidden in there.
I turn to Mel, but she’s looking as confused as us.
Skull, it would appear, has secrets.
Demon glances at Mel then jerks his head toward me. Taking the hint, I take her hand and encourage her out of the room.
“What does it mean, Pyro?”
Opening the door to her… my room, I can only shake my head. “I have no fuckin’ idea, and that’s the honest truth.”
“He had a secret drawer where he kept a phone hidden.” She proves her eyes work as well as mine. “He wanted to find out information about the club by using me. What on earth could I find out that he didn’t already know?”
I suspect the prez and VP are having a very similar discussion now, but I can’t leave Mel. She’s too worked up.
I have a few ideas of my own. “You know how Skull got patched in?”
“He prospected for eleven months, then got voted in.”
I nod. “That’s true, but not quite all of it.” I point to my own bed, and she nods her permission for me to sit. “Have you spoken much to Jay? About what happened when she first came here?”
Satan’s Devils MC -Colorado Box Set: Books 4-6 Page 13
