I wish he had, then I wouldn’t be in this position.
From Clare’s reluctance to go to him, I think she’s realised she has a lot of thinking to do. I suppose you might be able to forgive a man for a one-night stand he couldn’t safely get out of, but to father a child with another woman?
Red puts himself between Clare and Skull and addresses himself to her. “You don’t have to go with him,” he suggests. “We’ve got no argument with you. If you need help, we can give it to you.”
Clare looks astonished. Her eyes widen, and her hand goes to her head.
“She’s coming with me,” Skull states angrily.
Clare looks from him to Red, then back again, then sighs. She eyes the mob of angry bikers with disdain in her eyes, then again shakes her head and finally steps closer to her man.
I watch them leave, hoping she’ll leave his lying sorry ass, but then, who knows what a woman will do? If I have my way, he’ll be arrested and charged. He’s destroyed my life and for nothing at all. If he’d found anything on the Satan’s Devils MC, surely warrants would have been issued already.
When he walks up the stairs and disappears from my sight, it’s anti-climatic.
It’s only then I’m aware of the tears streaming from my eyes.
“Church in half an hour,” Red announces. “Pyro, see to your woman.”
Pyro puts his arm around me. I push him away. My skin feels like ants are crawling all over me. How could I have been taken in by the man who’s just walked away from me and his baby without a backward glance?
It had been clear every word he’d ever said to me had been untrue. How could I ever trust anyone ever again?
Even Pyro.
Suddenly I don’t want any man to touch me.
“Don’t cry, Mel. Darlin’, let me comfort you. Babe…”
“No, Pyro. Leave me alone.”
“Mel, please. Let me hold you.”
“No!” Again I push him away. How could I believe even him? Skull, Donavan Jordan, had targeted me and seduced me, led me to believe it was me he wanted, me he had claimed. In the biker world that was as good as being married. Me. A thirty-four-year-old overweight woman. I’d been right all along; no man wants me.
“Mel.”
“No. I want to be alone.” I turn abruptly. I don’t want to see, talk to anyone. I can feel the pitying glances from the men still milling around burning into me.
“Mel, sweetheart.” It’s Sparky. “Mel…” but his voice trails off as though there’s nothing he can say.
They’re probably wondering why I believed how a man like Jordan, or any man come to that, could want me.
“Mel, I love you.” Pyro’s words are spoken loudly.
I swing around. “Do you?” I scream, my vehemence making him stagger a step back. “Do you? How can I believe a word that you or anyone says? How can I ever trust anyone again?”
“Mel, you’ve had a shock.” Red shoos Pyro away. “Pyro, she wants some space. Come Mel.” Now it’s the Vegas prez trying to put his arm around me, but I shrug him away too.
I walk up into the clubhouse and quickly take the stairs to the room that’s been made available to Pyro and me. I slam the door shut behind me.
I draw in air, then sob it out. Then do it again. Huge racking sobs start going through me, my body violently shaking as each escapes. If I thought thinking Skull was dead had upset me, it’s nothing to how I feel today. I’ve been torn apart. Everything I ever believed in taken away: my confidence, my ability to read people, my trust, my love which, at the end of the day, counted for nothing.
I can hardly breathe between my cries.
Who am I? A stupid woman who trusted a man.
Never again.
Never again will I give my heart to a man who has such power to hurt me.
“Darlin’…”
“Get out!” I scream at Pyro. “Get out! Get out! Get out!”
He’s suddenly pushed aside from the doorway.
“Leave her be,” Rosa says as she enters the room. “Mel, hon, oh, Mel.”
Her arms I can tolerate as they come around me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Pyro
Cop or not I should have killed him. May have meant I’d gone to prison for life, or, in Nevada, face the death penalty. But it would have been worth it to wipe that smarmy look off his face and stop those words coming out of his mouth that had so hurt the woman I love.
The woman who’s now pushed me away.
I want nothing more than to be the one comforting her.
As I stand, banished from the room from which I can still hear her distraught sobbing, Red approaches me.
His hand lands on my shoulder. “I have no words, Brother. I just don’t know what to say. What that motherfucker has done to that woman? He betrayed her trust in the worst possible way. She’s going to need a lot of help and support to recover.”
“She needs him dead.”
“She needs more than that, Pyro. Killing him is our way, a man’s way. She was out of control, in a situation she gave no consent to. Thought he’d chosen her as a life partner, she found out she was being used.” He tugs at his ginger beard. “Christ, we’ve all been taken for fools. May have happened in Colorado, but he pretended to be a true Devil, the betrayal touches us too. Yeah, I feel you. Think there’s a line forming of people who want to eradicate him, but that won’t help your woman in there. Closure is what she needs, and a dead body won’t provide that.”
A loud wail sounds from the room I’d so recently been thrown out of. I squeeze my eyes shut and tighten my hands into fists to stop myself opening the door that separates me from the woman I love. “I need to see her. Help her…”
Red’s eyes soften. “Know you do, Pyro. Know you’d give your fuckin’ life to make things right for her. I know this is fuckin’ hard for you to accept, but it’s not you she wants right now.”
She’s made that clear. “I thought it would be me she turned to.”
“Think, Pyro, think. She was with a man who claimed her, and told her he loved her. Now she knows that was all a game, and she got played.”
His words filter through my brain, and I hate the implication. “She doesn’t trust me.” That’s what hurts. Gets me in the gut as though I’d been sucker punched. At the bottom of it is the question, how can she have faith in any man ever again?
“She doesn’t trust herself right now, that’s the root of it.” His eyes go to the closed door, and like mine had seconds ago, close briefly as though he can feel the pain of her anguish. “Her judgment of character will be what is bothering her. Can she ever choose wisely in the future?”
I thought she had chosen, chosen me. “What do I do, Red?” My fist hits the wall, then hits it again. Why did the fucker have to reappear from the grave?
“Prove yourself to her. Take it slowly. Show her you do really love her.”
I think back to how Skull had acted. “Skull did that, though. Fuck it, Red. We all thought he loved her.”
“She’s a loveable woman, Pyro. You’re a lucky man.”
I would be. If I still had her.
“This can’t be good for her or the baby.” I smash the wall again. “Christ, I could barely keep my hands off him, Red.”
He takes out his phone and looks at it. “I called church. Brothers will be coming in now. Demon’s just landed; he’ll be in on it too. Pyro, let’s sit and thrash this out around the table. You can’t do anything for now but give her what she wants. Space.”
“I’ve given her everything I can, Red. Support when Skull went missing. I’ve been with her every step of the way during this pregnancy. That baby she’s carrying? It’s more mine than Skull’s. I’ve proved over and over again my feelings for her. I don’t know what more I can do. Fuckin’ hurts she’s pushing me away.”
Again, his hand lands on my shoulder, patting it twice before he lifts it away. “And she’ll see that when she’s thinking straight. Give her space. She’s no
t alone, Rosa’s with her. Another woman is what she needs right now.”
I bow my head, putting my hands either side of my face. Taking a few deep breaths to steady myself.
“Got to update Demon,” Red reminds me. “Got to bring him in on this. We need to think what that fucker found out, and whether it was enough to bring down the club.”
Red is right. I can’t do anything about my woman right now, and my club needs me. With one final look at the door that had been closed in my face, I follow Red down the stairs and into the meeting room of the Las Vegas club.
The space around the table is cramped, six new chairs brought in. Sparky catches my eye. When I shake my head, he presses his lips together. Demon’s already seated in a space next to Red, and Beef is squashed in beside Crash. Both my prez and VP raise their chins toward me, but Red doesn’t give them a chance to speak.
“Let’s get this started.” Red bangs the gavel. “Gonna bring Demon and Beef up to speed.” He turns to the man on his right. “Had your man, had to let him go.”
That flare lights Demon’s eyes more than once as Red lays out the events of today concisely, being interrupted only by quick fired questions, snorts of derision and expressions of hatred together with promises of a painful death.
With the update completed, Demon’s gaze settles on me. “Skull indicate whether he left ‘cause the case was closed, or because he had enough information to take us down?”
“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.”
Satan’s Devils MC -Colorado Box Set: Books 4-6 Page 25
