Page 43 of Devil's Due

After exchanging chin lifts with Pyro, I feel confident I’m leaving Stevie in safe hands. I turn away and stride toward the last woman I expected to see in the Pueblo clubhouse.

For a moment I just stand in front of her, noticing she’s staring at my cheek which must be red by now. I almost don’t trust myself to speak. Half-turning, I see Stevie’s entertaining the kids, if that’s the right word. She’s got all three of them with their hands covering their eyes and has already got them passing a glass between them. I suspect she’s encouraging them to explore it by touch.

“Come.” If Sally and I are going to have words, I don’t want everyone overhearing. Having entered my home and in such an explosive manner, there’s only one way this is going to end, and that’s not how she wants it. I lead her out the back of the clubhouse and over to one of the picnic benches, noting as I do, Stevie can never come out here, or not by herself. Even Max would find it hard to navigate. The ground is covered in crap, bricks, pieces of concrete, half-demolished walls. That great fucking fire pit, the furnace where they used to melt down half a train at a time, would be a death trap.

“Sit.” I point. She does. I plant my ass on the opposite side of the picnic bench.

She stares at me, then looks down. “I’m sorry, I got it wrong.” Her bottom lip is trembling. “I thought…”

“Know what it looked like Sal. That girl’s not been here before.”

“Don’t you hold people like them by the arm, not cuddle them?” Her question shows me she’s not convinced. And Stevie’s people, notpeople like her.Christ, Sally can’t cope as well as her and she’s got full use of her eyes.

“Told you what happened. That’s all the explanation you’re going to get. Now, why the fuck are you here?”

Sally finds her hands interesting. “The kids missed you.”

I shake my head. “First thing Sal, we’ve been through this. Never played dad to those kids.” For this very reason. So they wouldn’t get attached if things didn’t work out. Somehow, deep inside, I’d had my doubts from the start. Like the kids well enough, played with them too, but always remained on the sideline. “Second, I’ve only been gone two days.”

“It’s been longer than that. You’ve been living at the club, I missed you,” she admits at last. “You weren’t around much, but you were there to do stuff. When the air conditioning stopped working, and I called you, you sounded so cold. I thought something was wrong. I couldn’t sleep for worry. It was different when you were in Tucson. Tash had told me you weren’t—”

“You didn’t trust me,” I reply, stopping her from saying my brother’s woman had reported back I wasn’t sleeping with whores. Looks like me and Blade will have words.

I gaze at her, not sure whether I’m angry or upset. She’s got no spy here. She’s clearly been sitting on her own putting herself through hell thinking as soon as I arrived I was dipping my cock in every available pussy, despite the promise I’d made. So much so, she did what I didn’t think she was capable of and came to seek me out. In some ways I’m impressed. “How the fuck did you get here, Sal?”

“We flew. I booked the tickets when I couldn’t sleep.”

Makes sense. Well, they can just fly back. “Impressed you did that, Sally. I’m glad you did.” I feel guilt at the smile which appears on her face, but my next words wipe it off fast. “We need to talk.”

“Beef—”

“No. It’s my turn, Sally. The fact you don’t trust me fuckin’ hurts. No, don’t deny it. Your reaction without asking questions first; when you saw me walk in with Stevie you thought I’d confirmed your suspicions. I’ve barely been here two days, and yet already you had to come find me. You don’t trust me, I’ve got a job to do here. Seems you’d be happier without worrying what I’m getting up to, and I’ll be able to concentrate better, if we part ways now.”

“Beef,” she starts, pleadingly. “I thought you’d let us stay. I wanted you to be pleased that you had your family with you. Hoped you’d be missing us as much as we miss you.”

Hoped, yeah. But I notice she hadn’t said it had been her expectation. It was fear that had driven her here, she was afraid she’d already lost me. She has, she’s just moved me telling her up on the agenda.

“No, Sally. You’ve got more strength than you realise. Coming here? Well that’s shown me that. Should show it to you, too. Takes guts to walk into a strange clubhouse.”

She doesn’t look like I’m paying her a compliment, but I am. Her lip trembles again. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come here.”

“Nah, Sal. You only advanced the timetable a bit. We were never going to work out, long term.”

“Have you been faithful, Beef?”

I hate that she has to ask. But I give her the words she needs. “Yeah, Sal. I have.”

She goes quiet. Then asks, “Are we really over?”

I settle for nodding my head. She wipes a tear from her eye as I try and think of ways to help her out. “You’ve got options, Sally. You should plan for your future. You could go home, back to where your parents are. They might be helpful with the kids.”

Surprisingly, she shakes her head. “No, I don’t want to do that. Eliza’s settled in school. Aden too. Even Kaylee likes her playgroup. I still see Tash and Marcia from the club.” She nibbles her lip. “In fact, Sam came to see me yesterday. It’s why I’m here.”

Sam?Drummer’s old lady? What’s she doing talking to Sally and making her come all this way to see me? Inwardly I bristle. I’ll be calling my old prez very soon and demanding to know why Sam’s been interfering in what should be something between a woman and a man. Then I’ll speak to Blade too and get them all sorted at once.

“Sam suggested I should let you go. Well, not in so many words, but that was her meaning.”

My assessment of Sam has done a dramatic one-eighty.

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