Page 8 of Devil's Due

“If you do get to see him,” I offer into the quiet, “give him my best.”

“A message from Satan?”

I snort. A reference to us both having come far too close to Hell’s door.

Chapter Four

Telling my brothers I was going nomad ended up being easy, compared with trying to explain my absence to Sally.

“What will I do while you’re gone, Beef?” She pauses, dabbing her eyes with a tissue, then loudly blowing her nose. “What will thekidsdo?”

Ihateseeing a woman cry. My reaction is always to stop their tears, and if that means saying what they want to hear, that’s what I normally do. Where a woman’s concerned, I’m the ultimate peacemaker. If it had been just me, I’d back down, tell her I’ll stay, that I won’t walk out the door. But Drummer’s relying on me.

It wasn’t garbage he’d spouted, wasn’t an excuse he’d made up. I’d been in Pueblo with him. While I respect the hell out of Demon, he’s been thrust into the role of president and needs a good strong number two. Thunder, his sergeant-at-arms, is wearing the VP hat reluctantly. No one else in the chapter wants to step up, and remembering what I’d seen of them, while I respect them all as members, there’s no one I could point to and say they’d be right in that spot.

I’m far from VP material myself—I only have to look at Wraith to know that. But maybe I can advise someone else, build them up, so they are capable of being at Demon’s side. Or, even, suggest a transfer in from another chapter. Dart, who used to be a member in Tucson, is now Lost’s VP in San Diego, and by all accounts, is doing very well too.

Drummer’s right to identify the weakness in Colorado. So I’m not going off on a fool’s errand, I’ve got a job to do. The fact Sally can’t understand how the club comes first is another sign she’d never make it as an old lady.

“Why Beef, why? Can’t one of the single men go?”

I don’t explain that deep down I still view myself as single, though I don’t the freedom which comes with that. I haven’t told her much about why I’m leaving, that’s club business. But I’ve said what I can. Now I repeat it again. “Sally, my president has asked me to do a job. I can’t refuse. I’m a member of the club. He says I’ve got the right tools, and I go where he needs me.”

“If he doesn’t need you here, why don’t you leave the club? You must be able to do something else. You’re a vet…”

She breaks off as my eyes roll. Has she any idea how many vets are homeless with no work to do? What skills do we return with? Oh yeah, how to kill a man with our bare hands. Skills only something like an MC find useful. Leave the club? Never. I’ll die a member.

“Can I talk to him? Tell him how much I, and the kids, need you?”

My eyes roll again and widen. I clamp my mouth shut. It’s not like I’m a kid at school needing her to go to bat on my behalf with the teacher.

“Sally, we’ve only been together a few months. For years it was just you and the kids. They like me, I like them, but I haven’t been around long enough for them to see me as a substitute father.”

“Can we come with you?”

“We’ve been through this, Sal. I’m expected to live on the compound. It’s not like Tucson at all. It’s a converted steel factory. Not suitable for kids.”

“We could rent a house.”

“No, Sally. Just, no. I’m leaving, and that’s final.” My words in a tone I’ve not used with her before echo around the room. The irrevocability of my statement leaving her no room for a comeback. She’s tried all the weapons she has, persuasion, coercion; nothing has worked.

She sobs, then tries to angrily wipe the tears away. “You don’t want me, do you?”

“It’s not you, Sal, it’s my job.” She’s given me an out, I’m a weak man, I can’t take it. I don’t want her to think there’s anything wrong with her.

“You’ll come back to visit?”

I can’t even promise her that. “I don’t know if I’ll have the time.”

“And how long will you be away for?”

“I don’t know.”

A little gasp, then she forces the issue. “You’re not coming back, are you?”

“I’m coming back.” My tone is positive at that.

“But not to me.”

---