Page 29 of Devil's Dilemma

Why hasn’t he come home?

“Oh Steph, what’s happened to him?” My mind pictures him dead or dying by the side of the road. Tears prick at the corner of my eyes, and I wipe them away.Focus, Mel. I won’t help my man if I can’t stay strong, at least until I know whether I’m right to worry or not.

I realise the time. I’d only skipped out on my lunch break with every intention of going back, now it’s early afternoon. At least I have the presence of mind to text Beth and ask her to say I’m ill and to make my excuses. Returning to the office right now is not what I want to do.

I’ve just finished my reply reassuring my friend that everything’s fine, glad I texted and hadn’t placed a call, easier to prevent her guessing I’m lying, when I hear bikes in the distance.Maybe it’s Skull?I get to my feet to go check, when Pyro appears in the doorway.

“Could you come see Prez, Mel?”

I wave in the direction of the front of the club. “That could be him arriving back now.”

Pyro shakes his head sadly. “Prez is rallying the troops, Mel. That’s unlikely to be him. But I’ll make sure. Prospect?” He turns and yells the last word. When Beaver appears at a run, he addresses him, “Check whether Skull’s come back. If you see him at all, come to Prez’s office immediately, okay?” Then he turns back to me. “Come, Mel.”

The last time I’d been in Demon’s office was the first day I’d come to the club and Skull had introduced me. This time, I’m just as nervous, albeit for different reasons.

Demon looks up from his desk and doesn’t even bother with a smile. “Come in and sit, Melissa.”

I do so, noticing Beef is in the other chair. Pyro stays too, standing, leaning his back against the wall.

“First, I’m sorry, but Skull wasn’t doing anything for the club.”

I suppose if that’s so, it’s best I hear it straight away. But the alternative is that my man had lied to me. What a stupid woman I’d been. All he had to say was ‘club business’, and I’d known I couldn’t pry.

But is there a chance Demon’s got it wrong? “Could he have been doing something for you on his own? Found a new business lead to follow?”

“Possible,” Demon confirms, “but unlikely.” He leans forward, placing his elbows on the desk, and resting his chin on his clasped hands. His dark eyes focus on me. “Tell me everything, Melissa, what he said, the exact words he used, what happened between the two of you before he left, and the mood he was in. Anything and everything could be significant.”

I wring my hands together, biting my lip and wondering where to start.

Beef prompts me. “Start with the argument you had after my patching over party. What started that?”

I look to my side. I really don’t know what to say. “It’s private,” I settle for, at last.

Demon pinches the bridge of his nose. “We’ve got a brother missin’, Melissa. I understand you want to keep some shit between you and your old man, but anything that gives us a bearing on where he might have been headed, or why, could help us find him. What I want to assess is whether something between you upset him enough that he’s gone somewhere to cool his heels.”

“I can see your point, but when he left, he was upbeat. Kissed me as normal. Didn’t give me any clue that he was upset, or that he hadn’t come to terms with our situation.”

“Situation?” Demon’s quick to catch on. “What situation?”

“Do you want your man back, darlin’?” Pyro’s voice rumbles from behind me. “’Cause we can only help if we know what we’re dealing with.”

“No judgement,” says Beef. “If you stepped out on him, another man looked at you twice, then we won’t say a thing.”

“It’s nothing like that,” I gasp, indignantly, then realise the truth may be less embarrassing than any conclusion they might dream up themselves. “That night, after Beef’s party, he forgot to use a condom again.”

“Again?” Once more, it’s Pyro’s voice, and he doesn’t seem happy.

“It happened once before. But we got away with it then.”

“This time?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know,” I say quietly. “But it was two weeks ago, and I want to take the test. I just wanted him with me when I did it.”

“What was his reaction?” Demon doesn’t look pleased.

I sigh deeply. “The first time, he tried to get me to take the morning-after pill. I can’t really explain why, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to leave it to fate, and I wasn’t unhappy either way. We had words, I told him I thought his reaction showed he wasn’t serious about our relationship and that pulled him up and made him think. We worked it out. He assured me he was all in with me, wanted a forever and eventually, he wanted kids. He’d just wanted to wait for a while until we started a family. Like I said, we got away with it that time.”

Beef sits forward, his hands clasped between his legs. “Let me get this straight. Skull knows nothing more than he’s fucked up again, and you may or may not be pregnant. Neither he nor you actually know.”

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