Page 31 of Devil's Dilemma

“Mel,” Pyro stops me as I’m about to walk out the door. “You take care of you. If you…” he doesn’t have to say it, a glance down at my stomach is enough. “Well, look after yourself.”

Chapter Eleven

Pyro

“Hey, Ro. What’s all this about?”

Ink heads straight for me as I’m at the bar getting a beer. “I had shit planned before church. Why call us in early?”

“Skull’s missing.”

“What?”

I nod. “Melissa called it in. Well, brought it. Got worried when he hadn’t come home.”

Ink shrugs, unconcerned. “Well it’s their business. Bet he’ll be in later for church.”

“Pal’s not seen him, and he’s not been at the shop.” I focus my eyes on him. “He’s not been near the club. No one’s set sight on him since he left his ol’ lady on Sunday morning. I say we’re right to be concerned and hash it out sooner rather than later.”

He looks around. “Christ.” He sweeps his hands through his hair. “And she’s only started worrying now?”

I raise my brow. “He told her he was off on club business.” I need say nothing more.

“Melissa still here?”

“Nah. Gone home in case he turns up. Way Prez is feeling now though, he’d do better to keep clear.”

“Demon won’t be happy that a brother’s done a disappearing trick,” Hellfire, having overheard, confirms. “If it was personal shit he could have had time off, but to go without telling anyone? Kid’s gonna have to have a fuckin’ good excuse.”

We tend to refer to Skull as a kid as he barely looks old enough to shave. He’s supposed to be in his mid-twenties though he doesn’t look it.

A loud whistle gets our attention. Keeping hold of my bottle of beer, I turn and make my way into the meeting room and take my seat at church. As people are getting themselves settled, I take the opportunity to look around. It’s good to see Thunder back in his rightful place. As sergeant-at-arms he’s seated to Demon’s right and appears more relaxed than I’ve seen him in months. Beef already looks comfortable to Demon’s left. It’s my estimation that the man didn’t know his own strengths until the rest of us pointed them out. Whatever he thought, he is VP material, and a man we all respect.

The gavel comes down.

Conversations cease. We don’t often have an emergency church so everyone’s taking this seriously. Some brothers know why they’ve been called in, others who have yet to hear are wearing expressions which combine mystification and concern.

After only taking a second to confirm he’s got all our attention, Demon wastes no time summing up. “Skull’s disappeared. May or may not have to do with a disagreement between him and his old lady. Fact is, there was one, but in her view, they made up before he left. So that could be a red herring.”

Hell clears his throat. “Let’s say Skull headed out after an argument with his ol’ lady. Heard he hasn’t turned up for work, which is a fuckin’ disrespect on the club, but we can address that. Fact is, it’s Wednesday. In a couple of hours he may well turn up for church, and all this worry will be for nothing.”

Demon gives a slow nod. “While I hear what you say, Hell, fact is, neither his ol’ lady nor any of us can contact him. I, for one, hope bringing church forward was unnecessary, and Skull will walk in, hopefully with an explanation. If he is indeed missing, I don’t want to waste a moment when we could be searching. First off, if anyone around this table knows anything about why Skull left or where, speak the fuck up now.”

Brothers look at each other, brows are raised questioningly, heads are shaken, but no one says a word.

The VP raises his hand slightly. “Could he have been lured off? Someone getting back at the club? What about the mafia family, the Silvestri, that you were up against a few months back?”

“No,” Demon says firmly. “I doubt it. It’s not their style. If they’ve got Skull, we’d have heard about it before now.”

“Surely that would be the case with anyone else? They take one of ours, they’d want us to know they’ve got him, and tell us what they want in return,” Hellfire observes.

“Not if they came across him and killed him. We might never find the body.” Lizard sounds and looks sombre.

It’s not as if that possibility hadn’t crossed my mind as well. My concern is how Mel would be able to cope if that was the case.

Demon taps the table. “Melissa says he was going off for a couple of days. His going was planned, as presumably was his coming back.”

“He in touch with anyone?” asks Pal. “Could he have thought he was doing something for the club? What exactly did he tell his old lady?”

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