Page 48 of Devil's Dilemma

In turn, Demon ignores Hell, turning instead to Mel. “Which drawer?”

Stepping gingerly into the room, Mel points it out. Beef goes across, yanks it out, and feels behind it, then shouts in triumph. I go across and look. It would be too much to hope that we’d find the phone, but what we do discover is that the drawer has a fake bottom. All manner of stuff could be hidden in there.

I turn to Mel, but she’s looking as confused as us.

Skull, it would appear, has secrets.

Demon glances at Mel then jerks his head toward me. Taking the hint, I take her hand and encourage her out of the room.

“What does it mean, Pyro?”

Opening the door to her…myroom, I can only shake my head. “I have no fuckin’ idea, and that’s the honest truth.”

“He had a secret drawer where he kept a phone hidden.” She proves her eyes work as well as mine. “He wanted to find out information about the club by using me. What on earth could I find out that he didn’t already know?”

I suspect the prez and VP are having a very similar discussion now, but I can’t leave Mel. She’s too worked up.

I have a few ideas of my own. “You know how Skull got patched in?”

“He prospected for eleven months, then got voted in.”

I nod. “That’s true, but not quite all of it.” I point to my own bed, and she nods her permission for me to sit. “Have you spoken much to Jay? About what happened when she first came here?”

“She gave me a summary. Said she was kidnapped by one of the members who’s gone now.”

“Yeah.” I rub my beard. “Someone was causing trouble for the club. Tried to get people arrested for shit they hadn’t done. That person caused a drive-by shooting and all signs all pointed to Runt as we called Skull at the time. Changing his name was one of the bargains he made.”

“I knew he’d had the name Runt,” she corrects. “But what are these bargains? And why did he make them?”

I ignore her question. It will be answered in time. “We thought he was the one responsible. Went after him pretty hard. Hurt him, bad. He wasn’t saying anything. We thought he was planning worse. Turned out the culprit was, plans were already in progress to take Jayden, but as Runt didn’t know, he couldn’t warn us.” I glance at her; she rightly looks horrified. “It was fuckin’ serious, Mel. Jayden could have died. We knew an asshole was fuckin’ with us and it had to stop. Turned out Runt had been set up. He wasn’t telling us anything as he didn’t have anything to tell. We were so fuckin’ sorry when we found out. Made a man hurt when he was innocent.”

“What did he do? How could he ever trust you again?”

She’s gotten straight to the heart of it. “He left the club. I agree with you, we thought that was the last we’d seen of him. How could he come back when he’d suffered through that?”

Her eyes crease. “But he did return?”

“Yeah, he returned darlin’.” At the time I’d respected him for it.

Her head shakes. “Why?”

“Couple of reasons he said. He knew he’d been set up by an expert. He was away for a month licking his wounds, when he came back he said he understood what we had done. Had had time to cool down and a chance to clear his head. He missed the camaraderie and wanted it, knew what we’d done was to keep the club safe, a club he’d worked hard to be part of. We agreed to patch him straight in, named him Skull as he has a hard head, and that, we thought, was the end of it.”

She stares at me but doesn’t ask more. I leave her to come to her own conclusions, which she does. “You think he’s waited all this time for some sort of revenge? No, Pyro. That is not the man I know. Not the man who’s the father of my baby. You’re crazy if you think that.”

“Mel, I haven’t told you anymore than everyone here knows. Skull’s been a good brother since he was patched in, we all trust him. But he does have reasons to hate the club. Now you’re saying he tried to use you to get info and it turns out he may have had a burner which he could have used shortly before he disappeared into the blue. Two and two sometimes does add up to five.”

“Or doesn’t add up to anything at all. Pyro, he wasn’t using me. He loved me. I’m certain that was true. He couldn’t fake that. If he was going to leave, why didn’t he take me too? Why leave me here?”

“What if he had been going to hurt the club, but couldn’t do it in the end?” I’m thinking aloud. “Maybe his leaving was him cancelling his plans, not commencing them.”

“But what about me?” she wails. “Where do I fit in? Tell me that, Pyro. What about me?”

Chapter Sixteen

Melissa

“What about me?” I scream at Pyro.

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