Page 49 of Devil's Dilemma

I’m so angry at the man who I thought was my friend. Perhaps Skull would have told me what happened in time, perhaps I’d have heard…

“That’s it!” I exclaim. “Skull was worried one of the women would let drop something about what happened to him, and he was worried it would turn me against the club.”

“No, I don’t think it’s that.” Pyro shakes his head sadly. “You said he encouraged you to speak to the women and find out about us. If he was worried, he’d have kept you away, not pushed you in.

I suppose that’s true. Anger wells up again. Pyro admits they hurt him, and badly enough he went away for a month. But Skull looking for revenge? That doesn’t work. “Skull loves the club, Pyro. He joined for the family he doesn't have and loves all of you.” He sold it to me enough in those terms and haven’t I seen that for myself? Demonstrated by how everyone’s rallied around to make sure I’m alright, and just because, in their eyes, I belong to their lost man.

“What do you expect him to do? Hurt you? Hurt one of the women? Theo? That’s not the man I know.” Skull might retaliate if he was directly attacked or would step in to save somebody else. I’m certain Skull wouldn’t want a dish served cold, which revenge in this case would be. Skull is not a man who’d let ill done to him fester.

Pyro’s holding out his hands palms up, as if confirming he hasn’t really thought this through.

“You really think he’s hung around biding his time to get his own back on you. And he does this how, by disappearing?”

“Mel, I don’t have the answers. All I know is that it’s raised more questions. You’re right. I could more easily believe it if it wasn’t for you. You’re an amazing woman, Mel. No,” he looks cross, “don’t dismiss yourself like that. You are, beautiful too. So, Skull lands himself a real winner. Why would he leaveyou?That makes no sense.”

A real winner? Amazing. Beautiful?Pyro needs his eyes tested. I shelve that for now. “Because he was worried I was pregnant.”

“Nah,” he shakes his head. “Even that doesn’t ring true. First, he didn’t actually know, and second, Skull was,is, a good man. I can’t believe he’d walk away from his responsibilities. Okay, so there may be some of us who don’t like the idea of being tied down with kids, but if it’s no longer theoretical, most men change their minds and step up to being a dad. I think that would have been Skull.”

I give a small nod. I think that would have been Skull too.

“And you’re also right. Skull’s not the type to wait for revenge. We were surprised he came back to the club, suspicious of his motives for a while. But to wait this long? To claim an ol’ lady, and then fuck off? Doesn’t make sense. And don’t you fuckin’ doubt it, Mel, that man loved you. X-rated demonstrations in the clubhouse proved that.”

He winks. They were not X-rated, but perhaps PG.

Skull loved,loves, me. Even his brothers could see it.So why has he gone and left me in the lurch?

Pyro stands. He walks to the door and drops his forehead against the wood. “What do we know, Mel? Let’s talk it through.”

“Skull could have called someone on a phone no one knew he had.” Unless my memory is at fault, and he hadn’t walked out with a phone at all.Could it have been something else?I shake my head, doubting my eyesight now. “Then he came back and acted quite normally for almost two weeks. He left that morning, saying he’d be gone only a couple of days.”

“He gave you every indication he’d be returning?”

Now I go through the conversation in my head. “He was definite. Maybe not so much about the timing, but he said it was only one night that he’d be away.”

“So, if we take it at face value, Skull had every intention to come back. We’re left working on the premise that something or somebody stopped him.”

“He didn’t tell anyone in the club he was leaving at all.”

Pyro continues thinking aloud. “Perhaps he didn’t think he had to. He went on a Sunday, intended to be back the next day. The security work was slow, Pal didn’t expect him to turn up. Members are trusted to put their hours in, so there was no reason for Pal to think anything other than he’d been working at the auto-shop instead. Likewise, there was no need for Pal to tell me to expect him, so I didn’t have cause to miss him when he didn’t turn up.”

“I don’t come to the club during the week when I’m working, so you wouldn’t have found out that way.”

“You speak to the women. When he’d returned, you could have dropped in conversation he’d been away. We’d have eventually found out.”

“So, he’d have had an excuse ready, and it would have to be something the club would accept.”

“That’s easy, darlin’. He could have said you and he had had words, and he’d taken off to clear his head. But really, he’d have needed no explanation if he’d been back the next day. Brothers don’t need permission to do their own personal shit, not unless it impacts the club.”

Maybe that is what happened. I frown. “We had had an argument, but it had been a while back. I’m sure that wasn’t the reason he left. We’d cleared the air, he’d apologised, and there was nothing in his behaviour leading up to him leaving that would have suggested he was still brooding.”

“Us men are funny creatures, Mel. Sometimes we just get the urge to go riding.”

“Would you have done it that way, Pyro? Walked out on a woman having told her a lie?”

“We’re not talking about me. But, no. I don’t think so. Though I don’t have an ol’ lady, so I can’t really say what I’d do. Skull may have wanted to avoid more discussion. If he’d said he needed to feel the wind in his hair, what would you have said?”

I think for a moment. No, I wouldn’t have agreed without discussion, not if I’d thought he was brooding about whether or not I was pregnant. “If it was just a ride then I’d have understood, but if he wanted to work out how he felt, I would have tried to persuade him to stay so we could talk through our problems together.”

---