Page 80 of Devil's Dilemma

We take a break around lunchtime, entering a bar for a drink and a snack. I order a burger but don’t really taste it. I call Mel briefly to check in with her, then it’s back to our bikes. Late afternoon and Sarge calls a stop so he can have a quick smoke.

It’s while the bikes are parked up that I get a glimpse and turn away fast.

“There, behind us. Dude wearing a black tee, there’s a woman with a kid in a stroller with him.” I’m not really hopeful as there have been a couple of false sightings before, and I didn’t take Skull to be a family man, not wanting a kid with Mel is likely the reason he ran.

“He’s looking at the bikes very carefully,” Sarge says conversationally in between puffs.

“Certainly looks like him,” Cobra confirms, taking a quick glance down at his phone. “He’ll know from our cuts that we’re Satan’s Devils.”

Cobra turns back and leans over as if to inspect something on his bike, then crouches down beside it, peering around the engine.

“They’ve gone into the snack bar over there.”

They turn to me for guidance. As he’s my man, I’ll take the lead. I fire off a quick text to Judge, Wills and Sparky, giving them the name of the eating place.

“Might not be there long, they mainly do carryout.”

“We go over,” I tell them fast. “You two wait outside, I’ll go in.”

“Back exit?”

“I’ll get Rope to approach from the rear.” It’s Sarge texting now. Rope and Cuff are with Wills and are apparently the closest.

“Let’s do this then.” Pocketing the key from my borrowed bike, I start walking across the road.

“I texted Red to send the prospects with the crash truck.”

All three of us wear an air of excitement. Our quarry’s so close, I can almost taste it. In my mind I’ve played out this moment a hundred times, each with Skull having a different reaction. Fear, I expect to be the foremost, and anger we’ve managed to track him down. Sadness that the rest of his life can probably be measured in hours. He’ll beg, plead for forgiveness, come up with some bullshit-filled story about why he left. Or, he’ll completely blank me if indeed he has lost his memory.

I glance in the window, there’s no man resembling Skull at the counter and no woman or child. In fact, there are only a couple of men who certainly aren’t him, looking more like construction workers taking a break. Nonetheless, I eye them carefully in the unlikely event he’s donned a yellow jacket as a disguise.

“Man and woman with a kid in a stroller,” I snap at the man behind the counter.

He looks left and right shiftily, then shakes his head. “Hasn’t been a family in here for a while. What do they look like?”

I don’t bother to get out the picture. Leaning over the counter, I grab him by his throat, a scuffle behind me shows Sarge and Cobra are keeping the construction workers occupied.

“Just tell them, Albert. Don’t want no trouble with the Devils. It’s not like it’s our business.”

Albert nods, as best he can with my hand making him choke. When I release him, he rushes out, “They said there were men following them, and wanted to get the child safe. I let them out the back…”

Before he can finish speaking, I’m already moving past him, pressing down hard on the emergency exit bar sending an alarm sounding into the air. Albert must have disarmed it for Skull.

We’re too late, he’s gone.

Just at that moment Rope pulls up. “Got a license plate for you.”He has?“Got here just in time to see your man Skull getting into a car. In such a hurry they left the stroller…” He points outside the door to the yard. Indeed Skull has, there it sits forlorn and abandoned, he’d not bothered to stop to fold it up, leaving it behind so he could make a fast getaway.

But we’re still no closer to Skull. Rope had seen him and let him get away? “The license plate all you fuckin’ got?” I roar.

“Nah.” He sends me a sneering look and pre-empts my next question. “Cuff and Wills are following him.”

Thank fuck.I raise my chin, half in apology, half grateful. Should have known these Devils would have my back just as well as the ones back home.

“What now?” Sarge asks, coming out shaking his fist. Obviously keeping the other two men at bay had involved a physical conversation.

There’s nothing we can do here. Skull is unlikely to come back, not for an easy-to-replace stroller. “Let’s get back to the compound and wait for news.” I’m beyond angry, I’d had Skull almost within arm’s reach and I let him go.

Back at the clubhouse I’m even more furious when I answer my phone which rings as I’m entering the door and after hearing what Wills has to say.

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