Page 44 of Demo

Not satisfied with that train of thought, Demo walked over to where he’d placed the taped batteries on the bar. With his pocketknife, he removed the tape that held them together. He expected to find that the wires weren’t even touching the terminals, but theywere.

“Son of a bitch,” he let out a nervous laugh. Others came over to take a look, but Demo spoke to Steel. “This bomber is either the luckiest or stupidest person I’ve ever not met. He used rubber glue to secure the wires to the terminals. Otherwise, he likely would have blown himself up. I’d bet my last dollar these batteriesarefully charged. It’s only the rubber that’s keeping the connection from forming.”

“Rubber glue?” Ranger questioned. He had his arms crossed over his broad chest. The edges of his Army Ranger tattoo peaked out from the black muscle shirt he was wearing. “Who the hell uses rubber glue?”

“Construction workers do,” Cage said at the exact same time that Keys yelled out, “Son of a bitch!”

Everyone turned to Keys. He typed for another couple of seconds on his laptop and then turned the two tablets around to face the room. “Yelizaveta’s husband came to pick her up yesterday evening. Guess what wasn’t there when he came in and what was there when he pulled out.”

“The duffel?” someone unhelpfully supplied as they all watched the security footage of a beat-up old pickup truck, the club’s new housekeeper, Yelizaveta, and her son, Carter. Carter was one of Harper’s students at the high school. He was high-functioning autistic and had been hanging out in the clubhouse after school while Yelizaveta finished working in the afternoons.

As the pickup pulled out of the parking spot, the duffel could be seen on the driver’s side door of Pumpkin’s cage. A few minutes later, Bones pulled into the same spot. With the duffel on the other side of the cage from him, Bones did not see the duffel before walking into the clubhouse. The video then sped forward through the dark of the night until Keys slowed it down in time to see Bones walking out to his cage in nothing but sweats and sneakers. Man wasn’t even wearing a shirt in the freezing cold weather. As soon as Bones saw the duffel, he ducked out of sight to examine it. Then they saw him running back inside the clubhouse.

Everyone would have evacuated out of the back doors.

Something occurred to Demo then. They had two prisoners in the clubhouse. Nathan Moore, the child predator who had abducted and raped Bree when she was only twelve years old and held her for over two years, was below in the cellar. Angel owed the man a lot of pain for what he’d put Bree through. The other prisoner was a more unique situation. Veronica Banks was Aaron’s biological mother and Cage’s one-time high school lover. She was extremely religious and had arranged to have Aaron abducted to ‘save his soul’ after he’d come out as gay. Bree and Ollie had been with Aaron and been taken too, though that admittedly had not been her intention. Despite her religious zeal, Aaron had pleaded her case and begged the club to spare her life. Steel’s rather inventive alternative to execution was to lock her in an apartment in the clubhouse. She was allowed to leave at any time, but if she did, she would then forfeit her life. An added bonus to the woman’s confinement was that her only source of entertainment was the gay porn playing nonstop on the secured television in her room.

Demo doubted Steel or Bulldog would have given the prisoners’ safety a second thought during the evacuation. As Star unzipped his jacket, his cat poked its head out from its confinement. At least, the cat hadn’t been left behind.

“Billy’s an asshole,” Cage snorted, “but you guys expect me to believe he built a bomb and left it here? Why? What’s the cause? We employ his wife. Hissonhangs out here too.”

“You work with him, right?” Bulldog asked Cage.

Cage nodded. “Yeah. Works for a plumbing company we contract with.”

“I met him a few months ago when I was dropping Bree and Aaron off to spend the afternoon with Cage at the construction yard,” Angel added. “Guy’s got a total case of SDS going on.”

“SDS?” Demo didn’t know what that was either, but it was Steel who asked.

“Small Dick Syndrome,” Angel explained with a sly smile.

Demo shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t suffer from that, personally, but he also wasn’t keen to look around and see if any of the other men in the room looked wary becausetheyhad SDS.

Cage rolled his eyes at his woman. “Like I said, the guy’s a total asshole. But he also isn’t smart enough to put two and two together.”

“You saw the footage,” Keys argued. “The duffel wasn’t there before he pulled in and it was there when he left.”

Steel looked to Bones. “You didn’t see it when you pulled into the parking spot?”

Bones shifted his weight self-consciously. “No. I was…a bit distracted.”

Bear’s eyes narrowed as he picked up on what the other man wasn’t saying faster than the rest of them were. “Your legs?”

Bones had only been a patched member for a little over a year. He’d survived a parachute accident that had broken most of the bones in his legs, resulting in him receiving a medical discharge from the Army. Though his legs were healed, he had several rods, bolts, and plates holding his legs together. He still went to therapy, but winters were hard for him. The cold weather made his bones ache and, at times, it hurt him to even walk.

Shamefaced, Bones nodded. “I shouldn’t have been driving yesterday. It was stupid. Cage usually offers me a ride to work, but I had therapy so I declined. Afterwards, though, I…” He pointed to the tablets. “You saw me. I barely even made it inside. Only reason I went back out this morning was because I left my phone outside and didn’t realize it until I got up to take a piss a little after five.”

Demo glanced down at his watch. Somehow it was only six-thirty. Paige hopefully went back to sleep. He regretted not still being there. Helping her get the boys ready and then driving her to work. Hell, maybe he should suggest working at her reception desk to help her with patients and organizing between his own work.

Steel walked right up to Bones and slapped the patched member upside the head. “Theonlyreason I am not doing more to you is because yourstupidityalerted us to the danger far sooner than was clearly meant to. No doubt, that duffel was placed out there with the intent to get buried by the snow.” Leaning in so the two men were nose-to-nose, Steel practically snarled, “How many fucking times do I have to tell you that you are not a burden? If you need help,you fucking call!That’s what we’re here for. Do I have to take away your rockers and demote you back to prospect to get that through your thick skull?”

Bones paled. “No, sir.”

Steel nodded once, taking a step back. “Then this better be the last fucking time I hear about you not calling for help. In fact,” Steel turned to Bulldog. “You have two new recruits coming soon?”

Bulldog nodded once. “Sara and Will are getting their patches at the end of the month. Viktor and Darrin should be arriving around that same time.”

“Good.” Steel turned back to Bones. “Pick one. He’s going to be your bitch for the foreseeable future. He will drive you everywhere and you will even have to be his backpack on club runs.”

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