Page 89 of Paladin's Hell

Chapter 29

Hellfire

“My list was quite short in comparison.” Demon stretches out his legs and sits with his arms folded. There’s a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

“Twenty? In the last six months?” Unlike me, who married young and who’s remained faithful to his old lady, my son is still very much single at thirty-five. Still sowing his wild oats too. I’m beginning to doubt there’s a woman out there for him.

An unrepentant shrug. “What can I say? I like variety. Those are only the ones where I asked their names.”

“Are you ever going to settle down?” The corners of my mouth turn down. He doesn’t answer. I didn’t expect him to. Instead, I ask what worries me most. “Was it anything we did, Demon? Me and Moira?”

I’m worried when his head dips up and down. “Sure is. All your fault.” Just as I’m opening my mouth to ask what we’ve done to cast such aspersions on the institution of matrimony and monogamy, he continues, “You and Mom? You set a very high bar, Hell. Sure, this past year or so you seem to have drifted apart, but what you’ve found with each other? I’ve always doubted I’d ever come across that.”

“I knew Mo was for me, the first time I saw her,” I admit.

“That’s what I’m looking for too,” he says, seriously. “I’m always hoping I’m going to find her. Not got anything against committing to the right woman, just running out of hope I’ll ever come across anyone who’ll make me feel what you did.”

I pull a very long list toward me. “In the meantime…”

“In the meantime I’m getting the practice in.” He chuckles. “Can’t deny I’m enjoyin’ it too.”

Looking at the list which seems to go on forever, it’s my turn to shake my head. “Why the fuck do we keep club girls when brothers go elsewhere? I didn’t know there were this many single women in Pueblo.”

“There’s not,” Demon leans forward, tapping on the paper. “Lot of the names there are duplicates. Once a bitch gets a taste of biker cock, she goes back for more. Least a couple seem to have gone through all the brothers.” He sits back again. “Bit of a surprise Bomber’s name’s there. Thought him and Jeannie were solid.”

He’s my VP. Anything happens to me, it’s likely he’ll take over. Wouldn’t tell this to anyone else, but he’s got the right to know. “Shocked me too, Brother. But he’s not being unfaithful to Jeannie, or not in the way you’re thinkin’. They’re swingers.”

A loud snort is startled from Demon’s mouth. Both his hands sweep back his hair, then he shakes his head. “Well I’ll be fucked.”

“Accordin’ to this list, you have been,” I can’t resist putting in, drily.

“Very funny. But Bomber and Jeannie? Would never have believed it.”

Surprisingly I would. It’s hard to keep spice in a marriage that you’ve been in for thirty plus years. They’re just coping with it in a different way.

“Mom know?”

“No,” I reply fast. “And she mustn’t. Um, Bomber, well, he made an offer…”

He catches on quickly. “A foursome with you and Mom? Fuck, Dad. If you ever take them up on it, that’s one thing I don’t want to know.” He looks horrified, then chuckles incredulously again. “Yeah, Dad. Best to keep that from Mom.”

“You’ve got no worries there, Son.” I try not to show how hearing him call me Dad again has affected me.

“So.” The pursing of his lips, the lines on his brow are indications he’s returned to the matter in hand. “Cad had any luck with the list?”

“Cutting out duplicates we’re down to about a hundred and thirty. Mostly girls picked up in clubs, banged around the back, then let go. Many have no names to go on. Brothers insist they made no promises.”

“Let’s talk this through. A dead body left where it would likely bring us to the attention of the cops. Want my suggestion on that?” The jerk of my chin conveys I do, indeed, want to know his thoughts. “A homeless person found dead isn’t unusual. Could have been opportune rather than premeditated. Someone stumbles across him, someone who already wants to do us harm. Plants him to cause mischief.”

That makes more sense than killing a random guy or combing the streets looking for someone who’s recently died. Another chin raise shows my agreement.

“Then we’ve got the theft at the auto-shop,” Demon resumes. “Now that, I think, could have been targeted. They were after something in particular.”

“You think?” I frown, because following that train of thought has implications.

My VP leans forward, placing his hands on my desk. “We both know the problems with that. If they wanted those particular parts, they needed to have inside knowledge they’d just been delivered.”

There’s the rub. That points to either a member of the club having a loose mouth, or one of our employees. “Pyro’s questioned everyone. Short of trying to torture the truth out of them, no one’s fessed up.”

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