Page 80 of Devil's Due

To give him his due, he doesn’t flinch. “I’ve got nothing to hide. You, on the other hand…”

“Run a clean club,” I finish for him. “You won’t be finding any skeletons in our closet.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

While Beaver is gathering the troops, I check on Stevie. She’s still in the kitchen but now sitting at the table with a can of soda open in front of her. Max is lying at her feet. As I walk in she’s laughing, and I pause to listen to the sound. It’s genuine laughter, signalling she feels safe and relaxed. After the trauma of the day, shit the past couple of weeks, it’s good to hear her happy.

I vow there and then to work to put a smile back permanently on her face. She doesn’t deserve to live with stress and fear or have a death sentence hanging over her. Briefly my fists clench at the thought of her lying cold and dead on a slab. I’ll do everything I can to prevent it. If that means giving up my patch, I’ll just have to make it work.

Her mirth ending, she half-turns in my direction. “Is that you, Beef?”

“Yeah, darlin’.” I smile at the confusion on the other women’s faces, knowing she must have recognised my steps, the way that I breathe, or just sensed my presence, just like I would her if she walked into a room. “You doing okay? Just going to have a meeting.”

She waves her hand in a dismissive gesture. “I’m fine here. Making friends.” She smiles broadly. “And I’ve been advised not to move until those muffins come out of the oven. Apparently, they don’t last long if you’re not first in line.”

Content she’s alright, I leave her with her new acquaintances, noting Jayden’s absence. Then, after having a quick word with Karl to keep a careful eye on her, I follow the brothers who are coming in and heading straight for church. Not for the first time I wish I had my Tucson brothers around me. Men, who I could predict how they would react.

I realise I’m not being fair. One hint of trouble today and these men put their lives on the line for me. Acknowledging that thought, as I walk in, I raise my chin in turn to Thunder, Pyro, Ink, Rusty and Skull. Translating my gesture, I get various reactions in return, a number of ways of saying, no problem. They’d have done the same for any brother.

Paladin’s the last to enter. From the flush on his face I suspect I know where Jayden had disappeared to. I grin at him. Seems they’ve progressed a long way from just holding hands.

Lennox is already seated at the end of the table; I take the empty chair beside him. Wills and Dan, so recently patched in they haven’t been given road names yet, can’t hide the excitement on their faces as they attend their first proper church. I can still recall what it was like to progress from prospect to member. A feeling of pride, and an underlying concern they’ll do something to fuck up. I don’t expect them to do much talking.

Demon bangs the gavel, but it doesn’t take much to get our attention. With a marshal seated at the table everyone wants to know what’s going on. I wonder how Demon is going to handle this. I do notice his father, Hellfire, watching him with a mix of interest and concern.

“Right. No point starting anywhere other than introducing Marshal Lennox.” The marshal gives a small nod on hearing his name but doesn’t say a word. “There are several questions we want answered.”

Lennox’s lips narrow. “Not saying I’m going to be able to satisfy your curiosity.”

I raise my hand. Demon nods. Twisting my body slightly, I’m now facing the marshal. “I don’t think you’re in any position to do otherwise.” As I pause, the men around me growl as I’d hoped, reminding him exactly where he is, in the lion’s den. “I’ll start. I’ll tell you what we know, then you’ll better know where to fill in the gaps. To begin with, let’s get this straight. Stevie did everything she was told to do to protect her identity. She lived the role she was supposed to and did nothing to knowingly expose herself.”

He raises his head and creases his eyes. “You sure about that?”

“Certain.” I wait for him to take that in, then continue, “Stevie witnessed a crime.” I change the direction of my focus, making sure everyone at the table understands. “A shooting so callous, she still has nightmares about it. She still hears the sounds of shots and screaming echoing in her head.”

Lizard passes a hand over his face, while Bomber uses words. “Poor little girl.”

I lift my chin in confirmation. “She wants to do right, have the bad guys put away so they can’t do that again. Trouble is, it’s an MC she’s up against, so the feds decided to pursue a RICO indictment. That’s something no club wants brought to their door as it takes down all the members, whether or not they were the ones actually doing the crime.”

The marshal gives nothing away, no movement, no expression.

“She’s blind, and she’s got a service dog. A service dog with a GPS tag so he can be located if he goes missing.”

“What the fuck?” Lennox pushes his chair back and stands. “What the ever-loving fuck?” He paces the room as he realises the implications. “But who would know about that?”

“Just as important,” Cad pipes up, “how can whoever knew get into the right database and search for that information?”

“Let’s leave that for now. Sit down, Marshal.” I wait until he does so before continuing. “You want to know why this club is protecting Stevie? It’s all down to me. I witnessed a hit and run, the fuckin’ dog pushed her out of the path of the car, got clipped himself.” I wait a second for that to sink in. “Woman was torn up about Max who not only is a companion, but her lifeline. So I helped her out. Went to talk to her about her situation. Fuckin’ lucky I did. I was there when a fuckin’ firebomb was thrown into the house. The backdoor was blocked. If I hadn’t had been there, she might not have gotten out.”

“I didn’t know about the dog but knew about the fire.” Lennox’s voice and face are grim. “Had to wait for the firefighters to confirm there wasn’t a body in there. That’s when I lost track of her.”

“Which brings us to how the fuck did you know where to find her today? I want to know why you were so conveniently there.” If my tone is menacing, it’s because I mean it. “Could be you’re the one tracing the tag and found her.”

Lennox looks stunned and quickly shakes his head. His lips press together, then he seems to come to a decision. “Look, I’ve been chasing my tail trying to find her. Thought the Warped Jokers had gotten her, thought she might already be dead.” He grimaces, then continues, “I’d almost given up hope when I got a call from the cops they’d seen Jokers in town. I came back to Pueblo to find them. Put two and two together. If they already had her, they wouldn’t be hanging around.”

“Didn’t you think to pick them up and question them? You knew her cover had to have been blown.”

“Sure, I was going to work with the local cops, but I didn’t have a chance. Almost as soon as I spotted them they were getting ready to ride out, I followed them. I’d put my own tracker on one of their bikes. A bike that’s now in your auto-shop.”

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