Page 82 of Devil's Due

“Two months off. It’s been put back once, but prosecutors are determined it should go ahead this time.”

So we need to keep Stevie safe for eight weeks. Ideas start running through my head.Take her to Tucson?Take her somewhere completely different?I realise there’s no conflicting thought in my head, every suggestion I’m making to myself has her and I inextricably linked together. Two months isn’t a long time. I can put my life on hold for that. Okay, so it might be longer until I’m assured she can safely be left on her own or can go back to the bosom of her family.

There’s a conversation going on around me, but I’m focused on the one going on inside my head. I’m loathe for Stevie to walk off with Lennox, not just because I don’t think he can keep her safe, but because I don’t want to lose her, and I can’t see my views changing any time soon. She might not have been in my life long, but already I don’t like the idea of living without her. Like a lightbulb belatedly going off in my head, she’s not an example of the kind of woman I’m looking for in my life, she’s the one. I’m not going to let her slip through my fingers.

Of course, I don’t know what her answer would be, but if she’s prepared to have a place in my life, I’d be willing to claim her. Put my patch on her.

In doing so, I have to accept my offer to give up my own patch and my club might not be temporary but could be permanent. I’m proposing to put my life on hold, or change it for good, all to bring down an MC which, however much I don’t like that particular club, is part of the world I’ve bought into.

Is she worth that?

She’s worth that and more.

“You with us, Beef?”

I snap back to the meeting in hand and give Demon a sharp nod.

But it seems it’s drawing to a close in any event. We’ve achieved our objective. Lennox will be leaving with suspicions of how the Warped Jokers came to disappear, but no evidence. He’ll also know we weren’t the ones who traced Stevie to this town. If he’s dirty he’s found we know nothing that would point to him, no reason to try to take us down.

Lifting the gavel and turning it over in his hand, Demon looks first at Cad then down to the end of the table. “You go do what you have to do, Marshal. In the meantime, Stevie will stay here, and we’ll keep her safe.” He looks at me pointedly as he says it.

Lennox huffs, but must realise he’s beaten. At the end of the day, it’s Stevie’s choice and he knows it. If he wants her to testify, he needs her alive. Having put doubts in his head, he can’t trust his own organisation.

It must stick in his claw, I think, as he stands to leave, that the only people he can trust are an outlaw MC.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“You want to be in on questioning the Jokers?” Demon asks as we leave the meeting.

“He wanted to kill her, Demon. Went to the cabin with that intention. Yes, I fuckin’ want to question them with my fists and leave nothing of him.”

The prez’s lips twitch. “Can’t get answers if he’s dead. I let you down there, you could kill him before he talks, not that I’d blame you.”

I nod. He’s suggesting I step back and let others lead. The way I’m feeling right now, I can see his point. “Okay. You know what I need, Prez. Any info about where and how the Jokers were getting their information.”

“Mace is a good enforcer, Beef. He’ll get every last thing that he knows out of him.”

I purse my lips thinking. Bloody my hands to do something that anyone here is capable of, or, pursue my woman who I’ve neglected for long enough. “Let Mace do it.”

Prez claps his hand on my shoulder as though I’ve come up with the right answer. “Trust us, Beef.”

To my surprise, trusting this new set of brothers isn’t as hard as I would have expected. I watch as Demon goes to confer with Mace, suddenly confident they’ll do the job as well, or perhaps better, than I could myself. They aren’t invested in the same way or have the desire to make the man hurt for personal reasons. Pain will be inflicted, yes, but in a clinical way designed to get all the information.

I let them walk off, knowing I can rely on them to get results, and go to find Stevie.

My own thoughts are now straight in my head, and I know I want to pursue a relationship with Stevie. I suppose I need to get her views on the idea as well. I want her in my life, but I need to consider she might not want me in hers. All very well for me to decide to take her away, she might have alternative ideas.

She’s where I left her, and it indeed seems like she’s been getting on well with the rest of the women. When I ask her to come with me, she takes a moment to say her goodbyes, while I wonder what her relationship was like with her family, and how many friends she had to leave behind. She’s not shy or awkward, in fact she seems to be outgoing. She holds up her hand to stay me for a second, while she leans in, and then laughs loudly at something Jayden says.

At last, her attention is on me. She takes my arm as I lead her across the clubroom.

“Stairs.” I place her hand on the banister. “Last one coming up.” I turn to watch Max who’s following. Unlike the rickety steps in the cabin, he seems to be managing these well. “Right along here.” I take her elbow and make sure she’s walking straight, noticing it’s become second nature to guide her. Doesn’t hurt that I love the connection, my skin to her flesh. What had I thought in the beginning? That she’d be a burden? Far from it. Just means adjusting some of my behaviour is all and remembering to use verbal not visual cues.

That also means ensuring she knows where I’ve brought her. “Bedroom.”

“Mine?” She sniffs the air. “Is it the same one I stayed in before?”

“There are no free rooms here, Stevie. This is mine. Last time I slept on the couch, but I can’t do that every night. You’ll be staying with me.”

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