Page 95 of Devil's Dilemma

I bristle and prepare to defend my woman should Judge mention the age difference.

Red shakes his head. “Some men don’t look their age. I would have taken him to be older, just from the way he carried himself. But he picked an age that he thought would make him acceptable to the club. Young enough so he doesn’t have to explain a long history, old enough to have some experience of life.”

“We think he’s going to run. Shouldn’t we have followed him?” This from Twister.

“No.” Red’s reply is short and sweet.

“So, you’re proposing he gets away scot-free?” Crash’s eyes are wide.

Now Red shakes his head. “No, Mel came up with the right idea.”

I was wondering whether Red was going to address her suggestion. The more we’ve agreed that our hands are tied, the more I’ve been thinking of doing things her way. Though it wouldn’t provide me with the same satisfaction, locking him up and throwing away the key could be a good solution. Once he’s in prison, well, we’ve got friends who’d be delighted to have something to relieve their boredom.

Red continues, “She wants to take him on legally, and I reckon she’s got a good case.”

Murmurs and growls of discontent go around the table. Words likebikers and cops don’t mixcan be heard.

Red’s unperturbed. “Look at it this way. He used sex and a woman who’d have been unwilling if she knew what she’d been getting into. Can’t believe that was sanctioned. Even cops working undercover are bound by rules. I’m hoping we can get him where it will hurt and not in a physical way. At the least get him disgraced and cost him his job.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I start with a menacing growl. I was going to say that was far away from what he deserves.

But Twister gets in before I can complete that thought. “I like the way you think, Prez.”

Twister does? I don’t. “I want him to hurt,” I yell. “Lose his fuckin’ job? He needs to go to prison and we’ll take it from there. He should lose his life.”

Twister leans down the table and looks directly at me. “Oh, he will. We’ll just have to wait until he’s no longer a cop.”

“Could take years, Prez,” Crash warns.

“Yeah. We’ll need legal advice. But I say that’s what Pyro’s woman needs to do.” Again, Red’s eyes are full of sympathy as they meet mine. “Say you take him out, Pyro. Go to her tell her he’s dead. She’s got questions with no answers going around her head, no closure, and she’ll have done nothing to right her pain. I might only have known her a short time, but she’s an intelligent woman, and as I told you earlier, women don’t think like us. She needs to be involved, needs her own retribution, something that allows her to take back control. Don’t like the idea of putting a gun in her hand, women tend to be better with words. Which means she sits in the driver’s seat on this.”

Demon says firmly, “I know Mel, and I think Red’s correct.”

That pulls me up. They had read Mel right. She might want him dead but wouldn’t want it to be by her hand. Taking control and bringing a case against him like she had suggested, well, that does, as Red said, put her firmly with her hand on the wheel.

Would it help her get her head on straight?

“One more thing, Brother.” Demon’s dark eyes find mine. “Skull didn’t deserve the patch that he wore. He wasn’t even the man he said. Under those circumstances, he can’t claim a woman, or keep her claimed. You’re free to do whatever you want in the eyes of the club. I know what all the brothers will say, don’t need to take a vote on this.”

Hands bang the table in support of my prez’s words. Men here might be a different chapter, but we all wear the same patch.

I raise my chin in acknowledgement of what I’d love to have heard even a few hours before. Right now, there’s a woman upstairs who may never want to be claimed by a biker again.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Melissa

Imight be a grown woman in my thirties, but right now I need my mom. Rosa’s doing her best, but I’m longing for my parents, for the only two people in my life that accept me for what I am, and who I have absolutely no doubt, love me.

“You going to give your man a chance?”

“How can I?” I turn my face toward Rosa, wiping away another tear. “I trusted Skull. Oh, I didn’t at first, thought he was too young, that someone like him wouldn’t be attracted to someone like me. I was right, wasn’t I? Should have run a mile then. But I believed him, believed all the lies that came out of his mouth.”

“What do you mean, someone like you?” she says, sharply.

“I’m thirty-four years old. And I think I’d be described as the homely type. Not biker chick material. I’m curvy…”

“Mel, hon. Lots of menlikecurvy. Have you seen Angel?”

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