Page 76 of Avenging Devil: Part 1

“Yes,” Patsy says gently. “You will, I’m sorry. You’ll again have to leave your friends and start over. I’m sorry to be the bearer of such bad news.”

The thought of going through relocating all over again, this time without the thought of a baby to sustain me, is terrifying. Supportive friends sound nice, but she’s overlooking that I haven’t got any.

On that I can set her mind at ease. “I’ve no one to help me, Patsy. I’ll be alone whether I stay or go.” Maybe I should just stay put and not try to run anymore. I’m not enjoying life at the moment, so if Duke finds me and kills me, problem solved.Or he takes me back and tortures me.I shudder.I’ve got to go.

“You have, Saffie. You met Mary, who’s fast become one of my best friends, and there’s Alex, the VP’s old lady who you’ve not yet met. Alex is actually the club’s lawyer. You’ll like her, I know.” The club lawyer? A woman? As my eyes widen, Patsy continues, “We’re all worried about you. And you’ve got Niran, and all his brothers. I know you’ll be wary, but I assure you, they’re not like the Crazy Wolves. They’d give their lives to protect friends and family.”

Even if I accept there might be people who would keep popping around to visit me, what happens when I’m alone? I can’t have someone here twenty-four seven.

“Duke’s the type to break doors down and doesn’t give a fuck who hears him,” I tell her, also knowing the kicking in of the door wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in this block. “If there’s a chance that he’s learned who I am, I can’t waste a minute before leaving this apartment.” I’d be better off taking my chances living rough.

Patsy smiles. “But you won’t be here, that’s what I’m trying to explain. While your new paperwork is getting sorted, you’ll be staying with us. Lost wants you to move to our clubhouse, temporarily of course.” As my mouth drops open, she adds, “It will give you a chance to decide what you want to do, and for us to know what support you need. Your new ID and background will take time to construct to ensure it’s going to stand up this time.” She looks around and can’t hide her shudder. “And, in the meantime, you’ll have a more appropriate place for you to live.”

If the situation wasn’t so dire and I wasn’t scared sick about an imminent visit from Duke, I’d have laughed out loud at her definition of somewhere more appropriate. Accepting a visit from a woman involved with a club is one thing, but moving to their clubhouse? That sounds like a case involving a pan and the fire. Putting my head into a den of iniquity that bikers call home? There’s no way I can do that. I’ve already been someone’s property, still am as far as I know. Once I’m there, just like in Nevada, I’ll be trapped, and they’ll prevent me from leaving. What can I say but no?

“I can’t come to a biker compound.” My voice isn’t strong, but I’m adamant. Never again. The thought alone is enough to raise hives.

“Yes, you can,” she insists, waving her hand as though wiping away my concerns. “I’ll give you my own promise that you’ll be safe there. Lost, my husband, would never let anything happen to you. The members are respectful.” Her brow furrows as though she’s trying to think, then she chuckles softly. “The VP’s wife, Alex, well, she does pole dancing, to keep fit, you know? There’s a pole in the clubhouse for her to practice on. When she does, all the members make themselves absent, as they respect her, and the wishes of Dart, her husband.”

Yeah, I knew all about that. There were times when Duke had become possessive about me. He’d use his fists on a man who dared to look at me even fully clothed and in those moods, certainly wouldn’t countenance anyone leering if I’d ever done such a thing as cavorting on a pole. If one of the brothers had looked at me wrongly, I’d feel those fists on me for giving what he’d described as a show. Subsequently, other times, he wouldn’t hesitate to share me. I could never judge which way it would go.

My face softens in sympathy. “Does he abuse her as well?”

“What the hell?” Patsy looks stunned. “No, he does not. He might come over as a possessive caveman, but truly it’s because he’s thinking of Alex’s dignity and self-respect. Some of those poses can be quite sexual.” She chuckles again. “I know, she’s tried to teach me a few moves. Not that I’m any good, but I wouldn’t want men looking on either except, of course, for my man.” I notice she blushes and that it looks cute on the older woman. Then she smiles. “It’s because he loves her, wants her to be happy, that he protects her by giving her space.”

I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, but I’m not sure I’m convinced. Could I be wrong about all MCs? I’d rather not put it to the test.

Sure, the VP sounds different to Duke, and Niran I’ve already met. Lost, she’s also vouched for. But how many more men have they got? And can she speak for them?

But Duke’s closing in.A new ID, a new name, a re-creation of the person I am or who I want to be will take time, as it will need to be even more watertight. After considering it for a moment, I ask, “Tell me about the other members.”

Patsy grins as though she’s got me hooked. She settles back and begins, “Where do I start? Hmm. Well, I’ve told you about Lost and Dart, then there’s Salem…”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Saffie

Iwould have said nothing could have persuaded me to voluntarily step into an MC clubhouse again, but Patsy proved a force to be reckoned with. As she’d described her husband’s club to me, finding a counter argument to all my objections, I’d soon come to realise I’d never want to go up against her in any negotiation as it fast became clear I was on the losing end.

She settles in with only a slight flinch and a glare sent upward to a loud noise that comes from the floor above my apartment, and gives me a rundown of presumably all the members in their chapter of the Satan’s Devils MC. She offers so much detail that some of them I think I’d recognise as soon as I meet them. Bones with his sniffing habit which came from snorting too much cocaine in days gone past, and Dusty, an attractive man whose claim to fame had been catching her bouquet at her wedding. She rattles off names so quickly they seem to run together, but each one she sings the praises of. Neither is she shy on the bad points, though, of those, there aren’t many to name, and everything tamer than what I’d witnessed with the Crazy Wolves.

The Arizona Chapter, she tells me, has a different vibe, the majority of the men there have settled down and the compound is overrun with kids. In that aspect, San Diego was only just starting out. Their VP was the first to get his old lady, followed by Lost and herself, and more recently with Grumbler and Mary. In her view it wasn’t that the men liked their single lives, but that they hadn’t yet found the right woman. I think she’s being overly romantic. Easy pussy comes with no strings and no sense of being tied down. Freedom-loving bikers are unlikely to want mates.

That there were only a couple of kids I’d be likely to come across in the clubhouse was actually a bonus. I’m weak, but the sight of what I’d hoped to have but instead lost, makes me envious of anyone else’s baby.

I don’t take her words at face value. I ask probing questions, hoping to catch her out, suspecting she’s giving me the good parts, and glossing over the bad. But her honesty shines through, and I have to concede, if there are reprobates in the Devils, she’s obviously kept in the dark. She’s even open about the club girls, but tries to assure me they aren’t forced, and able to come and go freely of their own accord. This I certainly take with a huge pinch of salt.Who’d service bikers voluntarily?The idea has me shuddering.

Patsy is patient, happy to tell me about the Devils for as long as it takes to persuade me. In all, she must speak for a good couple of hours. I soon get the impression that she isn’t going to leave until she’s got the answer she wants.

Despite myself, she makes me smile at some of her anecdotes, recalled so fondly, as if she were talking about her kids rather than hard-core members of a motorcycle club. Every word out of her mouth seems so genuine, that I begin to lay aside my misgivings and start to trust her.

When Patsy finally relates the story of how she came to meet Lost, a man with apparently so many virtues I’ve lost count of them, she’s well on her way to convincing me to give them a chance. As though trying to prove it hasn’t always been unicorns and rainbows, she adds an abridged history of the club, about Snake, the ex-president, who’d gone loco and nearly brought everyone down.

Lost, she told me, had had his work cut out to keep the club going after Snake and eight others had defected. He’d had to rebuild trust between the members who were left. After a rocky ride, with their bad apples gone, he’s succeeded in reuniting the club. I wonder, of course, whether there were any left still hidden in the barrel, and how he can be sure he’s emptied it.

When I query their finances, or where their money comes from, I know she won’t know about their illegal activities. But she seems genuinely convinced their money is earned legitimately, and they aren’t about making bank the illegal way. With a quick glance around her as if anyone could be listening, lowering her voice, and sitting forward, she tells how women had been rescued just a few months back from a slave trafficker, and how the club never sought or wanted credit for it.

As a final attempt at persuading me, she broadens my mind when she lists all the different types of motorcycle clubs that exist. Having been blinded by the Crazy Wolves, the only example I’d had experience of, I’d thought them all much the same. But apparently there are riding clubs, men and women who join purely for the enjoyment of riding their bikes and who meet at weekends just to ride out together. I hear there are women’s only clubs, gay clubs, and even those for people with a religious slant.

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