Page 76 of Avenging Devil: Part 2

“Next to him is Swift our enforcer. Opposite her is Rascal our money man. Duty and Honor next to him, then Bolt who, like Swift, you know from their trip to San Diego. Stormy, of course, our resident asshole…” This raises a laugh and a snort from the man himself. “Then Cowboy, and Road, our road captain, and Swift’s better half.”

Swift responds with a scoff, and a rise of her eyebrows, while Road simply salutes.

“Then we’ve the trio of has-beens, Grinch, Goofy and Mystic.”

With his lopsided grin, Goofy retorts, “I resemble that remark.”

“And finally Gears, who’s our newest patched member.”

“You haven’t got a road name?” Thor asks me directly.

I shrug. “Haven’t picked one up as yet.”

“Lucky bastard,” Goofy mumbles under his breath.

“Okay.” Snatcher raps on the table with his knuckles. “Let’s get started now the pleasantries are out of the way. Just a refresh of the rules for Niran’s benefit. Let everyone talk, and no one speak over each other.”

Another strange turn to the club, politeness isn’t normally stressed. But seeing my head tilt in question, Swift caps her ears, and without any embarrassment reminds me, “I’m deaf, remember?”

Ah yes, I do. But most of the time, you wouldn’t notice.

“Moving on,” Snatcher states, impatiently. “There’s only one item on today’s agenda. Duke Marshall. Stormy?”

Stormy’s face grows serious. “We’ve got feelers out everywhere, Prez, but so far there’s been no sign of him. We’ve backtracked and looked into who he could have been meeting in Carson City.” All eyes are on him as he pulls a tablet toward him. “So far, no luck. We’re looking at it from all angles. We’ve hacked into the police records of interviews given by some of the women that were rescued from the Crazy Wolves compound.”

“Some of whom aren’t in any fit state to be interviewed,” Honor interrupts. “They’re still in the hospital and/or getting counselling.”

Stormy’s face tightens. “Of those who were, how and where they were taken suggests they’ve been moved across country.”

“Organised crime,” Snatcher says.

“Exactly. All handpicked to provide delights to the depraved appetites of Vegas.”

“Mafia?”

Stormy nods at his prez. “That’s my gut feeling.”

Duty sits forward. “The mafia tend to meet in a few different locations. It depends how important the Crazy Wolves’ role was as to where he would be meeting them, and with what level of organisation.”

“Niran, you sure he was going to Carson City? Could you have misheard?”

“I’m certain.”

“We can prove it.” Stormy gives me a lift of his chin. “We hacked into the traffic cameras around various locations and put the facial recognition software into use. Came up with this.” He turns his own laptop around. Peering forward, I can see two bikers standing at a gas station. They’ve removed their helmets, and their faces can be seen clearly. “One’s Duke Marshall.”

“And the other?”

Stormy takes over again, spitting out, “Grit. Aka Jim Hampshire. Aka, ex-fuckin’ fed.”

Duke’s own hacker and information expert.

Swift sums it up aptly. “Shit.”

If anyone was worse to escape death in that clubhouse, it couldn’t be anyone worse than Grit. Sitting in my wheelchair, I feel at a disadvantage. I raise my hand to get attention. “Getting back to the women and what they told the cops. Any mention of a woman called Susie?”

“Your betraying bitch?” Bolt asks. “Dart told me she might have been herded up with the rest of the women.”

“That’s her,” I agree. “And I suspect that she was.”

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