engineering inside.” He pauses, then remarks with disgust, “Fuck knows why we teach them such skills. Anyway, he checked out your house and noticed your security system, Swift, and the generator as well. Disabled that, then cut the electricity. Somehow got inside and left a bug and camera there. But seeing no one visited you, he hadn’t known you were deaf. That was a bonus according to him.” Pip’s eyes narrow. “He enjoyed fuckin’ with your mind.”
“He still alive?” Swift asks, her own eyes becoming slits.
“Nah. But he suffered before I ended him.” It’s Pip’s delivery rather than the actual words that make me believe death had probably come as a welcome release for Kincaid.
“Any loose ends?” Swift asks.
“We sorted it,” Thor tells her. “Bodies taking to the crematorium, a few dollars passed over and they’ll be gone by now. Honor supervised the cleanup. If anyone comes looking or the owner of the Airbnb checks in, they’ll find nothing amiss.”
I suppose Honor being an ex-cop should know how to hide shit from forensic experts. I wonder what happened to make both him and Duty turn their backs on a career in law enforcement. Seems I’m becoming interested in more than one backstory of the members who, if everything works out, will be my brothers.
“We could have a problem. The Airbnb was rented by a woman.” Snatcher looks around, knowing his words will be unwelcome. “The agent thought a couple was staying.”
“That’s what the fisherman told me,” I interrupt. “Though he hadn’t seen the woman around.”
“So there could still be someone out there?”
Pip’s eyes gentle when they land on Swift. “That’s what we need to find out. I want you staying in the clubhouse until we find out if this woman exists, who she is, and whether she’s got resources behind her to carry this fight on.”
“Or,” Swift sits up straighter and looks straight toward Pip, “I act as bait to draw her out.”
My gut screams I want her to keep her head down, to let others take on this fight. My mouth opens and shuts as I realise were Swift any other woman, I’d be telling her to let me protect her and keep her safe.
But she’s Swift. She’s going to run headfirst into danger if that’s what the job calls for. She’s not going to hide. The only decision I’ve got to make is whether I’m man enough to accept it.
“Okay. Let’s get going. I need Kincaid’s past gone through with a fine-tooth comb. Any girlfriends, ex-wives, fuck, any female he could be associated with. We need to know whether this is ended, or whether we’ve still got a fight on our hands.” Pip moves his expression to the man seated opposite me, “Oh, and Bolt, get yourself a new set of tyres. Mystic said there was barely any fuckin’ tread left.” That Bolt should have checked his bike first goes unsaid.
Bolt’s sheepish eyes meet mine, showing he hadn’t needed the verbal dressing down.
“I should have checked everything. Sorry, Prez, but we headed out so quickly.” Piston, the road captain looks contrite.
“Man should have checked his own fuckin’ ride.” Stormy doesn’t hold back.
Now Bolt looks like he wants to slide under the table and disappear from sight.
“Prez?” Again it’s Piston who speaks. “I’m getting involved in so much other shit nowadays, I don’t always have time to keep my eyes on the rides. I’m not sure I was ever the right man for the job. If we can convince Road to transfer, he’d be ideal.”
Pip looks at him carefully. “You’d be alright with that?”
Piston shrugs. “Would take a load off of me.”
I wonder whether I’m being set up, but if I am, it means I haven’t fucked up, and they’re making a place for me in the Utah club. More than that, they’re dangling an attractive carrot in front of me. Road captain? Okay, so not quite up there with the officers at the head of the table, but a responsibility and a title I hadn’t dreamed of. “Not sure I’d be the right person, P… Pip.” I’d almost called him Prez, but for now, for me, Drummer’s still that. “I’m also not certain I’ll be able to transfer to Utah.”
“No?” Pip raises an eyebrow.
I want to look at Swift, wanting her opinion and needing to know if me agreeing to move and taking an official position, is her idea of taking things slowly and seeing how things naturally progress between us, but I don’t want to draw attention