Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,157

run your tattoo parlours and strip clubs.”

“And our security operation,” Red inputs.

“Ours too,” Demon offers.

Crash raises his hand. When Drummer nods at him, he asks, “On these missions of yours, is there anything to connect you back to the Satan’s Devils?”

“Nothing,” Pip reassures him. “We don’t wear cuts and go in incognito, usually masked.”

Drummer’s tapping against the table again. “On the face of it, we could say Utah is just in a different business to ours.”

“They think they’re better than us,” Blade interrupts. “They take us for fuckin’ fools, them and their fuckin’ secrecy.” He extracts the knife from where it’s stilled lodged in the table and now points the blade straight at Stormy.

“Blade.” Drummer’s warning growl gets a huff from his enforcer, but he does stand down. “Pip, again, why the secrecy?”

Pip blows out air and shakes his head. “I’m ex-CIA. It’s ingrained in me to play things close to my chest, and to treat everyone with suspicion. It’s my fault, not anyone else’s, though some of my instincts may have rubbed off.” I don’t miss his side-eyed glance toward Stormy.

“I don’t have a problem with Utah being in a different business,” Red notes. “But we,” he indicates Crash sitting silent beside him, “do have a problem with being played for fools. I can’t count the times Snatcher’s come cap in hand begging Keys to get them some information, because ‘they don’t have a computer guy.’” He puts the last phrase in air quotes.

“Or Cad,” Demon growls.

“Token too,” Lost agrees.

“And fuckin’ Mouse.” Blade looks furious on his brother’s behalf.

The men standing against the walls shift, and some exchange sneaky smiles. Drummer of course, notices. “It’s no fuckin’ laughing matter. You’ve been wasting our time.”

“Helping you too,” Pip inputs. “When Devil was helping Mouse find Mariana, some of that information came from us. We work with Devil’s team quite a lot.”

“How you help us is a matter we’ll get to in a moment. But for now, this is about you, Pip.” If Drummer’s tone was directed toward me, I’d want to slide under the table, despite my experiences facing down commanding officers. But Pip stares back firmly.

“We’ve already decided Pip. You can’t ride for a start which disqualifies you, and you’ve been lying to the Satan’s Devils for years. A chapter can’t appoint a prez without agreement from the mother chapter, and such permission was never sought. I can’t rescind what I never allowed, but seeing as you stepped into the prez seat, I’m telling you to step back out.”

Pip’s eyes shutter.

“Now wait a minute, Drummer.” Snatcher jumps to Pip’s defence. “We need Pip to lead us. We need him in this club. We do good fuckin’ work, and that will stop if we don’t have Pip’s contacts, or his ability to direct us. Have you any idea how many little girls sleep safe in their beds at night because we’ve prevented a kidnapping or gotten traffickers locked up? Our business isn’t like deciding whether to open or close a tattoo parlour. You shut us down, then there’d be ramifications, and not of the kind anyone would like.”

Drummer’s eyes become slits as he stares at our VP. “Don’t think I don’t see you as a liar too, Snatch. For ten years you’ve pulled the wool over my eyes.”

Snatcher goes red, but he can’t argue with that. By acting as the figurehead prez, he had indeed perpetuated a lie.

“We,” Drummer pointedly lets his gaze fall on Red, Demon and Lost in turn, as though emphasising he speaks for them all, “agree that the work you do is too important to bring to a halt if we can avoid it. But there are conditions to Utah continuing to hold a Satan’s Devils charter.” Both Pip and Snatcher sit forward, their eyes staring intently. “First, you will be under a probationary period of six months. The Utah prez will report to me and keep me updated. Weekly at least, more often if necessary. You don’t so much as breathe without my fuckin’ permission.”

Pip gives a quick up and down jerk of his head. I think at this moment he’d agree to almost anything.

Red catches Drummer’s attention. “After six months, if Utah is still in existence, the communication doesn’t stop.”

Again Pip nods. “Now everything’s out in the open, there’s no reason to be secretive.”

Personally I think that’s a weight off all our shoulders.

Drummer eyes the other prezes, then his stare goes to the man sitting at the other end of the table. “There’s another