Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,16
and why not tell me straight? Drummer certainly wouldn’t be pleased at having been fooled all this time, but a suitable explanation might sort out this mess. A mess that I’m now stuck right in the thick of.
My leg aches. I limp to the couch and sit on it, draining the last of my water from the cup. I crumple it in one hand, throw it at the trash can and score a direct hit. My lips curve slightly at the small triumph.
How long are they going to take to decide what my future holds, and whether it will be long or short?
Time ticks by. Massaging the muscles on my thigh, I regret not strapping my leg today. A tight binding helps my knee stay in place and my leg better able to hold me up. But it makes my leg rigid and cumbersome and doesn’t help the previously torn muscles heal. I need to build up the strength there so they can do their intended work and support my knee by themselves.
Strange how your life can change so fast. Had I not been knocked off my bike, I might not be here now. Drummer would have asked someone else to come, but I can’t see them acting any differently than I have. They’d have ended up suffering the same unknown fate as myself.
Maybe they would have approached things differently, not having let the prospect’s lack of respect rile them for a start. I never pretended to be clever, proven by my lack of foresight leading to the predicament I’m in.
But if it had turned out the same way for anyone who’d come calling, maybe it is better that I’m here and not one of the brothers with an old lady and kids. At least I have no one who would miss me. There are some benefits to being a free spirit.
Or, on the other hand, not. The thought that I’ve no family to leave behind and that no one, apart from my Satan’s Devils’ brothers would notice I wasn’t there anymore, is something I don’t normally think about. Strange how things come into your head when they’re out of your grasp. It’s not that I never want an old lady, just hadn’t come across someone I saw being a permanent fixture in my life. Now, though, I wonder whether it would be something I’d like to experience. Why now, when I might not get the chance?
My fingers tap on the arm of the chair while Gears stands watching me stoically. Not once has he moved his eyes from me, and I’m starting to feel like an exhibit being stared at in a zoo.
My thoughts churn. My worries deepen as the minutes tick by. It seems like forever until at last the door opens, and another man who I haven’t yet seen puts his head around the gap.
“He’s to go back in.” Having delivered his message, the man turns and I get a sight of the word ‘Prospect’ on his cut as well. I notice he hadn’t acknowledged me.
Feeling slighted, I pull my cane toward me and get awkwardly to my feet, making sure my knee is kept properly aligned. Then, Gears stands back and allows me first out of the door. Not as a mark of respect, I’m certain. No, he’s just making sure I don’t bolt and run. Or hobble, as is the case right now.
I remember the way and am soon opening the meeting room door.
“Sit.” Pip points to the chair I’d used before. I limp over to it and carefully lower myself down, placing my cane beside me on the floor. Once I’m settled, he resumes, “So, Roadrunner. We’ve been discussing your future.”
A humph from a seat close by me makes me look that way fast. A man with his arms folded tightly across his chest looks annoyed and as though he’s not in line with the rest.
Pip glares at him. The expression is not quite the same as Drummer’s, but piercing all the same. When he thinks the man’s got the message, he subjects me to the same look. I shift a little uncomfortably.
“How strong are your ties to Tucson?”
I wasn’t expecting that. “The chapter or the location?”
“Club.”
Summoning up my thoughts, I let him in on them. “Tucson’s always been pretty good to me. Gave me a chance, patched me in. I’m a Devil.” I shrug. “Wouldn’t have become one if I wasn’t prepared to give everything—up to and including sacrificing my life for any