Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,162
the lighthearted insults, Drummer’s eyeing me carefully, then his eyes go to the woman at my side, and again he shakes his head. “Fuckin’ women. Always at the heart of everything. Wraith, what d’you reckon, transfer request agreed or denied?”
Wraith, the bastard, keeps me hanging, giving me a careful look of his own. “You sure about this, Brother?”
I glance at Swift, wink, then tell them seriously, purposefully widening my eyes, “They’ve given me a ZX14R.”
Peg looks completely disgusted, but the other three bellow laughs.
“Transfer request agreed,” Drummer states. “Tucson clearly is no longer up to Road’s speed. Snatcher, we’ll do the paperwork later.” He wipes a hand over his face, then picks up the gavel. “On that note, church is fuckin’ over.”
“You alright?” Swift asks as I continue to sit while everyone else starts to walk out.
“What? Yeah.” Truthfully, I’m dealing with a surprisingly sharp pang of regret. Tucson had been my home for a third of my life, and I’ve made friends there. Utah is a very different club. Apart from Swift, there are no women to bring out the brothers’ softer sides and certainly no children. Of course saying goodbye to my past is going to be hard.
I notice Drummer walking toward me. “If you want my opinion, I think you’ve made a good choice, Road. You need a new challenge in your life, and Utah will provide you with that. As will your woman, I suspect.” He raises his chin at Swift. “And as for your man,” he comments to her, “go easy on him.”
She grins at my now ex-prez. “You’re leaving him in safe hands.”
“As for hands,” he nods down at her right, “fuckin’ shame losing a finger. I was sorry to hear about that.”
She grimaces and raises her chin. There’s not really anything more to be added about that.
“How’s the leg, Brother? I see you’re not using the stick.”
Seeing Peg frown, I try and put his mind at rest. “I’m taking it carefully, Peg. Probably done a bit too much with it the last few days, but I’ve strapped it up.”
“I’ll get him working in the gym,” Swift promises.
“Want me to share the exercises he should be doing?”
“Hey, he’s here,” I remind them both. “One thing, Peg, she’ll be prettier than you to look at when I’m doing leg presses.”
Peg stares at Swift, then barks a loud laugh. “Can’t argue with that. Why don’t you both come on down to Tucson soon? You’ll be wanting to pick your stuff up. I reckon Darcy and Sam would like to meet Swift.”
“I’ll fly you down if you want?” Preacher, who’s just walking out, overhears and shouts.
Drummer shakes his head and rolls his eyes. Then his gaze sharpens. “That a Satan’s Devils’ plane, Brother?”
Preacher, put on the spot, can’t do anything but nod. Drummer just gives a knowing smile. “Well, that’s fuckin’ good to know.”
“Are you hanging around?” I’d appreciate a catch up without being in fear of losing my patch or my life.
But I’m to be disappointed. “Nah. We’ll see the others head off to the airport and then get on our bikes and head home. Christ knows what Eli and Zane are getting up to. Sam will appreciate having me there to take some of the load.”
“Olivia and Zoey will be running rings around Sophie as well.” Wraith’s loving parental smile reminds me how much his daughters have him wrapped around their little fingers.
“Noah will be good, but Lisa’s teething, so Darcy will be glad to see me back.” Peg’s voice brims with pride.
“Mason and Sabrina will be behaving themselves if they know what’s good for them.”
“Blade, we all know your kids get away with murder,” Peg scoffs.
“Yeah, so? I’ve taught them well.”
The enforcer’s retort makes me snort.
A new voice joins in. Another I know well. “Might not have kids, but I’ve a woman and a dog who’ll be missing me. Road, I’m off too, but before I go, I got some info for you.” Beef glances at Swift, then winks at me. “Reckon it’s exactly what you need.”
Taking the piece of paper from the Colorado VP, I thank him and pocket it.
The next few minutes are back slaps, hellos to Swift and goodbyes to me. Dart and Lost come over for a couple of minutes as well.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of him.” Snatcher, having left at the end of the meeting with Pip, has now returned. His words remind me that I’m not losing brothers, but gaining new ones.