Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,33

for the hills.

As if he can read my mind, Road shakes his head again, his hair moving around his shoulders. “I’m no fool, Swift. I know what’s waiting for me if I don’t like what I find. But,” he raises his eyes to look over my head as if wondering whether to tell me. “I love my Tucson brothers, never think other than that. My club lifted me out of the role of bouncer and put me in fuckin’ charge at Angels. Never thought I’d make manager of anything, but that said, running a strip club, well…” His voice trails off. “Let’s just say, keeping the strippers from tearing each other’s hair out, and the customers hands away from things they shouldn’t touch wasn’t my life’s ambition.”

“Which was to ride in the World Championship?”

His shoulders rise and fall. “To take part in the qualifying races at least. Huh,” he snorts. “I even applied for and got a passport. I was supposed to go to your part of the world next year.” He shrugs again. “Now everything I thought I’d have to look forward to has been taken away. What’s left is…”

“Boring?”

“I dunno. Maybe I need a new challenge.”

He’s surprised me. “You’re saying you’re ready to move on from Tucson?”

“Maybe I am.” He’s still talking at the wall over my head. “The club is all about family, which is as it should be, brothers united against the world. In Tucson, it is family. Most brothers have ol’ ladies, and most now have kids of their own.”

“You want your own ol' lady?”

“What would I do with an ol' lady—no, don’t answer that.” He grins and looks down at me, in doing so, his face grows serious again. “Kids? What the fuck do I know about them? I know nothing about having a happy home. Doubt I’d be a good role model.”

That’s about how I feel about being a mum. What could I do? Show my kids how to strip down, put back together and shoot a gun or kill a man using only their hands to do it?

I stand back and gesture toward the elevator. “Come on. Let’s get you fed.”

His eyebrow raises slightly as I allow him to precede me inside the car, giving him ample opportunity to shove me back as the doors close. He’d be on his own with a clear route to freedom unless Igor or whoever’s on reception duty today had the gumption to stop him. If he walked out like he owned the place, they might let him pass. Everyone knows I’ve got responsibility for him, and I never lose a man I’m guarding.

But we’re partners. Trust has got to start somewhere. I have the notion Utah might have the something Road is searching for—a new purpose, a new reason for living. Fuck knows, I can understand that. It had been that way for me.

Road’s loyal to his prez, as he should be. But maybe his spying mission is turning into personal exploration, something to fill that hole inside him.

As he moves to the back of the elevator making space for me to join him, I start to think I might not be mistaken. Finding an escape route isn’t the top of Road’s agenda, or not at this moment. His raised eyebrow and his look of expectation shows he’s intrigued.

Perhaps Pip was right to pair us together. Someone else might not have seen that Road, it appears, is interested in giving us a chance. If not for our sakes, for his.

Or maybe he’s cleverer than we’ve given him credit for and has spying skills we don’t expect. It could be he’s scoping us out to flesh out a report for Drummer. I frown. I mustn’t forget that possibility.

8

Road…

I’d woken feeling groggy as though I had a hangover, the slow-to-clear fog in my head being a result of the painkillers washed down with the beer I’d found in the convenient mini-bar in the room.

The first order of business is to put myself under the shower, letting the cascading water wash some of the cobwebs away. A little more refreshed, I dry myself, then take a clean t-shirt from my saddlebags and dress.

Clicking on the television bolted to the wall, I mute it, but notice the time, glad I had an hour or so to kill before Swift was due to come and release me, using it to start my brain working once again.

I’ve never been arrested, never been trapped somewhere I couldn’t get out, so my eyes