Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,65
I notice how competent he is at handling a bike, but that shouldn’t surprise me. What does, is how in tune we are, leaning and straightening perfectly in unison. Maybe soon we can go for a longer ride, and not just the couple of miles back to the clubhouse.
When we pull in through the gates and ride around to the parking lot, I’m not surprised to see Pip out the back of our clubhouse with a coffee in his hand. He’ll have known the second we touched down.
“Church?” Snatcher needlessly asks.
“Yeah. We’ll debrief now.” Taking his coffee with him, Pip walks back inside.
One by one we drop our duffel bags off with Igor. Preacher will trust him to sort everything out. The guns which were fired had been left behind, but those unused and the spare ammunition will need to be put back into our stockpile.
Pip’s already seated by the time I walk in. Copying the brothers, I first approach the coffee machine and select the setting for hot water. I drop a tea bag into the cup and drown it, then add a dash of milk. I turn around to see Road grinning widely at me.
“Reminds me of back home,” he says as he gets himself a coffee. “Sophie prefers her tea.”
“Yorkshire tea,” I tell him. “My mum sends it to me.”
“When you’ve finished your discussion on beverages…” Pip’s voice sounds more amused than angry.
“Fuckin’ foreigners,” Stormy mumbles.
“Wanker.” I purposefully insult him in my form of English again as I walk past, enhancing my comment with a swipe to his skull to add injury.
“Stormy!” Pip barks and points his finger in challenge. “Don’t say the words I know are about to come out of your mouth as it would be boring to see Swift humiliate you again.”
“Why’s he such an ass?” Road asks me quietly out of the corner of his mouth.
I shrug. He is. That’s all I know.
“Right.” Pip bangs the gavel. “Mission completed successfully. Two happy parents and one little girl back where she belongs.”
“They pay up?” Rascal asks, then nods in satisfaction when Prez gives a confirmatory raise of his chin.
“Road,” Prez begins. “Hear it was down to you that it all went off so smoothly. How’s your leg?”
I’ve never liked being singled out, for praise or a stripping down, and the way Road shifts awkwardly before replying suggests he’s much the same.
“My leg’s fine.”
I glance at him, concerned. I saw him favouring it earlier and could see that’s far from the truth. But I don’t have the chance to say anything as there’s a snort from the end of the table.
“So his talent is pretending to be a fuckin’ cripple. Don’t know how many times that will come in useful.”
“His talent,” Snatcher roars at Stormy from his seat beside Pip, “is thinking with his fuckin’ brain and coming up with something out of left field.”
“We can all fuckin’ do that,” Stormy retorts.
Pip slams his fist on the table. “Yeah? Road’s quick thinking cut the mission time in half. Everything he suggested was right. We still haven’t dissected all the fuckin’ mistakes you made in Pueblo and San Diego.”
“Didn’t make fuckin’ mistakes,” Stormy says stonily.
Prez glares at him. “Don’t think that’s fuckin’ been brushed under the carpet. But your failings will be discussed once I’ve decided on a suitable punishment.” He pauses to let that sink in. Stormy’s face is as black as thunder, but soon Prez looks away from him and toward Duty. “Have the cops found the bodies in Santa Barbara yet?”
As he gets back to the case in hand, the man he’s addressing shakes his head. “Nah. Looks like they were keeping themselves to themselves. It could be some time before anyone goes to the house. It’s been empty for a while. I dug into it. Owners are abroad for an extended time.”
“Hopefully they’ve got an agent keeping an eye on the place. Great welcome home from a vacation to find bodies rotting in their living room.”
Not a great homecoming, I silently agree with Thor.
“The third man was called Rice,” Duty continues. “He got out shortly after Tub and Weaver. Guess they planned all this together when they were inside.”
“Anyone reported them missing?”
“Not so far. I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
Prez leans back on his chair looking well satisfied. “Another job well done. Great work, team.”
I hear Road clearing his throat by my side and am not surprised when he starts to speak. “I’ve got questions, Pip. Even more now that you