Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,76
who looks up and catches my eye. He’s got his headphones on, so I don’t speak. I rest my hand on Honor’s shoulder in passing.
“Anything interesting?”
“Nah. Chatter’s quiet.”
“Are you still following up on anything about Alder? Any noise about him being taken out?” I pull up a chair and sit down.
“Border patrol closed the tunnel down.” So far, Honor’s only telling me what I already know. “It seems that Alder kept all his cards to himself. His mafia contacts are more interested in finding new ways to get their drugs into the States, and the rest of his operation seems in disarray, more concerned with lying low and keeping out of the way of the law. There’s zero mention of retaliation for the death of their boss. I’ll keep an ear out, but I think Lost’s woman is safe. It could be that what he wanted with her was personal, something to do with her ex, perhaps.”
That’s what we’d hoped, but there was always a chance he had a second-in-command who’d step in and fill the void, and that Patsy was still in danger.
“There’ll be someone else,” Honor says, shaking his head. “Someone who’s trading in human flesh, views money as more important than life.”
“We’ll never stop it,” I sympathise. “But at least we can throw a spanner in the works from time to time.”
“Wrench,” Honor corrects automatically, to which I roll my eyes.
I spin my chair on its wheels and roll over to a free workstation, then log on using the complicated authentication routine that Duty insists we use. Then I pull up the list of names I need to research.
I’m following a trail leading me deeper and deeper into the dark web when the door opens and Road walks in. I can’t read the expression on his face.
“Anything wrong?” My eyes narrow as he approaches.
“I’m feeling like shit right now,” he admits, and then explains, “I called my prez and lied.”
A feeling of elation goes through me, which I suppress immediately. It shouldn’t matter a damn to me whether he stays or goes. But still I’m driven to ask, “Are you patching over?”
Road grimaces, then picks at his fingernails before he replies, “Pip’s just asked me to stay on for a while, so officially, no, the decision’s not made as yet. In the end, though, I might not have any choice. Drummer’s not a man whose back you go behind. When the truth comes out, he’ll never trust me again, Swift. That fuckin’ hurts.” After giving a sad shake of his head, he continues, “I always thought I was known for my integrity, but I’ve not so much set fire to my boats, I’ve blown them out of the water.”
“Patching over, joining us, wouldn’t be so hard, would it?”
His eyes meet mine. “I lied to my prez in front of Pip and Snatcher. Pip will always be watching me, he’ll never completely trust me. If I turned my back on Drummer, I could turn it on him too.”
I suppose he’s got a point, but Pip wouldn’t have invited him to join us if he didn’t have faith in him. “Thing is, Road, you could have betrayed our trust, yet you didn’t. It took guts to hide things from Drummer, and Prez and the VP would have appreciated that.”
Road doesn’t seem cheered up.
“Look, why don’t I show you what I’m working on?”
He raises his chin. “Can’t say I’m good with computers and shit. I have got questions though.”
“You don’t need to have those skills.” I click a few keys, closing down what I was working on. “Go ahead, ask what you want to know.”
“How did Mona’s parents know how to contact you?”
“That’s a good question, Road.” I call up another program. “This is an algorithm we use. We look into a number of factors of how likely it is someone is going to be a kidnapping target.”
“What factors?” He looks brighter now, as though I’ve caught his interest.
“Wealth being one, no one is going to kidnap anyone when the payout isn’t worth it, or the perceived payout as in Mona’s case. Sometimes what looks like money is just on paper, but still, opportunist kidnappers may not factor that in. We also look into whether they have children or other family they wouldn’t want to lose. Then we look at existing security. If someone’s already got protection arranged, we leave that alone. We end up with a database of targets on the basis of probability, then, Prez starts working through