Road Tripped (Satan's Devils MC Utah #1) - Manda Mellett Page 0,77
the most-likely candidates.”
“What do you mean?”
“Pip is an MC prez, but as you know, Snatcher’s the outward face of the MC. One reason being, it allows Pip to stay in the background. He’s a master at blending in, probably from his CIA days. We get him into embassy functions and exclusive parties—Duty works his magic, and hey, Pip’s on the invitation list. He gets talking to people we suspect could be targeted and gives them a number to call should the worse happen to them.”
Road looks perplexed. “He tells them what he does?”
“No. He doesn’t admit that it’s him. He’ll approach them with something like a story of a friend whose daughter was kidnapped, and as concerned parents with kids of their own to protect, they’ll want to know the details. Pip knows his trade. He usually ends up being asked for a contact they can have ‘just in case’.”
“He tells them not to go to the cops?”
“No. That’s up to them. If they call in the feds, sometimes we just work in the background and make sure they’re heading the right way. We can feed information into their databases for them to find.”
“So that’s how you get your business?”
I shake my head. “Not all the time, no. We also watch out for human traffickers. Duty and Honor spend a lot of time on the web. Right now, we’re keeping a check on names which have come to our attention, people like Alder for example.”
“You used San Diego to take him down.”
“An ambassador’s daughter was stolen. We knew Alder was responsible, and knew he’d be heading down to the border. What we didn’t know was his routes, or where the girl was in the USA. We heard talk that he had a crossing point in San Diego, so Stormy was directed there to try to flush him out. Lost came up with the coded information. Once it was decoded, we had the location of the tunnel. From there, it was sussing out the likely date and arrival of the transport. The girl was one of the women Lost and his members freed and dropped off at the hospital, and the authorities contacted her folks.”
“From what I heard, it was lucky Alder was there that night.”
“There was a high chance he would be. The girl was too valuable to him. Not only was she young, pretty and would attract a nice sum on her own, the cartel wanted to send a message to the ambassador, her father, who’d crossed them. So it was important to Alder that she crossed the border safely. Stormy had listened into the MC’s communications that night—well,” I glance at him sheepishly, “we all had. That’s how he knew the girl was safe, and then he waited to take Alder out. Those were not his instructions,” I add hastily. “But he had a clear shot and couldn’t resist.”
“Lost was spitting mad. He’s not going to let it drop,” he warns me.
“He’ll never find out it was us,” I assure him.
“Why the fuck didn’t Stormy just sit back and let things play out? The girl was safe, that was his concern, not Alder.”
I half defend him. “The world’s a better place without someone like Alder in it.”
Road’s not appeased in the least. “It was Lost’s call how Alder was dispatched.”
I agree. “Stormy’s got trust issues. I don’t think he even trusts us.”
To get off the subject and onto something else, I show Road a little more of our capabilities, then notice the time. “You hungry?”
Road’s face lights up. Seems that he is.
As I expected, Cowboy has excelled himself with a three-course dinner for anyone who wanted to partake. There was an asparagus delicacy with some kind of cheese sauce to start with, filet mignon for the entrée, and key lime pie for dessert. Road’s eyes just about bulged out of his face as he ate.
“Christ,” he told me, as he cut into his steak, “this is like eating out at the Wheel Inn. That’s our restaurant in Tucson. You eat like this all the time?”
I grimace. “We do alright, but when Cowboy’s having a bad day, he goes to town.”
Road grimaces as he processes what I’ve said. He doesn’t ask questions, and I know it’s because Cowboy’s sad story has been shared.
At last all the knives, forks and spoons are put down. Igor and Brute start collecting the dirty plates, and Snatcher stands.
“Heading out now,” he announces.
“Heading out, where?” Road asks, as he follows my lead and gets