Forged: A Devil's Spawn MC Novel (7 page)

“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger…

Or mad as hell, which would make you stronger because of

your “hulk-like” anger. Either way there’s a benefit.”

-
                    
Rotten eCard

Just before she hit the floor I caught her in my arms pulling her tight against my body. Sitting us in the closest chair at the kitchen table I wrap one arm around her shoulders and the other around her waist with my hand at her hip. It had been almost fifteen days since I’d had her in my arms, and albeit the reason for her being there was a shitty one, that didn’t make it feel any less right. Watching the color drain from your wife’s face, her jaw drop wide open, and her body go slack is a fucking scary experience. But knowing why, well, that’s terrifying.

At church earlier today, Priest informed us, Elias ‘Demon’ Walker was coming back into town. Apparently with the intention of transferring back to the Blackwater chapter of Devil’s Spawn.

Demon left Blackwater sixteen years ago, suddenly. No explanation, no notice, he didn’t even tell his Prez, VP, or his brother, Jones, he was going. A several weeks later Priest got a call from the President of the Montana chapter of Devil’s Spawn, Grimm, asking him to approve a transfer of charter for the one and only, Demon. It was the first anyone heard of Demon’s plans, but after a tense conversation between the two Presidents, and an open offer extended to return if he ever wanted to, Demon’s, Blackwater bottom rocker was officially replaced with a Montana one.

Two years older than his brother, Jones, at sixty-three Demon is a beast of a man from the stories I’ve been told. At six-foot-four, two hundred and forty pounds of solid muscle, and a left hook like a jackhammer, Demon fit into the role as Enforcer for the club perfectly. I’ve never met the man seeing as he hadn’t come back to, Blackwater once in the years he’d been gone, but his legendary temper lived on amongst the brothers he left behind. It wasn’t for lack of invitations from Jones and the rest of his brothers that he didn’t visit. They all but begged him to come home once in a while, but each and every one of them he declined, giving no reason as to why.

Everyone had their theories as to why he took off, and like he knitting circle they are, the brothers all speculated and gossiped amongst themselves. Rumors were wild and varied to say the least. Anything from knocking up a one night stand he didn’t want to admit to fathering a kid with, to running off to join a monastery, which was a fucking ridiculous suggestion, but that just proves how juvenile these assholes can be sometimes. Eventually everyone moved on, but he was never forgotten. Demon’s name is still mentioned in passing sometimes, not often, but when it is it’s said with a good deal of awe and respect.

Priest opening up Demon’s transfer back to Blackwater for discussion is a big thing. That sort of shit is usually isn’t vote worthy. Most of the time it’s at the discretion of the club President, and him alone to decide whether a member gets his original chapter’s bottom rocker back. The fact he wasn’t making the decision himself sent up a massive red flag for me. I’m not sure about my brothers, but I knew with certainty there was something bigger going on here.

Priest isn’t an indecisive man, he’s the complete opposite actually. When he had an opinion, he gave it. If he wanted the final say, he’d knock you out to have it. If he wanted to rule with an iron fist, he could have. He made solid decisions, ones that were well thought out and beneficial to the club. No one would have questioned his patching Demon back in because he’d earned our unwavering trust, so his wariness to reinstate him was cause for concern in my book. My curiosity about Priest’s most recent change in behavior didn’t last long however. In the half hour that followed church being dismissed I learned more about my wife and her secrets than I could ever have imagined.

Making a move to stand, I stopped in my tracks when Priest’s voice boomed across the room.

“I’m going to need you to hang back a minute, Saint. You too, Dagger.”

Glock turned from his position a few feet from the door asking,

“You want me to stay?”

Glock has been my best friend, my only real friend since I began prospecting for the club at eighteen. We may have had our issues, most of them because of my rabid jealousy of his and Tilly’s friendship, but we’d worked that shit out years ago and haven’t had problems since. Even throughout the whole Stacey shit fight Glock stood by my side supporting me. He didn’t agree with what I’d done, far from it, and he fucking hated that I followed through with Tilly’s decree that I live a double life, but regardless of him thinking I was making a huge mistake, he still stood by me.

More than a handful of times he told me not to believe her, that it was a test and I was failing it by not putting my foot down telling her fuck no. I didn’t take his advice, I listened sure, but I didn’t think it was worth the risk of pissing Tilly off even more if I defied her. In hindsight he was right though. I shouldn’t have listened to her but that’s in the past, and there’s nothing I can do to change it now.

“You’re not staying, Glock. This is between me, Pipe, Dagger and Saint. If he wants to fill you in later that’s his business, but do him the favor of giving him that choice, yeah?” Priest was firm in his command but not angry. If anything looked wary not pissed off, which was not an encouraging sign.

I wracked my brain to think of what could possibly involve both me and Dagger not coming up with a single fucking thing. It isn’t that I dislike the man, because I don’t, we just didn’t have a lot to do with each other. Since taking over the First Rider patch I’d been busy, so if you weren’t my wife, my daughters, my son, or Glock and Lexi, I didn’t have much time to socialize with you.

No to mention, Dagger is somewhat of an enigma. After nearly ten years as a patched member, and the almost two years he spent prospecting, we still know very little about his past. He plays his cards so tightly to his chest you’d think they contained national secrets or some shit. I doubt it, but you catch my drift. But he’s quiet, respectful, and loyal, so regardless of the blank spots in his story he’s a brother I trust, and one I’d happily have at my back.

That said, don’t discount him as a threat on account for his usually laid-back nature, because Dagger’s every bit as dangerous as Reaper. Maybe more so. There’d been once, in the cage, where he’d been matched up with Steel in a friendly fight when I thought he’d actually killed the man. He was like the hulk on steroids that day, and it took four men all of their strength to drag him off Steel. The man was laid out on the floor, already unconscious and bleeding steadily from a cut above his eyebrow, and Dagger was still out for blood. I’ve got no idea what came over him, but it was like he blacked out and turned into killing machine. All of it; the fight, his not wanting to back down, and his loss of control was so uncommon it had all of us questioning why he’d all of a sudden snapped. Dagger wrote it off saying he’d had a bad day, but I don’t believe that shit for a second. But that aside, it made me think he’d make a fucking excellent Enforcer if Reaper ever stepped down if that’s the sort of thing he’s capable of at the flip of a switch.

He isn’t huge at six-foot-one and two hundred pounds, but what he lacks in size he makes up for in determination and skill. When he eventually came out of the trance he’d been in Dagger’s face paled then he took off to parts unknown, and we didn’t see him again for next three days. Finally returning to the clubhouse after his hasty exit, he sought out Steel, apologized, and threw himself into work like a man possessed. He did whatever was asked of him, offered to take runs no one else wanted, basically he was kissing ass to make up for what he’d done. It wasn’t necessary, but he did it anyway. Steel didn’t hold a grudge, and the rest of us were more intrigued as to how he knew how to do that shit than we were pissed at him. I have to admit, even I wanted him to teach me a few of the moves he’d used, that shit was unreal.

Inclining his head, Glock leaves closing the door firmly behind him. Dagger looks over at me from his position at the table his expression curious.

“I’ve got two things to say. The first involves both of you. The second thing is between Saint and I, alone.” Motioning to Pipe he adds, “Pipe will only be here while I go over what I’ve got to with both of you then he’ll leave with Dagger. I want you to hear me out before you get yourselves worked up and start spilling blood. That shit’s hard to get out of carpet, and seeing as we’ve only got four club whores around these days it’s getting difficult to keep the place up to scratch without the added mess,” he warns.

With nods from both of us, Priest doesn’t hesitate in sharing what he knows.

“Got some information about a week back that concerns the two of you. I didn’t bring it to either of you then because I wanted to look into it and see if it held water first. Either of you remember old man Collins?”

“Heard of him, I don’t know him though. I’ve heard he owns a track of land about thirty or so miles from here. He’s pretty much a recluse from what people say, but that’s the extent of what I know,” Dagger says with a non-committal shrug. Well, that’s more than I knew, so he’s doing better than I am. I don’t even know who the guy is.

“Sounds about right. Years ago Devil’s Spawn bought the land the clubhouse and dorms sit on from him. He had properties all over Blackwater, some as far out as the Clearwater county line back then. When his wife died fifteen years ago leaving him with a fourteen-year old daughter to raise and no idea how to do it, he consolidated his holdings. He sold off the vast majority of land he owned, and took off up into the hills relocating permanently to his last remaining property. He doesn’t come into town much, once or twice a year maybe, if that.”

Interrupting I ask,

“Good to know, but I’m not sure what that’s got to do with us?”

Narrowing his eyes at me, Priest leans back in his chair fisting his hands on the arm rests.

“I’m getting there,” he growls back irritably. “As I said, he doesn’t come down the hill often, so when he does, people talk. It’s been a common question around town how he gets his supplies, food, shit like that. Seems everyone, me included, forgot he even had a daughter, let alone put the pieces together she was the one running his errands for him. Anyway, a week ago Collins came to the clubhouse pissed right the fuck off. The man has some brass balls, because he walked right up to the front door and let himself in uninvited.”

That earns him a chuckle from Pipe.

“He didn’t quit while he was ahead though. No, the man was fucking pissed. He started mouthing off at Cage before he could get a word in edgewise. Seeing Cage backed into a corner, speechless at the verbal ass kicking he was getting, I almost left Collins too it.” I’d have paid good money to see that. No one fucked with Cage. “He was asking to talk to me. So when the boys told him I wasn’t here, he started going on about his daughter being knocked up claiming she was left to deal with the pregnancy alone, and was raising the kid by herself. Tank called me to get my ass down here to deal with his crazy ass, hence the reason we’re here.”

Looking between us he lets out a deep sigh. But with that sigh none of the wariness I’d seen before had dissipated, it had actually gotten worse.

“His daughter moved out of home the day she turned eighteen. From the way he tells it she couldn’t wait to get out of there and back to civilization. Aside from the trips she does to deliver supplies to him she hasn’t been back since, refused to. Collins had no idea she was pregnant until she showed up one day baby bump and all. He asked questions, she put him off, did it for a good long time too. It was pretty much a standoff between them until last week when she broke down and told him the truth. Well, her version of the truth anyway. That’s why I wanted to look into it before bringing it to the pair of you. Last thing we need is her fucking with anyone’s lives for the sake of it. Playing the scorned woman and taking that shit out on innocent men isn’t going to fly with me.”

“So some bitch has a kid, claims it’s a brothers, and now she wants what? I’m still not getting how any of this is our fucking problem. You want us to talk to her, her old man, what?” Dagger’s snaps impatiently.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Priest looks to Pipe, who in turn gives him a curt nod. It took me a while when I was first prospecting to get used to the silent conversations these two men had. A few grunts, hand gestures, and head nods and the two of them could’ve been deciding the fate of the free world for all we knew.

“Fuck no I don’t want you to talk to her. Wouldn’t matter if you did anyway. I don’t think you’d get any different information than I did when I paid her a visit yesterday.” Quirking his brow in amusement he adds, “She was surprisingly forthcoming with the facts after I sat her down and explained my position to her. Funny how that shit works,” Priest says grinning.