“Baffle,” I said into the phone as I pulled it to my ear.
“You have to help us, they’re everywhere,” a woman cried down the line.I recognized the voice, or vaguely thought I did but it was hard to tell because she was crying so hard.I immediately put the call on speakerphone.The only club brothers around were the actual bio-related guys, Glitch and Grease.Knuckles, Dime, and Grunt had taken off to Flagstaff because Squeak fucked up and lost Johnny Culver but ended up in the middle of a Mojave Devils showdown with a a gang that was trying to move in too close to their territory.Imagine that.
The job Squeak was doing should have gone to a prospect, but we didn’t have any at the moment who we thought would be able to stick out the extended tail on Culver.The prospecting period for a member was a two-way street, whether everyone wanted to acknowledge that or not.We weren’t just testing the prospect’s mettle.They were also testing the club’s loyalty to them.It would have been the perfect scenario to do both if we’d had one reliable enough to send.Since we didn’t we had to prove, once again, that the brotherhood had Squeak’s back when the club went in to extract him.I stayed behind because there was a fuck of a lot that Bigfoot needed to be filled in on the minute he walked through the door.That was the order he passed down the last time he’d called.
“Did you hear me?”The disembodied voice coming from my phone’s speaker asked.I waved Grease and Glitch in closer.
“Roxy?”I asked.
“Yes, of course.”Her tears started again immediately as I acknowledged who I was speaking with.“My mom and I are in Truth or Consequences and we’re hiding out right now.”Her voice lowered as she said that, as if she just remembered she needed to whisper.“I’m scared.We both are.Mom can’t get Dad on the phone because he’s mad at her.I knew you’d answer, though.”
I shook my head because once again, I regretted answering without paying attention to the caller.“Why are you calling?”
“There are Mojave Devils here.I think they’re trying to move in on the town and settle here.There are at least four.”A muffled voice said something and Roxy corrected, “No, maybe it was five or more.They are pretty much surrounding our location and you know we’re a popular target because of how close I am to you.”
Glitch snickered at my side and his brother popped him in the back of the neck.
“Are you sure you saw Mojave Devils in the area?”
“Positive.”She described their cuts, not that it was a big secret detail that anyone couldn’t look up but I didn’t think Roxy paid that close attention to other clubs.
“We’ll send someone.Give me your exact location.”The line dropped before she could answer, but a text came through only a moment later.
Rox: Hiding in a storage closet in the Comfort Plaza because we were afraid they’d find out what room we’re in.
I rolled my eyes as I showed the text to the men on either side of me.
“She’s full of shit,” Grease dismissed.
“She sounded pretty worked up, though.Could be true.The women aside, do we run the risk of not checking things out if there really are that many Devils in a town in New Mexico?”Glitch asked.
I huffed and shook my head, not believing the fucking shitty timing.“We’re the only three who can go and it’s over three hours to ride there.”
“We can try to shave some time off and I can use the ride,” Glitch offered.
“I had Bigfoot’s homecoming and date night with Nell later.”
“Bigfoot would want us to check it out.Maybe don’t tell Nell that Roxy is involved in this run and she should be understanding.She seems like a cool chick.”Glitch’s shoulders bounced with his indifference.He wasn’t much of a people person.He preferred being on the open road and next to that, his mind was always in the middle of solving some electronic puzzle or other.He didn’t liked doors and spent a fuck of a lot of time pushing them open.
“She is cool as fuck, but I don’t think you should lie to her, Baffle.Nell doesn’t strike me as the type to appreciate the dynamics if shit were to get out later, especially after the way things went down when you first brought her here.”How two brothers could have such opposite perspectives was a mystery.Then again, Grease spent more time with my woman, watching her work and getting to know her over the past few days.
“She’s not going to fucking like it if I tell her I’m canceling a date to go save Roxy’s ass either.”
“Better the truth that can be forgiven than the lie that adds to mistrust.You break her faith and your marriage will be dead before the honeymoon period is over.”
“Fuck, Grease, we didn’t even get a fucking honeymoon yet,” I argued.
“And you won’t get one if you don’t tell her the truth,” he muttered before walking away.“Going to get my gear on.The roads are messy between here and there.Don’t want to take a spill and have a nurse spend hours plucking gravel and chunks of asphalt out of my body.”
I swore under my breath and then pulled up WIFEY in my texts to send her a message.
BAFFLE: Need you to get a ride back to the clubhouse with the prospect.If he’s on his Harley, see if Brady can give you a ride instead.We got an emergency call and I need to head out to go collect Roxy and Lila.Some devils were harassing them.Sorry to cancel on tonight, sweetheart.No one else able to do it.
I knew the minute she saw it because the message changed from sent to read.I checked multiple times before we left and no response ever came in from Nell.The only thing that would make me feel better about that bullshit is if we were able to do some damage to the Devils hiding out down there before we came back.I was looking at over six hours there and back just riding.Depending on how many men were actually in Truth or Consequences, we could be gone damn near a full day, considering the time, that meant well into the middle of the night before we’d get back to Violence.Nell would not be happy if I returned in the middle of the night or early morning, especially with Roxy and her mom involved.
I thought about sending her a message to clarify what was going on but I couldn’t because if anyone looked into those messages later, they might incriminate me.I sent as much as I was able and even that was too fucking much.
“Fuck!”I growled as I mounted my Harley.
