Page 7 of Race With The Devil

“So Tutti,” said Unity brightly, “where the hell is Lavinia, anyway? Her phone goes straight to voicemail. You know she always has that thing on her, always playing with it.”

Tutti sighed deeply, leaning back in his chair. He wiped his face with his hand. “You know, we had a giant fight. She’s been having second thoughts about our marriage.” He arched an eyebrow at me. “And who’s this guy?”

“This is Tanner,” said Unity. “He runs Paws-n-Gauze, flying rescue dogs around.”

Wolf piped up. “Beetle here is a rescue dog. Tanner brought him to me from St. Louis.”

I told Tutti, “I just wanted to make sure Diesel got home safely, to Lavinia’s arms. Can’t stand it when a dog is abandoned.”

Tutti held his palms out to me as though surrendering. “Oh, there’s no abandonment going on anywhere! We had a nasty, nasty fight, buddy. You know how it is. She’s been having doubts about me, about our marriage. She yelled, she screamed, she left after scratching me. See?”

I couldn’t see, and Unity scrutinized his neck too.

He went on. “She left, and someone with California plates picked her up. You know anyone with California plates?”

Unity shook her head. “No, but there could be dozens of them at your sideshows. Where three people died last night.”

Tutti rubbed his face again. “Oh, ah. Horrible thing, wasn’t that? Were you there, at the sideshow?”

“No. I’ve got better things to do.”

Unity had me wondering what better things she did. Get inked by Knoxie? Would she fill up that wonderful blank arm of hers? Stop cutting herself? Who was sexually assaulting her, and why did it keep happening? I wasn’t interested in her. It was just my protective instincts coming to the fore.

“Listen, Mr. Morgan,” I said, impressing him with the details I probably knew about him. “I’ll just keep Diesel with me until Miss Dock is found. How does that sound? You’re a busy man, running all these businesses. I’ll take care of Lavinia’s dog.”

Tutti’s relief was evident. “Would you? Thanks so much, my man. I think she just wanted to be left alone, you know? Left alone to think.”

“But Tanner,” said Wolf, “aren’t you flying back to St. Louis tonight? I thought you were just dropping off Beetle.”

I nodded tersely. “I’ll stay.” Something about this missing girl intrigued me. Maybe it was the Air Force Sergeant in me, or the task I’d been given by the club, but I wanted to see this through. Maybe I was imagining it, but I thought I saw a look of combined surprise and admiration in that poor knifed and inked girl Unity.

A long-legged, determined woman entered the Bum Steer then and made a beeline for us. She wore leather riding chaps, and I’d just heard the rumbling of Harley tailpipes out front. Did this woman ride? Pure and Easy was full of shockers.

She strode directly to our table, Unity greeting her with, “Bellamy!” So this was Knoxie’s old lady, the bike mechanic. Man, she was one tough cookie. Ignoring Unity, Bellamy grabbed a chair from another table, flipped it backward, and straddled it.

“So Tutti. When’s the last time you saw Lavinia? Her phone goes straight to voicemail.”

Tutti launched into the same odd story about the fight they’d allegedly had. Unity caught my eye and jerked her chin in the direction of a side door. Everyone out there was smoking, and she wanted to, too. I resented being pulled into that poisonous atmosphere, but Unity had something on her mind.

“This fight is completely fishy to me. Lavinia would never in a thousand years hit him. For one, he’s way too scary. For another, she’s a Navajo girl. Sure, she’s brash and opinionated. She speaks her mind. And you know what? It’s weird she didn’t reach out to anyone.”

“Who’s her best friend?”

“I’d say I am. Then Bellamy, a couple other girls from Sinaloa, maybe some from the elementary school where she works in the office.”

“And sideshow people? She attends those, right?”

Unity shrugged. “Yeah. I keep telling her it’s childish and dangerous, but she likes to live dangerously, I guess. Witness her marrying that craptastic douche Tutti.”

I nodded. “He does seem like a pretty big craptastic douche. Well, why don’t we work together? I like finding missing women just as much as missing dogs. Let the Bare Bones deal with firing that peckerhead, because I surely don’t want to be around for that. Let’s find Lavinia Dock.”

Man, that grin that spread slowly over her pierced lips was divine. She had shapely features, a shapely bod—everything about Unity was shapely. She was a smoke show, hands down. I wondered which biker had claimed her. “Good. You’re a good man.”

I always felt awkward being praised, so I said, “And why are we stuck with this Wolf Glaser character? He owe the club something?”

“Sort of.” Unity giggled, and that was even prettier, with those diamond studs embedded in her dimples. “I think they want to get Wolf away from this threesome he’s been having. The other guy is the Bare Bones’ chief accountant and CTO and they don’t want any more feuds.”

Wolf Glaser? Involved in a threesome? “Ha,” I said. “That’s kind of humorous to imagine.”