by Naomi West
Torque glanced at Blue, who slouched in a booth in the corner. She could hear them clearly, but Acer insisted on talking about her as though she wasn’t there. Torque knew it was completely against their protocol to bring strangers back to their domain. But he hadn’t been about to leave her out at the park in the first place, and after her news he couldn’t leave her anywhere.
It had shocked him, to say the least. Torque hadn’t really even thought about it, although he knew what they had done. After he’d stood there in the shadows, his pants barely even on, and tried to register what was happening, he’d had to know every detail. How far along was she? How did she know? Was she sure?
And then he had moved like lightning to get her to the one place he knew he could keep her safe. He’d made sure she was comfortable and had a tall glass of ice water before he would allow Acer to start asking questions. He’d acted, but he hadn’t said much.
His thoughts were coming and going so quickly in his head that he wasn’t even sure he could make complete sentences out of them.
“I don’t see how this is any different than having the club girls here,” Torque tried to reason.
“It’s completely different, and you know it is!” The president slammed his fist on the top of the bar, making his whisky glass jump. “The club girls know what this life is about. They signed up for danger when they agreed to be part of this madness. This …This girl has no clue what she’s doing.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Blue remarked.
Torque stifled a laugh. This was a sensitive situation, and he couldn’t encourage her to talk like that to the man who might decide whether she lived or died over the next few days. Acer wasn’t the kind of person she should be messing around with, and he probably appreciated her smart remark even less than her presence. But Torque was proud of her for being able to stand up to Acer like that. Blue had a mouth on her when she wanted to.
“Good! Then you can hear me tell you to shut up and stay out of this!” Acer turned back to Torque. “I don’t have time for this, man. There are plans to be made and meetings to be held. You can’t bring your little fling here.”
For the most part, Torque was content to let Acer run the club as he saw fit. He wasn’t interested in the day-to-day management of the members like Acer was, and his life was much more relaxing when he did his job and moved on. But right now, the president just didn’t see what was going on. “You don’t understand. This is the tattoo artist I was telling you about. She’s the girl Rat’s been after, and it’s because of me. She was involved in this war before you even knew about it, and it should be our duty to protect her.” Torque had to find a way to make Acer see that this was so much more than just bringing a piece of ass back to his room.
Acer shoved his hands in his jeans pockets as he continued to pace. “I don’t know. That’s not the kind of thing we really do. You say you want her here to keep her safe, but don’t you think the Dirty Bastards will come here to look for her? We’ll be exposing all our men to danger.” He stopped pacing long enough to lean heavily on the bar, lines of worry creasing his face.
“I don’t see how it’s any more dangerous to have them come here than to encounter them on the streets,” Torque countered. “We’ll be on our own turf, and there will plenty of us here for backup on a regular basis. We’ve got a hell of an advantage by just shooting out the third-story windows. Maybe this is really the best plan.” He was bullshitting his way through this, but he would do whatever it took.
Torque wanted to be done with this conversation so he could take Blue up the stairs to his room and lay her in his bed. He didn’t even need to do anything else with her, other than just have the satisfaction of seeing her between his sheets.
Acer hesitated, clearly still looking for a reason to deny this simple request.
“I can fix that as payment.” Blue’s voice rang out through the room. Torque looked over at her table just in time to see her get on her feet and approach the president. She pointed at one of the large tattoos on Acer’s forearms, where a slash of pale skin skewered the arm of the King of Hearts. “That’s quite a scar, but it looks like the wound is old enough and the tissue is flat enough that I can fix your tattoo.” She reached out and took his arm gently in her hands, rolling it over so she could examine the entire piece.
Acer looked at her in surprise. Torque waited for the older man to snatch back his arm and send her away, but he didn’t object. Instead, he smiled. “All right. Maybe you’re not so useless after all. But I want it done here. I’m not leaving the clubhouse at a time like this. You get your supplies and then come back.”
Blue smiled back at him and turned for the door. Torque stepped up with her.
“Now, hold on.” Acer put his hand on Torque’s shoulder. The pressure was light, but Torque knew it could be as heavy as necessary. “It’s damn near dawn. Nobody is out there doing anything right now. Almost all of our men are back in bed, and I’d be willing to bet the Dirty Bastards turned in an hour ago. Let her go home, get whatever she needs to stay here for a few days, and then she can return with her tattoo supplies.”
“But—”
“No, Torque. There are no buts about this. You’ve gone against me enough by bringing her here, and I’m already giving you far more than I want to. Just because she found a way to make this situation agreeable for me doesn’t mean the tide has completely turned in your favor. I want you here with me, just in case something happens.”
Torque clenched his fists. His need to protect her was strong, whether Acer thought she needed that protection or not. But the president did have a good point, and there was little he could do about it. “Fine. But I’ll take her down to the garage and see her safely into a cab.”
Acer flung the assertion away with a flick of his fingers. “Whatever. Just keep your ass on this property.”
Torque kept his eyes on Blue as they walked down the stairs. She’d had a long, rough night, but she still carried herself proudly. His gaze wandered down to her ass, which was still enticing even after their rendezvous in the park. He reached out to pluck a small leaf from the confines of her hair. “You really think you can fix it? Acer’s tattoo?”
She smiled at him over her shoulder, that same confidence he had seen in her before. It sent a tremor of need coursing through his body. “Of course, I can. I don’t know how he got that scar, but it looks like it really has healed over well. There’s only a small part of the tat that’s affected, and fixing it would make it look a lot better. It’s good work in the first place, and I think I should be able to match the style without a problem.” Blue tipped her eyes up to the ceiling as she thought about her work.
“Are you all right? Going alone, I mean?” He still had half a mind to disobey Acer’s order and go with her. He was probably right about the time of day and her safety, but Torque couldn’t quite convince himself it was the right thing to do.
Her mouth twitched and she gave a slight shrug of her shoulder, which made Torque immediately think she wasn’t too sure about it, but she forced a smile. “I’ll be fine. Your boss is right. Everyone is in bed. The only people who are up and moving right now are businessmen and moms.” She clamped her mouth back down on the words, no doubt realizing she would soon be in that demographic. “I’ll be much better off if I can run home and grab a change of clothes, anyway.”
“I want you to watch your back,” Torque warned. “Don’t think that just because it’s light outside or because Acer has given you his reassurances that you’re safe. We can’t underestimate Rat and his men.”
Blue gently laid her hand on his arm, her fingers dancing against the outline of one of his solid black tattoos. “You’ve done a lot for me, Torque. You’ve stood up for me like nobody else has before. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“Don’t say things like that,” he said through clenched teeth. “That sounds too much like goodbye.”
She flicked her bright eyes to the floor but immediate
ly brought them back up to his. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean it like that. I think I’m just feeling a little soft and mushy. Blame the hormones. It doesn’t take long for them to kick in, apparently.”
Her words reminded him all over again of the news she had given him. He hadn’t passed the word on to Acer. It might have made the president more willing to let Blue stay at the clubhouse, but it would cause trouble in its own right. The pregnancy would be a surprise and an inconvenience for another day. Besides, he liked the secret better when it was between just the two of them.
“I understand, but you can’t be soft and mushy today, just in case.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the knife he always kept there. It was the same knife his father had given him as a boy and the same one that had helped him win a fight that fateful day. He kept the blade sharp and polished, and he had never used it for something as mundane as opening a package. There were plenty of other tools for that, but this was a knife for survival.
“I don’t think I need that,” she protested.
Torque pressed it into her hand. “In that case, it will just be something you carry until you come back to me. Then you can give it back.”
She folded it into her fist and looked up at him. “I’ll do that.”
The cab pulled up just outside the garage door. The driver looked nervous as he realized his location, a fact that made Torque feel a little bit better. Even so, he hated to put Blue’s life in the hands of a stranger, even if it was only for a short time. It was more than just her life, after all. “Just promise me you’ll be careful. Really.”
“I will. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He watched the cab drive away and didn’t close the garage door until he could no longer see the car. Then Torque retreated up through the clubhouse to his room. The early morning sun streamed through his windows, slowly illuminating the town underneath him. He had been awake for far too long, and the fatigue that came with a healing body was catching up with him. Even so, he knew he couldn’t go to sleep. His mind was in overdrive, and he wouldn’t be able to turn it off for quite some time.
Instead, he opened the dresser drawer and pulled out his pistol. Torque had gotten out of the habit of carrying it with him every day. When the clubs were at peace, there wasn’t much need and it only aroused the suspicion of the cops. Now, though, he knew there would be more of a need for it than ever. The Dirty Bastards were out there, and he had no way to know when they would be coming. And he had two more lives to protect now.
Torque retrieved the cleaning kit from the drawer as well and set about readying his weapon. A father. He was going to be a father. It was the kind of thing he’d always thought of as being in the distant future, something that would happen when the time was right but nothing to worry about right away. And yet here he was, face-to-face with it.
What kind of a father would he be? Not one like his own dad, that much was for sure. He didn’t want any son of his to grow up feeling an obligation to be part of Satan Seed. It hadn’t been a choice for Torque, but it was the sort of decision that shouldn’t be made lightly or by anyone else. Blue had asked him once what he would have done if he hadn’t been a biker. He had been a biker since he was born. The question had caught him off guard, and he hadn’t quite known what to say, but even now he didn’t have an answer.
Nor did he have the answers to anything else when it came to parenting. The one thing he did know was that Blue would be wonderful as a mother. She could be tough when she needed to be, but she was also soft and caring. Her touch when she had tended to his wounds had been so gentle, but she was able to turn around and say just what was on her mind when she didn’t agree with him. He could easily envision her singing her baby to sleep or disciplining her child when he didn’t follow the rules. No, their child.
Torque let himself imagine for a moment what she would look like when her belly had swollen with the child. She would still be just as sexy as ever. He could see her holding a child in her arms, looking tired but elated as she showed Torque what his new son or daughter looked like.
But there was an important piece of the puzzle missing. Blue might be pregnant with his child, but she had never given him any indication that she had changed her mind about how she felt about him. He was a biker, and now, because of him, she had been dragged into a club war. This couldn’t be good. At the very least, he would protect her as well as he could. When things settled down, they would find the time to talk.
He put the gun back together and held it in position, staring down the sights. When they came, he would be ready.
Chapter Twelve
Blue
When the cab pulled up in front of her house, Blue wasn’t sure she would be able to get out and go inside. She was emotionally wrung out, completely exhausted both physically and mentally. The pregnancy, talking to Torque, and the news of the war were all too much. Her body wanted to sink into the upholstery. She wanted to close her eyes and not open them again for a century. But she knew that sitting in the back of a cab wasn’t going to change anything. It wouldn’t stop what lay ahead. Feeling as though all of her energy had been drained, she hauled herself out of the back of the car and let herself in the door. She immediately locked it behind her.
The house was deathly silent, but Blue allowed herself to stand in the living room and enjoy it. She was used to the hum of tattoo machines all day at work with a steady background of various music. The streets outside were usually full of traffic. At this early hour, the entire world seemed to be quiet for a moment. Soon enough, it would be punctuated with the howls of an infant.
Heading down the hallway to her room, Blue glanced longingly at her bed. She wanted more than anything to crawl under the covers, go to sleep, and forget about everything that was happening. It was so easy to think about the cool feeling of the sheets around her body, the softness of her pillow, and the bliss that would come from a deep sleep. But Torque was waiting for her, and Acer expected her to fulfill her promise. The constant threat of Rat showing up spurred her forward more than anything, and she grabbed a duffel bag from the bottom of her closet and filled it with clothes.
A glance in the mirror made her realize just how bedraggled she looked from her visit to the park, but there was no time to shower. She spritzed some dry shampoo in her hair and ran a brush through it, and then quickly changed into a clean tank top and a pair of jeans. Torque’s knife went into the pocket.
Blue hesitated before she went out the front door again. It was early, and the shop wouldn’t be open yet. In some ways, that was the perfect time to go. She wouldn’t have to explain any of this to Spencer. But it would hurt him to come to work and see that she had taken the bulk of her equipment sometime in the night. He would think she had left him for good, and after all he had done for her.
“It can’t be helped,” she muttered. “I’ll take my stuff, and I’ll just leave him a note so he knows I haven’t quit. That is, if he hasn’t fired me yet.”
Having left her car at home when she had gone for her walk the previous night, Blue didn’t need to take a cab back to the shop. She chucked her duffel in the backseat and got behind the wheel, zooming out onto the main road before most of the town was off to work. She pulled into the parking lot and was surprised to find all the lights on in the building. “Good morning,” she called out tentatively as she walked in the front door. “Did you have an early appointment, or did you just forget to go home last night?”
“Blue!” Spencer came jogging out of his booth and around the counter. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. He still had a black nitrile glove on his other hand, and he held it away so he wouldn’t touch her with it. “Are you feeling better? I’ve been worried about you. I swung by your house when I left last night just to make sure you were okay, but it looked like you weren’t there. You didn’t answer your phone, either.”
“I … wasn’t home,” she replied uncertainly. There was no need to explain that she had been pressed up
against a tree in the park or working out a deal at the Satan Seed clubhouse. And now that Spencer had mentioned her phone, she realized she didn’t even know where it was. In the chaos at the park and the clubhouse, she must have left it somewhere. “Sorry if I made you worry.”
“It’s okay. I just can’t lose my best artist,” he replied with a grin.
“Don’t let him fool you,” said a voice from behind Spencer. The curtain over his booth parted to reveal Bri, his wife. With her sleek dark hair, heavy eyeliner, and quality tattoos, she had been one of the classiest tattoo artists in the area. Before Spencer had put a ring on her finger, she’d had numerous offers from her clients and from other shop owners. Of course, she had turned them all down. “He’s been worried sick about you all night. I thought I’d have to slip him a mickey just to get him to go to bed.” She poked her husband on the arm and smiled.
Spencer made a pouty face at his wife, but he didn’t argue. “It’s just that I’ve never known you to miss work. I don’t know what’s going on, Blue, but I’m happy to talk about it if you want to.” His brown eyes were sympathetic and somewhat sad.
