“You fought them?”
“Of course I did. Did you think I’d meekly hand my baby over to them? I lived through a nightmare childhood with them.” She closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe. She was feeling faint again. “I just want him back. I need to leave. To go get him.”
“How much damage did they do to you?”
She hadn’t expected that question. “Not much. It wasn’t bad.” The moment she lied, something stabbed deep into her head, like a punch to her brain. She cried out.
Absinthe let her go immediately and the pain subsided. Steele made a move toward them, but Czar caught his arm and shook his head.
“Finish this, Absinthe, but gently,” Czar cautioned.
“I’m trying. I wasn’t expecting her to lie. She hasn’t until right then. I wasn’t ready for that,” Absinthe explained.
Breezy didn’t understand what they meant, but when Absinthe reached for her wrist again, he seemed more reluctant than she was.
“You want to tell me the truth, Breezy.” Absinthe repeated what he’d first said to her. “We all know your father and brother and what they’re like. They beat up women. We need to know how much damage they did to you.”
His question actually gave her hope that they might help her get Zane back. Why bother asking otherwise? “Bruises mainly. My ribs hurt when I take a breath. My stomach. I bleed some when I go to the bathroom, and there’s a huge bruise on my thigh. No broken bones.”
“Damn those fuckers,” Steele snapped. “I’m going to kill them both.”
“Not if you let me out of here,” Breezy said. “I’ll do it myself.”
“That’s the truth as well,” Absinthe told the others. “Why didn’t you send the letter to Steele through the mail?”
“I didn’t know if Torpedo Ink was the right club. I had to see for myself. I don’t expect that I’ll succeed in getting him back, so I wanted Steele to know where he is. I had hoped it would matter to him that he had a son, but then I forgot that he believes me to be a whore.”
She ignored Steele’s low growl and kept going. “I also felt it was important for all of you to know they’re after blood. Czar.” She refused to look at Steele, instead deliberately regarding the man wearing the patch declaring he was the president. “I have to go. You can see I’m not a threat to you. I didn’t even bring a gun into the clubhouse. I left the warning. What more do you want from me?”
“Are you setting the club up for retaliation by the Swords?” Absinthe persisted.
“No.”
“Why didn’t the Swords tell you where we were?”
“They don’t know you’re Torpedo Ink. They don’t know much of anything that happened to the members who came here to kill Deveau. They only know they didn’t return, that they’re all dead along with the international president and that all the money is gone along with their ability to set up lines to traffic. They suspect all of you, because you were capable of it, I guess, but they don’t really know anything.”
“So, they wanted you to find us and kill us for them.”
She nodded. “I started in California because this is where the members were all headed. They came from various chapters. I heard a newer club was set up in Caspar, and I checked it out. There were eighteen members. I did check out a few other clubs first, but when I heard there were eighteen of you, I was fairly certain this would be the right club.”
“Once you found us, did you tell them where we’re located?” Absinthe asked.
She wanted to pull her hair out. “Of course I didn’t. What would be the point of warning all of you if I told them where you are?” Exasperation warred with exhaustion. She had tried to sleep throughout the day but hadn’t been successful. What little sleep she’d gotten didn’t make up for the nights of frenzied hunting for the Torpedo Ink members after her baby was taken.
“When was the last time you ate something?” Alena asked.
Breezy pulled back, tugging at her arm to try to get away from Absinthe. She understood the need for them to protect their club. She did. She understood self-preservation, but that was a personal question and one she didn’t want to answer. She pressed her lips together and shrugged.
“Breezy.”
Steele’s voice bit through her. It was cold, the voice he used when he was displeased with something she’d done. Before it had made her curl up into a little ball and withdraw. She hated it when he was upset with her. Now, he could go to hell. Her eyes met his in a storm of defiance. They locked together in some weird combat that tied her stomach in knots and made little tremors move through her body.
“I’m not doing this,” Absinthe said and let go of her wrist. “It’s clear she hasn’t eaten in a while. She’s pale, shaky and close to fainting.”
“Some very bad people have taken my son,” she snapped and rubbed at her wrist as if she could remove Absinthe’s touch. “I need to go. Now that you’ve got what you wanted, and you know you’re all safe, I have to get out of here.” She poured venom into her scathing comment hoping to shame him. Shame all of them. Zane was a toddler. They were adults.
“You’re not leaving,” Steele said. “Don’t waste time arguing. I’m not about to let you anywhere near your father and brother and the rest of those assholes. We’ll get our son back, but we’ll be going, not you, Breezy.”
“Like hell I won’t be going. He’s my child, Steele. I took care of him. I raised him. You weren’t there, and you made it clear you didn’t want to be there.”
“I gave you money . . .”
She surged to her feet as adrenaline coursed through her. Adrenaline, anger and pure hurt. “As if I’d spend your money. I’m not a whore. I wasn’t a whore when we were together, and I refuse to let you make me into one by clearing your conscience and giving me money. I told you that. Every penny I used to get us started I replaced and will send back to you the minute I have him and can get home.”
“Damn it, Breezy. I gave you that money so you would be safe.”
She took a step toward the door. The man they had always called Savage stood in front of it, and he scared the crap out of her. She wasn’t about to fight him to get out. She appealed to the president of the club.
“I have to go get my baby, Czar. I would appreciate it if you would ask everyone to let me leave.”
Czar studied her face for what seemed an eternity. Finally, he shook his head, and her heart sank.
“Honey, you know you aren’t going to get out of there alive with him. You know you’d just be throwing your life away. This is what we do, and for one of our own, there’s no question we’ll go. We have a better chance of getting him back than you do. The moment you tell your father we’re dead, he would kill that boy and then you. If he didn’t kill you, he’d sell you.”
She hated that everything he said was true. She didn’t want to feel helpless again. Or without hope. She had left all that behind and become so much more. Tears burned behind her eyes, but she wasn’t about to shed them in front of these people. All she could do was listen to the pounding of her heart and feel terror overwhelming her. Zane was with them. Her beautiful little boy with her mop of tawny hair and Steele’s unusual midnight-colored eyes. Dark blue would have been rare enough, but Steele’s eyes were so dark they often looked like a midnight sky. That was how she thought of them, and her son had those same eyes.
“He’ll be so afraid.” It escaped before she could hold it back.
“I’ve got soup made,” Alena said. “Let me get that for you.”
Breezy glanced at her. Alena had always ridden with Czar as his old lady. He’d been so protective of her. None of the Swords dared look at her for fear of his retaliation. She’d kept to herself unless Lana was around. Lana was always on the back of Ice’s bike. She didn’t remember either woman saying much to her. In fact, it was possible it was the first nice thing Alena had ever s
aid to her.
She tried not to allow hurt to rule her. She’d promised herself she would be a better person. She wouldn’t be judgmental or nasty to other women if she could help it. That had been done to her almost from the day she was born, others snubbing her both inside the club and outside it.
Breezy nodded. “Thank you.” She practically choked on the words, so she couldn’t get anything else out. Alena didn’t seem to mind that she was brief because she left the room through the door on the far side, away from the entrance. Breezy had noted that door. If it led to all the bedrooms, it was possible there was another exit.
“Baby, stop looking for an escape route. Your ride is gone.”
That jerked her head up. Her gaze clashed with Steele’s and then she ran to the window to look out. Her truck wasn’t there. She whirled around to find him close. He was so silent he could walk like a cat across a room, not making a sound. That had always freaked her out a little.
“Get it back, Steele.”
“Not happening, Breezy. You’re not running out on me in the middle of the night. You have every right to be angry. And hurt. But you also have to admit, you should have told me you were pregnant . . .”
“You didn’t give me the chance when you were throwing my ass out. You couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. You made it very clear I was nothing to you . . .”
“Damn it. I had no choice.”
“Step back.” He was too close, and she was still intimidated by the biker world and those in it. She’d been trained to obey the members or get beaten. Three years, most of it trying to learn to survive on her own, hadn’t been enough time to block out that programming. He was a threat to her, and her body reacted with those years of conditioning. She detested that she froze, holding her breath. Waiting.
Steele immediately took two steps back, giving her room. “Breezy, we have to talk. You know we do.”
“I know we need to talk about getting Zane out of their hands. If that’s what you want to talk about, let’s do it. I’m ready. Anything else, there’s no reason.”
“Zane? You named him Zane?”
There was a note in his voice, possessive maybe, that scared her. He couldn’t have her son. He couldn’t. “The moment I have him safe, I’m taking him home.”
“The home they stole him from?” Steele shook his head. “What’s to say they won’t take him back?”
“They’ll be dead. If you don’t kill them, I will.”
“Breezy, you know the life. Baby, come on. You were born into that club. They’ll come after you. Chapter after chapter. Brother after brother. You won’t survive. Neither will Zane.”
He was right. He was so right. She pressed her fingers to her throbbing head. She was so terrified for her child she was almost numb. From the moment she’d rolled over onto her hands and knees, vomiting blood and hurting so badly, she’d been panicked for Zane in the hands of men who were capable of great cruelties.
She looked up at Steele. He’d been the man she believed in. The one she thought she could count on. His betrayal was far worse than the club’s. She wanted to collapse into his arms and let him take care of everything, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t that girl anymore and she refused to be, even when she desperately needed someone. It had been a hard-won fight, but she’d made it. She’d learned to stand on her own and she wasn’t going back.
“He’s so little, Steele. He’s just so little.” Her voice broke and she pressed her fingers over her mouth, knowing her lips were trembling and he could see that telltale sign that she was about to fall apart.
“We’ll bring him back to you, Breezy,” he promised.
She wished she could believe him, but he’d lied to her for an entire year. She shook her head and looked away from his face, that face that had represented strength and safety to her.
Clearly reading her expression of disbelief, he cursed under his breath and stepped back again. “Go sit. Let Alena feed you. You can tell us where my boy is being held.”
She winced at his word choice, but the important thing was getting Zane out of her father’s hands. She could sort the rest after. “That’s the problem, Steele. They refused to tell me. I think they’re moving him around, but I don’t know for certain. They send me pictures, so I know he’s alive. I have a number I’m supposed to call when I have the information on you and then again when I kill you.”
“Where were you planning on going when you left here?” Czar asked.
She turned to face him. She’d almost forgotten the others were still in the room they were so silent. It was eerie being with so many people and not one of them made a whisper of a sound. Her gaze touched on them one by one. They looked grim. Dangerous. Very sober.
“I know them. I know their haunts. I know where they think they’re safe. My father won’t be able to take having a toddler around. He’ll need a woman to take care of him. One of the younger girls. A teen, but old enough that she would have been beaten into submission. Or one of the women who is desperate to be an old lady—desperate enough to go with my father and try to please him.” She was revealing way too much about her life, but they already knew. They’d been there. They’d witnessed it.
“That was always the trouble with you,” Steele murmured. “You’re so damned smart. You observe everything.”
She didn’t know what was wrong with being intelligent, and she didn’t care.
“Keep going,” Czar said. “And sit down before you fall down. Driving yourself to the point of collapse isn’t going to get that boy back. You have to eat, sleep and be in good shape. We’ve got a little time because they aren’t expecting you to succeed so quickly when they failed in finding us. We need to take that time to plan things out, so we get him back the first time and there’s no chance that he can be injured or killed.”
She flinched at the thought. She’d been avoiding the idea that her father and brother might kill her son, but it was a very real possibility if they got angry enough.
Steele put his hand on the small of her back and gave her a little push toward the chair where she’d been sitting. She might have protested, but Alena was back, putting a steaming bowl of soup on the table and a small basket of sourdough bread beside it. Lana added a bottle of water.
There was sense in what Czar said, and it gave her the added idea that he was considering taking her along with them when they went after Zane. She was going even if she had to hitchhike after they left; it would be better for her to be there. She knew the way her father thought—and she could track him once she figured out one of the places he had taken her son.
She slipped into the chair, trying not to wince when she settled into the seat. She had to be careful of angles because her ribs were sore, and she knew Steele was watching her with hawk eyes. They all seemed to be watching her.
“Did you go to a doctor?” Steele asked.
She sent him a look. Was he crazy? She was beat all the hell up. A doctor would report it to the cops. She knew that. If her father or Braden caught wind the cops were looking for them, they’d kill her son and bury him where no one would ever find him.
“After you eat, I’m going to have to take a look at you.”
“Like hell.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“Like you do?”
“Breezy, I’m pissed with good reason. No matter what was happening between you and me, I had the right to know you were pregnant with my child—and you know it.”
There was truth in what he said, but she didn’t want to give that to him. She couldn’t make one single concession to him. She’d been so young and so afraid. She’d never been outside the club, and her father certainly hadn’t encouraged her making her own decisions. She had the lowest self-esteem possible and a baby on the way.
To avoid answering him, she put a spoonful of soup into her mouth. The flavors were perfect. She’d never
had such good soup. She looked at it. Not from a can. “I’ve never actually tasted anything as good as this in my life.” She blurted it out without thinking.
Alena beamed. “I’m so glad you like it. I’m opening a restaurant soon and that’s one of my original recipes. Do you think it needs more black pepper?”
Breezy shook her head. “This is as perfect as it can get. Seriously.”
Alena shot a glance at Lana. “At last. I was pretty certain this batch had the right everything.”
“I’m hungry,” Ice said. “Did you make enough for all of us?”
“Got any of that bread to go with it?” Storm, his twin, added.
“There’s plenty for everyone,” Alena assured.
“We’re going to need clothes for the baby,” Steele said. “Breezy, you’ll have to make a list for us. We’re not up on what babies need. We’ll need a room ready for him, so include furniture . . .”
“He has clothes and furniture bought and paid for with money I worked for,” Breezy said, glaring at Steele.
“I’m well aware of that.” Steele took the chair beside her while the others drifted out to get food, presumably from a kitchen somewhere in the enormous building. “Those things aren’t going to do us any good. I told you, we can’t go near that place. If there’s really something you absolutely need, papers, things irreplaceable like photographs, I’ll go in at night. They’ll be watching your apartment. We don’t want to lead them back here . . .”
“By all means, stay as safe as you can,” she muttered sarcastically.
“We’re bringing our son back here, Breezy.” Steele was back in control, no flares of anger. Just absolute control. “That means we don’t want a single Sword to know this location or the name of our club.”
That made sense too. She detested that Steele made any kind of sense at all. “I’m not raising Zane in club life, Steele. You can get pissed if you want, but I’m not going to do it. If I have to stay close for a while, I’ll find a place to live and work near here, and that’s a huge concession. We can set up visitation if you think you’re going to take an interest in him, but—”
Vengeance Road Page 4
