“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—”