Blythe traced letters on the menu and glanced up at Czar as if she knew he wouldn’t be too happy with her. “I had the feeling he was trying to use his voice on me to get me to answer his questions. He kept trying different octaves, and sometimes I could hear them sort of knocking at my brain, like he was working to get in.”
Czar’s eyes moved over her face. “Baby. You should have told me.”
“I know, honey. I was going to, but when I got home from work, Jimmy was sick with the flu and you were dealing with club stuff, and by the time you got home, I was so tired I just fell into bed and went to sleep. Then life got in the way until I saw Seychelle tonight.”
“Has that little bastard been back since?” Savage asked, mainly to take the spotlight off his woman and give her a chance to take a breath. He kept up the slow caresses on the back of her hand, keeping their connection.
“No, and I put him on my blacklist. He can get a massage from one of the other therapists, but I’m always too booked,” Blythe explained. “None of the others know Seychelle, so even if he asks, they can’t answer.”
“What kinds of questions did he ask you about Seychelle?” Steele persisted.
“Was she really with Savage? How long had she been dating him? Did she sing at the bar regularly? Was she going on the run with Torpedo Ink?”
Savage stiffened. “He asked that? If she was going on the run with us?”
“Yes. I didn’t answer any of his questions, but he had an hour massage and he would talk about other things and suddenly throw in a question out of nowhere,” Blythe said.
“Why would Brandon ask if Seychelle was going on the run?” Czar mused aloud. “He doesn’t belong to a club, does he, Seychelle?”
“Not that I know of,” Seychelle said, “but I honestly don’t know him very well.”
Savage frowned. “One of the Diamondbacks talked to Seychelle in Sea Haven today, Czar. Came right up to her and asked about her voice, said something about her controlling others with it. No Diamondback would ever think about having psychic gifts. If they did think it, they wouldn’t talk about it, not out loud where someone might overhear them. Campbell had to have put that shit in his head.”
“Tony asked me if I was with Savage and if I was going on the run with him,” Seychelle confessed. “There was another, older man in the truck. Tony introduced him as his brother Leonardo. Both wore Diamondback colors.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Savage whispered aloud.
“They were at the bar the night I was singing,” Seychelle said. “Brandon and Tony from the Diamondbacks. I didn’t see them together, but they were both there that night. I saw each separately.”
“Yeah, I don’t like any of this,” Czar said. He put a hand to the back of his neck and rubbed. “We need to figure this shit out, Steele.”
Darby approached the table. “Packed full tonight. Hope you had a chance to look at the menus. We need to get your orders in fast.” She leaned one palm on the table in front of her father, smiling at them. “Seriously, packed. Starting with you, Steele, what will it be?”
She lifted her hand to scribble the orders in a kind of shorthand, going clockwise around the table, taking the orders from them all. When she raised her hand, a pen was in her fist, but she left behind a folded piece of paper she slid partially under her father’s bread plate.
“I’ll have a server get in here and refill your water glasses and grab your beers. How many?”
All three men wanted beers. Blythe raised her hand, but both Breezy and Seychelle passed. Seychelle shifted again, and Savage caved. Under cover of the table, he shook a couple pills out of the bottle and passed them to her.
Seychelle looked down at them and then lifted her lashes.
“Take them.” It came out a growl. A command. He was turning into a damn pussy.
She swallowed the pills with water while Czar removed the note his daughter had left behind, smoothed it out using his cloth napkin, as if wiping spilled water up. He glanced down at the paper and then just as carefully folded it, pulled out his wallet and placed it inside before he spoke very quietly.
“We have a little problem developing in the kitchen. Pierce has come to visit Alena again. He hasn’t come alone. Darby thought it was possible we were being watched. Alena said Pierce was with her while she was using a small torch making a dessert and he remarked that now he knew why she was nicknamed Torch. She remembered that when she first met him, she’d told him she had a road name and so did Lana. She’d forgotten. He seemed to believe hers had to do with her chef skills. Now he’s insisting she go outside with him. She’s stalling him but can’t for long. There are at least two Diamondbacks out back. Trade and Lion both are there.” Pierce was a Diamondback who’d dated Alena and then was caught cheating on her. Trade and Lion were two Diamondbacks close to the chapter president.