He slapped the thin slices of cheese on the bread and handed her the plate. “He was adamant. I told him I thought it was bullshit when he wasn’t risking anyone else’s woman.”
“But you didn’t defy him,” Seychelle said, her voice very low.
His gaze jumped to her face, fury rising for a split second. He shoved it down. The anger was at himself. She didn’t sound judgmental. That was on him. He hadn’t told Czar to go fuck himself as he wanted to do. Like he’d been doing since he was a toddler, he followed his decree. He put his woman squarely in the path of whatever danger they were in. He couldn’t even be angry with Czar. It had been his choice to go along with his president’s ruling.
“No, I’m so used to always doing what Czar says because he has this sixth sense. Just the way we developed our psychic abilities, he developed his until they were razor-sharp. He sees things, knows things. He’s never steered us wrong.”
“Did he say why he thought I needed to be here?”
Savage shifted his weight onto the table and shook his head. “I don’t think he knows. It was that way when we were kids down in the basement. I remember this one time there was this little girl. She was with another faction. We all kind of liked her. Lana and Alena were summoned upstairs, and so was the girl. They were going to be given to some asshole friend of Sorbacov who loved using the crop on little girls before he raped them. It wasn’t the first time Lana and this girl had taken the crop. They were so small, but Sorbacov didn’t care. Alena had never had the experience. We wanted to kill the fucker. Anyway, this girl said she was the new girl and took Alena’s place.”
Savage made himself a second ham-and-cheese sandwich and found a cold beer. He offered one to Seychelle. When she declined, he handed her a cold bottle of water.
“Keep going, honey. What happened to the girl?”
“She hit her head, which, honestly, we were grateful for. She couldn’t see any of us in the room. We killed the asshole before he could hurt Alena. When we tried to tell Czar that we should find something to trade to the other group for her, he thought it over and then said no. He was like that sometimes; he wouldn’t take kids we wanted to bring in with us. He said it was too risky, that she didn’t fit with us. She never knew we even asked, but we all felt bad. The group she was with lied all the time and traded favors upstairs with the guards and instructors. Sorbacov owed someone a favor, and he gave her away. We never heard what happened to her.”
“Has Czar ever been wrong?” Seychelle asked.
“Not that I know of. He says plenty of times, but when we’ve compared notes, none of us found when he was wrong. He’s gotten us out of some bad messes just by having the right people in place when shit goes down.”
“So you’re saying I could be one of those right people.” She took a drink of water, her blue eyes fixed on his face.
“You’re the right person for me,” he said.
She winced visibly. “Some of your brothers and sisters don’t think so.”
He’d been afraid of that. She’d said it straight up to Czar when they’d walked through the grounds earlier. He hoped Czar was delivering a much-earned lecture to Lana, Alena and Maestro right that minute. They had no right to undermine Seychelle’s confidence. It was a damn good thing he wasn’t alone with them right now. Maestro had all but admitted that he and Lana had told Seychelle she wasn’t right for him. They hadn’t meant it that way, it had just come off that way, whatever the fuck that meant.
To keep the adrenaline pouring into his system under control, he jumped off the table to retrieve two gas lamps. Lighting them, he hung them in the sprawling branches of the tree that spread across the campsite. Crouching beside the firepit, he began to build a fire for them.
“That’s a load of crap. Are the girls giving you a hard time? I thought they’d dropped that and decided to be your friend.” He didn’t look at her. He didn’t want her to see how upset he was.
“Why is it everyone seems to be under the impression that I can’t handle your needs, Savage?”
He looked up at her from where he was crouching down beside the firepit. “I don’t know, baby. They don’t know you, and they haven’t taken the time to get to know you. It isn’t their business either. We made a pact, an agreement between us. What we do together is between us.” He gestured around their campsite. “I asked for a private site, and they did come through for us. The brothers are protecting us, but we’re shielded for the most part.”