She rolled her eyes and he grinned at her. Teasing her. She smiled back and shook her head, pretending to be exasperated. He loved that she got that he was teasing her and shared the moment with him. His woman. Not giving him a rash of shit when it wasn’t needed.
“Let’s go home, baby. Can’t wait to get him back where he belongs.” He turned his attention to his son, finishing with his arms and legs and that bruise on his face. He was so little, it didn’t take long. “You’ll love your new home. We’ve got a swimming pool, and I can see you were very fond of swimming. Ours is warm.”
Breezy shook her head. “I’ve got to go to the hospital and see Candy. She took that hit for our son,” she added when he shook his head. “I can’t just leave her behind, Steele.”
“Lizard is with her. He didn’t see any of us. He can’t know you found us.”
“I’ll go into the hospital alone, honey. Lizard won’t try to keep me there and if he did, I could yell for help or tell him there’s a gun on him.”
“I don’t like it, Bree. We’re out right now. Free and clear. No one saw us and there’s no trace of us left behind. We even cleaned up the baby’s DNA.”
“You saw what happened. She stepped in front of him and took the hit. I have to at least ask her.”
“Do it over the phone.”
Breezy shook her head. “I need a face-to-face with her. If nothing else, I can thank her for taking care of Zane. I know you can keep me safe. You’ll have our son with you, and no matter which way it goes with Candy, we’ll be ready to leave immediately.”
“She’s no longer in the hospital. We’ve got eyes on her and Lizard. Her father put her up in a motel. He hasn’t gone back to the estate, but he did get pizza. They’re both there now.”
She reached out and caught his hand. “I need you to make this happen for me.”
What the fuck was he supposed to do when she gave him those emerald eyes and it made sense? Candy had risked herself to save Zane. He just didn’t want to trust her around Breezy and Zane. He wanted to wrap them up in a cocoon and keep them safe from every possible threat.
SEVENTEEN
The motel looked as if it had seen better days. Breezy approached from the other side of the street. She wasn’t to go near the room unless given the signal that everything was clear. Torpedo Ink didn’t want any other Swords member close by. They would have preferred that Lizard was gone as well, but they didn’t have the time to wait him out. For one thing, someone was bound to discover the gruesome scene at the estate very soon. They wanted to be long gone from Slidell when that happened.
She glanced up and down the street warily. She knew Steele’s main concern with her going into the motel room with Lizard was another Swords member showing up. This was their territory. They might be weak from the loss of members and money, but they had held this territory for a very long time. They had allies.
“Slow down.” The tiny radio in her ear was easily heard. She didn’t like wearing it just in case Lizard spotted it, although with her hair, it might be difficult. She was wearing it down to hide her ears and the radio. Who knew something that powerful could be so small? Mechanic had made them for the team.
“I want Preacher in place in the front and Transporter in the back.” Steele’s voice brooked no argument. He was in charge, and if she didn’t do exactly what he said when he said, he’d take her out of there.
She knew him, she knew he’d kill both Lizard and Candy to protect his family. Already she could see what he’d been talking about when he’d told her he would probably hold on too tight. He’d turned into a dictator the moment he’d given in to her. She hadn’t dared go against him, and she wouldn’t. He would pull the plug on the operation immediately, and she wanted to give Candy a chance.
She took a breath and paused, looking down at her phone as if she got a message. There was nothing on that phone. She could type in anything, gibberish, and the Torpedo Ink club would come running. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an older-looking woman dressed in a miniskirt with her arm around a man’s neck. They walked up to one of the rooms. She pushed her key in the door and the two disappeared inside.
Breezy blinked several times trying to register what she’d seen. She hadn’t recognized the woman, but she was definitely a prostitute. The man was older, and he looked hard, like a biker, but he wasn’t wearing colors. Could this be one of the places the Swords club used their women to bring in money for them? Wherever the new location was—and they often changed it—they would also do drug deals as well as arms deals. This wouldn’t be a trafficking location, all the women would belong to the club.
She stepped back farther into the shadows. “Is this one of the Swords motels?”
“Looks like it, baby. That means get in and get out fast. You don’t want Lizard calling for backup. It would turn into a bloodbath. Consider aborting.”
It would be the intelligent thing to do, but she couldn’t forget the sight of Candy taking the hit that would have knocked her son into the water, and probably knocked him out. That blow had been hard enough to break a grown woman’s arm. Candy was a couple of years younger than she was, and Breezy wanted her to have a chance at life the way she had. Steele and the club could help her, set her up in a house, find her a job. They could be friends . . .
“I have to try to help her, Steele,” she said softly, hoping he understood.
She knew why he was giving her this concession. He didn’t want her to do this. Now that he had Zane, he wanted to get both of them home, where he was certain he could keep them safe. He was upset with his reaction when he’d learned that Bridges had hit her every month when she rode with Steele as his old lady. She had seen it on his face when he’d stormed out the door with Savage. He hadn’t been happy with himself and he was trying to make up for it by giving her something he didn’t want but knew she did.
Her man. Steele. He didn’t realize some things didn’t matter that much to her. She’d been momentarily hurt by his reaction, but after she saw the look on his face and knew he hadn’t liked his reaction any more than she had, it was all right. Breezy had learned, practically from birth, to let things go. If they weren’t big and didn’t threaten to swallow her whole, she dismissed them from her mind. If she really needed to deal with something, she thought about it carefully, formulated a plan and then carried it out.
“Everyone’s in place, Bree.” Steele’s voice was in her ear.
She swallowed down every apprehension and crossed the street. Code was back online. He’d been working on finding the little boy up for auction on the Internet. Running down leads took time, and he’d been staying up nights and eating old food. He’d given himself a very bad case of food poisoning. He was back on his computer, and he’d found out which room Lizard and Candy were in.
She went straight to the door. The paint was old and chipping off. Dirt was smeared across the cheap wood. She raised her hand and knocked, facing forward so anyone coming up behind her or on either side would have a difficult time seeing her face. She wore blue jeans, boots and a dark hoodie. The hood was drawn up over her hair and partially blocked her face on either side.
“What do you want?” Lizard growled, throwing open the door. Then he recognized her. His expression changed. “Breezy. What the hell?” He looked left and right. “You alone?”
Before she could answer, he grabbed her arm with hard fingers and jerked her inside. Slamming the door, he pushed her across the room. Candy sat on a bed, her arm in a sling, flipping through a magazine. She gasped and half stood when Breezy pushed the hoodie from her hair.
“Breezy.” Candy’s smile widened. “I didn’t expect to see you.” She glanced at her father and then lowered her voice, as if he might not be able to hear even though he was just a few feet away. “Your father is very, very angry at you.”
“He’s always angry,” Breezy stated.
“Not like this,” Can
dy said. “You should have kept him informed about what you were doing and where you were.”
The room wasn’t very big, and the two beds were nearly pushed together. There was just enough room to slide sideways between the two of them. The blankets looked filthy and the room smelled of musk and sex. Breezy had the feeling it hadn’t been cleaned in years. There were coin slots to make the beds vibrate, and it looked as if the old television had seen better days. She hadn’t thought there were motel rooms like this one anymore.
“Breezy, unless you killed Steele and Czar, Bridges isn’t going to be happy you’re here. When he’s not happy, people get hurt,” Lizard said. “Did you do it? Did you kill those bastards?”
“What makes you think they’re to blame for the massacre? They’ve disappeared too. Maybe no one was left alive,” Breezy said, allowing frustration into her voice. “If the Swords couldn’t find them, why would you think that I could?”
“Don’t try to convince him we’re dead. Just talk to Candy and get out of there.” There was a bite to Steele’s voice.
Breezy knew he wouldn’t like it, but she wasn’t passing up the opportunity to put doubt in Lizard’s mind. He had quite a bit of influence with the chapter, and once it was known that Bridges was dead, he could very well be voted in as president.
“That man was crazy about you,” Lizard said.
“That man threw my ass out,” Breezy said. “I begged him to let me stay, and he refused. He didn’t even want me around the club. He was done with me and wanted me gone. That isn’t a man crazy about a woman. None of them were the type. I’m not going to say I didn’t have a childish fantasy, but if you looked at them, Lizard, you had to have seen how cold they were.”
“If you didn’t find them, what are you doing here?”
“I was going to try to get Zane back myself. I was watching the house, but then Candy came out with him and Donk tried to hit him, and she stepped in front of him . . .” She broke off. Her voice trembled for real. That moment had been terrible. She’d been so far away, and she’d been very afraid for both Candy and Zane. She was grateful Lizard had showed up.