going to get Zane back. Everyone’s looking, and Czar’s called in favors from other clubs we’ve helped. We’re owed a lot of favors. We’ll find him.”
Breezy shook her head and looked up at Lana. “I’m just so confused right now. I swore I’d never live in a club and I sure as hell wasn’t going to raise my son in one, but here I am, letting a club risk everything to get my son back.”
“We’re not risking everything,” Lana objected. “We have certain advantages.”
“Steele’s risking everything. His soul. I don’t know. He’s doing things a doctor, a man as sensitive as he is, shouldn’t ever do.”
“He’s done them all his life. He’s had to, for his own survival, and for ours.”
“Maybe, and then there’s that house. Have you seen that house?”
Lana flashed her a smile and sank down onto the bed beside her. “It’s a gorgeous house.”
“It’s too much. I don’t know what he was thinking buying that house.”
“He was thinking he was getting the best he could for his woman. He might not tell you how he feels about you, but he definitely has no problems showing you.”
“You know about that? That he won’t say he loves me?” Breezy met Lana’s eyes, wanting to find something there, but she didn’t know what she was looking for.
Lana nodded. “He told me what an ass he’d been to you. The moment you were out of his sight, he wanted to run after you. He forced you to leave because he was afraid you’d get hurt or killed in the war between our clubs. He knew we were going to take down the international president and that the Swords would always be looking for us.”
“And my age,” Breezy said. “He was upset when he learned my age.”
Lana nodded. “None of us guessed you were that young. You were always so calm when chaos reigned in the clubhouse. No matter how big a party was, you had the food and the drinks ready. The other women looked to you for their orders. You took care of problems and looked after the kids. You never seemed to get upset. There was no giggling or teenage behavior. Never.”
“I grew up knowing if I made a mistake, no matter how small, I would get beaten. It was expected of me to take care of all things in the clubhouse or at home no matter whether Bridges told me about it or not. If I drew attention to myself in any way, he would beat me or hand me over to his friends. I was lucky in that no one could just put their hands on me, Bridges had to approve, and he was stingy. Growing up that way, I had to think like an adult.”
“Let Steele spoil you, Breezy. You gave him everything when you were with him. You met his every need and that’s nearly impossible for anyone to do for anyone, but you managed. Let him have the chance to give back. He wants to give you a huge house and let you do anything you want with it, let him. Just remember he needs … clean.”
Breezy nodded. “I’m very aware. Fortunately, again growing up the way I did, I prefer clean as well. Maybe not like him, but it’s easy enough, at least it was until he decided we needed a mansion the size of Texas.”
Lana burst out laughing. “I’m sure he’ll hire cleaners to come in.”
“They’ll need to live there permanently and work twenty-four-seven.” Breezy rubbed her hand over her face. “He’s told me a little about his childhood. About the things that happened to you. I’m trying to understand what it was like for him to have his need for such a completely ascetic home. The walls are white. The floors and ceiling, the stairway. It’s beautiful, but every speck of dirt shows, and there’s Zane. He has to be allowed to be a little boy and honestly, Steele’s obsessed with cleanliness.”
Lana sighed. “You can’t imagine what the conditions in the basement of that school were like. It was really a prison they’d made into a school. We were shoved into the basement. The floor was filthy, covered in dirt and feces. There were rats down there and cockroaches. When we were returned from one of their sessions, we were bloody and raw, usually from several different areas on our bodies, front and back, so whichever way we lay, we were lying in filth and germs were multiplying. Often they used