until her mouth and soft body pushed it all behind a door somewhere in his mind and he was able to close it. He needed chains and locks to hold it closed, but she helped him get it there.
Steele wanted to tell her. He needed to tell someone, and who could an assassin go to? Yeah, I’ve killed hundreds of people. Started when I was a kid. Still doing it. It’s my first, go-to thought when people fuck up and piss me off. That would not go over well. But Breezy … There was no judgment. She didn’t seem to judge anyone. Even the idiots who’d looked down on her when she’d been part of the Swords.
He pressed his forehead to hers. “Any new kid coming in was so traumatized there was no talking to them, sometimes for months. That was difficult. Czar could only try to ease their suffering. He was the one to organize us all, making certain everyone got equal shares of food and water. Sometimes Sorbacov would favor someone and give them baskets of food. It didn’t matter if they didn’t want to share, Czar made certain they did.”
“That would be fair.”
“Fair and necessary. After I got there, I was big into hygiene and Czar helped me implement what we could. We didn’t have a lot to work with.” He flashed a quick half-smile at her. “We even made all the kids brush their teeth, sometimes without water. We had to steal toothbrushes and paste and hide them from Sorbacov’s guards. In the other schools, they were given every kind of skill to blend with society, but we weren’t expected to live. They trained us, but they really didn’t believe we’d ever make it out of there for a kill. At least not for a long time.”
His gaze jumped from her face to over her head, so he could see the sprawling estate next door. There was still no movement and it was heading toward noon. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or not, but little boys at the age of two tended to get up and want to run and play. He needed to keep distracting his woman, so she didn’t freak out on him.
He could tell, looking down at her, that she was thinking about their son. Her upturned expression held sorrow. Catching her chin between his thumb and finger, he tilted her face up to his. “Baby, you have to look around you at the men, and Lana, here with you. They have one purpose for being here—to get Zane back. To put him in your arms. To bring him home. That’s the purpose. We know what we’re doing.”
“I’m holding on to that. I did think it would take a long time to track him, so if he’s here, we’re already way ahead of schedule, but it’s so difficult to think he might be right there. Right in front of me, scared and helpless with my father … He’ll hit him if he cries,” she explained.
It was all Steele could do to tell her hitting wasn’t the worst Bridges could be doing to Zane. Not just Bridges. There was Donk, Riddle and Favor. And Boone. Who knew what Boone was like, other than the fact that he was ugly to everyone and in and out of prison. He’d made a lifetime of moving in and out of the prison system.
“Lana’s heading out any minute. She had to wait until noon, at least, to make it look normal. She’s taking the boat, wearing nearly nothing and getting in close to their backyard. She’ll have equipment on board that will allow her to hear what’s going on in the house. It’s very sensitive. Mechanic cooked it up for her. He’ll be down in the cabin of the craft where no one can see him. It will look as if Lana took the boat out alone on the lake.”
“Is that safe?”
He gave her a brief grin, mostly teeth. “Babe, Lana is as good as any one of us when it comes to taking out the enemy. Don’t ever underestimate her. What you saw earlier at your apartment was nothing. Had you not been there, she would have disarmed him and probably killed him, at least incapacitated him in seconds without the help of you throwing the blanket. She’s lethal as hell. We call her ‘Widow’ because she’s made so many. Don’t think for a minute she can’t take care of herself, or you