him. Torpedo Ink members were loading the truck and bikes, giving him a few minutes alone with his woman and son before they wiped down the house with their cleaner and put as many miles as possible between Lake Pontchartrain and them.
Breezy sat in the rocking chair, Zane in her arms, eyes closed, humming as she rocked. The boy had his head buried in her neck, his little arms wrapped tightly around her neck. Steele stood just inside the doorway, his heart pounding and then settling to a rhythm he hadn’t felt in a long while. Contentment. Joy. He had experienced both those foreign emotions when he’d been with his woman.
“Thank you, Steele.” Her voice came out of the gathering shadows. “You said you’d bring him back to me and you did. I don’t have the right words to tell you what it means to me. There is no greater thing that you could have done for me. No better gift.”
Steele was silent for a long moment, drinking her in. Those green eyes. Vivid. Overbright. She’d been crying, but this time they were tears of joy and relief. She was looking at him as if he was someone special. Someone she looked up to. Adored. That adoration she’d given him before was back.
“Baby, he’s our son. Mine too. There was no question I would get him back for us.” He tried for matter-of-fact. He didn’t want her thinking he was some kind of hero—and yet—perversely—he did. He loved that particular look on her face, the one that told him she believed there was no other man like him or as good as him.
She smiled serenely. “I love you, Steele.” She brushed kisses over the top of Zane’s head and then began to ease him away from her, so she could turn him around. For a moment the boy resisted, his little arms tight around her neck, nearly strangling her.
“It’s okay, baby,” Steele assured her.
Breezy insisted, turning Zane in her arms so he faced his father. She wrapped the boy tightly in her arms. “This is your daddy. Remember I told you all those stories about him? How brave he is? How he will always look out for you? Your daddy took you away from the bad men. They’ll never be able to get to you again.” She kissed the side of the boy’s face several times.
All the while his son—his son—stared at him curiously. He recognized those eyes. He looked into the mirror daily and saw them. There was no denying Zane was his child. He had his jawline. The eyes. Breezy’s wild mop of thick tawny-colored hair. It wasn’t like his own dark hair wasn’t thick and wild as well. Most of the time he didn’t bother to try to tame it. He might cut the sides shorter, but the top of his hair was always left longer, and it went every which way, just as Breezy’s did. Their son inherited from both. Double the thickness, her color and thick curls and waves everywhere. Zane was so beautiful, Steele wanted to weep.
The two stared at each other. Steele let him look his fill. The little boy reached out a hand, and Steele leaned down, so he could touch his hair. Evidently, they were thinking the same thing. “Did they hurt you, buddy?” he asked.
Zane nodded, his eyes narrowing a little as if the memory made him angrier than scared. “The bad man hit me. Mommy said don’t hit.”
That little voice turned Steele’s heart over.
“He has bruises all over him,” Breezy said. There were tears in her voice and she buried her face in the mop of curls on the top of Zane’s head.
Steele’s gut tightened and the monster in him roared. Bridges had paid for his crimes. Junk had as well. They wouldn’t be coming back to threaten or harm Steele’s family, and there was satisfaction in that.
“Come here, little buddy,” Steele said gently. “Let me hold you for a minute. I want to see how big you’ve gotten. Mommy gave me lots of pictures of you, but you’re so much bigger than those pictures.” He wanted to lay his hands on every bruise and try to ease any pain.
Zane’s eyes lit up. “Pictures aren’t big.”
The boy didn’t pull back when Steele brushed his hair out of his eyes. Very slowly, so as not to startle him, and extremely gently just in case he put his hands on a bruise, Steele lifted his son from Breezy’s arms. His entire