“Daddy always said maybe you’d join us, Breezy. I hope so. I want you to. We can share everything. I really like Zane. I’ll help with him, no problem. We’ll be sisters.”
She turned to smile at Candy because she couldn’t look at Lizard. He was old enough to be her father, but her age didn’t matter to him. She was becoming a little suspicious of Candy and Lizard and just what their relationship was. Breezy shook her head. She had to get out of there before she accidentally said something she shouldn’t.
“I’d like that, Candy. I’d better get going before it gets much later. I like to travel at night. I think it’s safer.”
“Stop talking. You’re going to slip up.”
That had been a slip. Now Lizard knew when she traveled she drove at night and slept during the day in motels. He might not know about Steele, but when the bodies at the estate were discovered he would be one of the angriest because of this moment—when he thought he would have her. She’d tricked him. Made a fool of him and he would never stop until he found her.
“If you don’t do what Bridges and daddy say, Breezy,” Candy said in her sweetest voice, “I’ll cut Zane’s throat myself. No problem. We’re a family. You don’t just throw away family.” She smiled, sugar dripping from her voice. “I’ve done it before. I killed every one of Jessie Barker’s kids, right in front of her, for calling the cops on her old man. Then I killed her.”
Steele pulled out the earpiece and shoved it carefully in his pocket. He lifted his head and looked at the others. They were all looking at him. He knew what they expected. He had no choice. None. Lizard had to go, and now, with what Candy had just said, she’d sealed her fate as well. Lizard would keep coming for Breezy, keep her alive for the Swords. He’d want her dead. Candy just seemed fanatical. Her father had probably brainwashed her from her infancy to believe the Swords were right in all things.
“She was trying to save him again,” Maestro said aloud to all of them, but he directed the statement to Lana.
“I heard.” Lana sounded tired. “I’ll escort her in.” She turned and left the room.
Savage shook his head. “My point exactly. She’s surrounded by danger, and the only thought she’s got in her head is to try to cover for her man. That’s definitely a pattern and it’s going to get her killed. Worse, she considered giving herself up.”
“We don’t know that,” Steele said and pushed a hand through his hair. But he did know.
Ink shifted Zane’s sleeping form from one hip to the other. “We all know it, Steele. You just don’t want to admit it to yourself.”
“That’s the problem with the bullshit rules we’re supposed to learn,” Savage said. “You learn it, Steele, but she isn’t any safer for it.”
Steele knew Savage was right, but he didn’t like any of the alternatives the club came up with to deal with the problem.
Savage continued making his point. “We don’t live in society, maybe side by side, but not in it. We surround ourselves with danger. That means family does as well.”
“He’s right,” Maestro agreed. “She doesn’t understand that. Blythe certainly doesn’t. I don’t know how much I want them to know, but at least if you try to explain it—”
“Then she isn’t going to sleep at night,” Ink said, rocking Zane back and forth.
“Why the hell should you have to explain anything? She trusts you, she listens to you,” Savage said. “The rest is bullshit.”
Steele saw both sides and neither worked for him. He was used to figuring things out easily. He found the solutions to the club’s problems. He always had. His brain worked fast, compiling ideas, sorting through them and finding the ones that worked the best. Breezy seemed to have short-circuited his brain.
“Our window is closing,” Steele reminded, more than happy to get off a subject that wasn’t going to end anytime soon. “The moment the door was closed, Lizard was texting Bridges that she was here. He’ll want credit for his plan and he’ll start now trying to persuade Bridges that they need Breezy back in the fold. He’ll be very uneasy when he doesn’t get an answer and he’ll text the others.”
“I’ve got this,” Savage said.
Steele detested that Savage would be the one to go. The more he killed, the more he edged away from all