honey, you don’t live your life safe. You never have. But I still, right now, need transportation. You’re going to stay here and teach our son to swim, and I’m going to go into town. I guess I’ll have to take the monster truck.”
“You’re going into town? You didn’t mention that you needed anything.” He kept his voice very neutral when he wanted to yank her into his arms and crush her to him.
“I knew you had another swim lesson planned with Zane and I thought I could do a little shopping. There’s a new recipe I found that I wanted to try.”
His heart pounded. Hard. The pressure in his chest hurt. “Baby, you want to go somewhere, you just say so. We can postpone the swim lessons. I’ll drive you in.”
He hated the monster truck, as she called it. Sometimes he couldn’t breathe in that truck, but it was necessary when they took Zane with them. He needed the open air surrounding him. The wind in his face. He wanted Breezy behind him, so close he could feel her body as if they were locked together intimately. He needed that.
“That’s silly, Steele. I can go by myself. And that’s another thing. You haven’t been away from here in the last week. You need to go out with Maestro and Keys and ride. All of you are getting a little crazy.”
She still sounded happy. Carefree. She didn’t get it. He couldn’t leave her. He didn’t want her leaving either. Unless he took her to the clubhouse. She’d be safe at the clubhouse surrounded by his brothers and sisters. He pressed his palm to his chest over his rapidly beating heart. He’d done everything he knew how to in order to ensure Breezy and Zane were safe.
It took a little arranging to find the right cleaning crew for the house, one that fit, but with the cameras everywhere, Steele relaxed enough to allow strangers in once a week. The cleaners had eyes on them all the time, but that didn’t matter. Breezy insisted on cleaning their suite as well as Zane’s little room right off of theirs, and Steele was okay with that—maybe even thankful.
He had an app on his phone that allowed him to check on his family whenever he needed to—which was all the time. He hadn’t considered that Breezy would take it into her head to run off by herself somewhere. She was right. He needed to ride, but he hadn’t figured out how to ride and keep both Breezy and Zane with him.
“I’ll drive you into town and go out later with Maestro or Keys.”
Breezy turned slowly, shaking her head, resting her back against the counter, her eyes staring directly into his. Sometimes when she did that, he felt like she could see his every sin. He stepped in front of her, planting a hand on the counter on either side of her, effectively caging her in with his arms.
“You trying to get rid of me, woman?” He knew how to distract her. He kissed the side of her neck. Ran his lips up to her ear and bit down on her earlobe. He felt the little shiver that went through her and licked at the little sting.
“I want you to be you, Steele. You need to ride with your brothers. I didn’t want the club life, and I’m still a little nervous about it, but you need it. You haven’t been to the clubhouse since we’ve been back.”
So much for his distraction. He was well aware that although she’d agreed, she was still leery of the lifestyle. That contributed to him getting a little crazy about leaving her alone. He might not have been physically to the clubhouse, but all his brothers—Czar included—had been to his home. They’d come, a few at a time, getting Breezy used to them being around. They’d done that for him. Most clubs wouldn’t have bothered, certainly not the Swords, and he knew she appreciated it. She couldn’t help being a little uneasy.
He knew Code had monitored the Swords as well as every news outlet. Speculation had it that the Swords had been involved in some war with a rival club and the other club had slaughtered the president of the local chapter and several members of his crew, both at the Abernathy estate and in town at a motel that was owned by the Swords. The other rumor was that Boone had made vicious enemies in prison and they had