such a fantastic dessert in my life. Not ever. You’d make a fortune selling these. If nothing else is worth eating in your restaurant, people would still come for these tarts.” Inez bit the last bite and chewed it. “Heaven.”
“I’m so glad you love them,” Alena said. “You can take the rest if you’d like to share with your friends. Maybe they’ll love them enough to come check out my place.”
“Wait,” Ice said. “You’re giving the leftovers away?”
“There’s more in the kitchen,” Alena said patiently. “You know that.”
There was a rush for the kitchen, everyone but Ice and Storm. She put her hands on her hips and faced her brothers. “What did you do with the tarts? You couldn’t possibly have eaten them all.”
Steele stood up. He pulled out his phone and sent a mass text. “I know exactly where they are. Ice and Storm hid them in their rooms.”
Phones dinged, and everyone looked down at their screens. Ice and Storm leapt up and took off running. Storm looked over his shoulder, glaring at Steele. “For that, we’re not saving any.”
Inez burst out laughing. “Those two. When they come into the store, half the female population follows them around.”
“Don’t point that out,” Alena said. “They already know they’re good-looking.”
“We would love to take the tarts home and share with our friends,” Inez said.
“I don’t know about sharing them,” Frank teased her, “but definitely take them home.”
“When is your grand opening?” Inez asked.
“Hopefully next month. I’m so excited,” Alena said. “It’s really quite small, just what I wanted.”
“You’re building up quite a few businesses,” Inez said. “I’m so glad to see that. Your garage appears to be thriving.”
“Transporter and Mechanic are very good with motors and custom designs,” Steele said. “The word’s been getting out fast. They’ve got more orders than they can handle, but everyone pitches in to help. We’ve made it a policy to put all locals first, so if they bring their car in, even for an oil change, it gets into the lineup immediately.”
Inez nodded. “Your tattoo parlor has a very good reputation as well. So many people have come in talking about how good he is and what a great artist he is, that I considered getting a tattoo.”
Frank smiled at her and took her hand. “We’d better go, honey. It was really a pleasure getting to know you. We’ll have Jackson look over everything for us and get back to you as soon as we can.”
Czar and Steele stood up as well. Absinthe pushed back his chair and leaned across the table to shake Frank’s hand. “We appreciate you considering this. I hope you’ll say yes to our proposal.” He walked the couple out to their car, chatting amicably with them so that Inez’s soft laughter and Frank’s deeper chuckle could be heard.
Czar smiled with relief. “That’s one more thing we can check off. The money’s too good to pass up and Absinthe subtly worked his magic, although I think Breezy and Zane did the trick from the beginning. How are things going?”
Steele shrugged. “Don’t know yet. I’m driving myself crazy and she’s beginning to notice.”
Czar regarded him quietly for a few minutes. He sank back into a chair and indicated Steele sit as well. Steele did. For the first time in over two weeks he was actually relaxed. He was surrounded by his brothers and sisters and they were watching his back. They were watching his family.
“Not sleeping very well. Everything’s too close. This thing with Zane could have gone either way. Donk and Bridges, well … all of them, were fucked up on drugs. If we hadn’t been there, Czar, Donk would have killed Zane. That was his intention. Even Candy was weird. They found drugs in the motel with her, quite a bit, and evidence that she and Lizard …” He broke off, shaking his head. “Let’s just say, it was a close call having my son kidnapped by fuckers that far gone.”
Czar nodded. “I went over everything in detail with the others. I believe you got him out of there just in time. Does Breezy realize that?”
“She knows that it was bad, Czar, but she has no idea just what the Swords were doing to young kids, boys and girls. I don’t particularly want her to know. Already, she spends time just sitting and holding him. Rocking him. She cries when she’s doing it. She goes to sleep peaceful and then wakes up quite often. I think the trauma of having