He sat on the edge of the bed and instantly she felt caged in.
“Damn it, Breezy. You’re covered in bruises.” There was genuine distress in his voice.
She closed her eyes at the brush of his fingers. She’d forgotten how gentle he could be. That whisper of a touch on her bare skin. The moment he did that, every nerve ending sprang to life. She hadn’t wanted a man since she’d left him. She hadn’t thought of wanting a man. She’d avoided them like the plague, first because she’d been pregnant, then she’d been a single, harassed mother and then because men were disgusting creatures and she’d wanted no part of them. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, if she was honest, it had been because they weren’t Steele.
Those fingers whispered along her ribs, so gently she thought she might cry.
“Hurts here?”
He was bent over her, his hair falling toward her bare belly while his hands slid over her ribs. A healer’s hands. A lover’s hands. He’d been both before he destroyed her.
“Yes.”
“They aren’t broken, thank fuck. Your old man do this, or Junk?”
Now his hands were on her thigh, sweeping over the large bruise. Everywhere he touched her, there was heat, and then somehow, miraculously, the terrible ache would subside. He had magic in his hands. “He kicked you in the ribs as well, didn’t he?”
“Yes. It was my father. Junk had Zane. He had his hand over Zane’s mouth and I thought he was going to kill him.” She breathed deeply to keep from sobbing. She would never forget that moment. Lying on the floor helpless, her father kicking her while her brother had his hand over her baby’s mouth, a grin on his face.
“I’m going to beat the shit out of both of them before I kill them,” he said. “Break every bone in their fucking bodies.”
He sounded like Steele. Calm. But she knew he meant it.
“If you think I’m going to object, Steele, I’m not. They took my baby.” This time the sob escaped before she could prevent it. She turned on her side, face to the wall, jamming her fist in her mouth. She didn’t want him there to witness her breakdown. That was hers alone. He’d thrown her out like trash, and she’d made something of herself. She hung on to that. She’d even finished high school, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.
He leaned into her, his mouth against her ear. “We’ll get him back, baby. That’s what we do. We don’t let perverted clubs like the Swords take children. We’ll get him back.”
He was gone before she’d turned to face him. What had he meant by that? That was what they did? What did that mean? And how had he made her ribs and her bruised body feel so much better just by touching her? Steele. He broke her heart in so many ways.
THREE
“We’re going to have to clear the calendar to get Steele’s boy back,” Czar said, the moment the twenty fully patched members of Torpedo Ink took their places around the large, thick, oval table made out of oak.
Czar looked over at his vice president. “You get her settled?”
“She’s going to give me trouble, but I deserve it. I’ll handle it.” Steele knew Breezy wasn’t going to be won over easily, but as far as he was concerned, there was no other choice. He had to win her over for his own self-preservation.
Czar nodded. “First business, where are we with the boy we’ve been bidding on? Is there anything new popping up?”
Code shook his head. “They shut down the auction saying some member of the crime unit had bid on him. They sent out a warning and disappeared. I had traced them to Las Vegas, but they may have moved the kid and the operation. I’ve done everything I can do to be alerted if they pop back up. My friend Cat is also working with me and she’s got just as many alerts up as I do. Sooner or later they’ll try to sell the kid and we’ll be back in business.”
Finding the little boy they’d heard was being auctioned on the Internet was a fierce need for all of them, and frustration showed on their faces. Now, they had to find Steele’s child as well. There was no way they could sacrifice one child for the other. If necessary, they would break into two teams. They’d done so often enough that both ran smoothly.