up later and found them in foster homes. There were the two girls and a younger sister who hadn’t been there. Czar and Blythe adopted them.”
She swung around, forgetting all about her tear-stained, swollen face. “The Swords ‘trained’ kidnapped young girls?”
“For human trafficking,” he said. “I told you, they had the biggest ring going that anyone knows of, worldwide.”
“No. You said the international president did. You said he had freighters for his clients.” She could barely breathe all over again. “The Swords run drugs and guns. They force their women to sleep with other clubs to make alliances. A lot of the women are prostitutes for the club and they do it willingly, but no one ever said a word about kidnapping children.”
“You knew some of the women were sold to other clubs. Your father threatened to sell you,” Steele pointed out.
It wasn’t the same thing. How could she make that distinction to him? “To other chapters. I was born into the club. We’re considered club property. That isn’t the same thing as kidnapping a child outside the club and selling their body to the highest bidder.” She was outraged. Sick. Was her father involved? He was scum—she knew that. She knew he considered women to be far less than him, but would he really kidnap an innocent child and force her into sexual slavery?
“Baby.” Steele’s voice was very gentle. “Just because you were born into the life doesn’t give anyone the right to use you or sell you. When you wear my colors proclaiming you’re mine, it means I take care of you. That you’re protected, not only by me, but by every one of my brothers and sisters. It means I’m responsible for you and willing to take on that responsibility. It means you’re loved and that everything I do, I do with you in mind.”
She turned away again, not wanting him to see her face. He was too good at reading her expression. She couldn’t respond to that. It was too dangerous. That was for fairy tales, not real life. She knew better than to dream. To trust him. To trust any club.
“These girls …”
“Darby, Zoe and Emily. Darby is the oldest and she’s been through hell. Zoe is still fragile and probably always will be. She was so traumatized she barely talks, although I think she feels safe with all of us now and she’s happy. She doesn’t like leaving the farm, but she goes to visit Blythe’s sisters who have their own homes on the farm. They aren’t sisters by blood, but she regards them that way and the children think of them as aunts.”
“I don’t know what to say, Steele. How are they going to feel with me being the daughter of a member of the Swords? Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
She needed a little time to process the facts he was giving her. She could tell he wasn’t lying to her and it fit, now that she had time to put together some of the behavior she’d noticed that hadn’t made sense years earlier. Small things. Snippets of conversations hastily shut down when she was close. Her father suddenly furious and then smug.
“You were victimized just the way they were, Bree,” Steele said. “Blythe hadn’t even accepted Czar back into her life all the way and we brought home Kenny. We’d made a run to stop a pedophile we’d heard about and found him chained in the basement with nowhere to go when we freed him. We brought him home to Blythe. She took him in immediately.”
She was beginning to think Blythe wasn’t real. She couldn’t equate a woman like the one he talked about with her measure of Czar—or any club man for that matter. And for Czar to take those children in … Breezy shook her head, rejecting the idea that the man could do anything decent.
Steele ignored the small shake of her head, although he had to have seen it. He saw everything. “We’ve got a line on another little boy. He’s being auctioned on the Internet. We were bidding on him, trying to find the nest. Code traced him to Las Vegas but then the operation was shut down. As far as we can tell, there’s no family looking for him. If we can’t find his family, Blythe and Czar will take him in. She’s got good counselors for the children and the patience of a saint. I’ve never heard that woman ever raise her voice to those