are you making with that very nice woman?” There was a bite to her voice she couldn’t quite keep out of it, because Inez seemed extremely friendly and not at all a woman involved in anything illegal.
“She owns this store and we were hoping to get a smaller version up and running in Caspar. We have the funds and she has the name. If we can get her to work the store for us even for just a few days a week for a few months, just to get it going, we can make a success of it. We need her to bring the locals in. She knows her value too.” He flashed a smile Inez’s way.
“Are you going to be laundering money through the store? Or selling drugs out of it?”
“No, baby. All businesses in Caspar are legit. We’re putting down roots here. This is our community. You don’t fuck with local royalty and Inez is just that. Everyone loves her. Besides, her silent partner is Jackson Deveau, and he’s a sheriff.”
She mulled that over as they paid and got back on the bikes. Could it be the truth? Was Torpedo Ink that different from the Swords? She hadn’t been around any club other than the Swords and those they did business with. The local people here seemed to accept Torpedo Ink—but then there hadn’t been locals at the party taking place at the clubhouse. The Demons had been gone, but she’d seen their colors. She knew patches and what they meant. They weren’t angels any more than Torpedo Ink was.
Steele took them back down the highway to Caspar, but he didn’t turn toward the Torpedo Ink clubhouse. Instead, he chose a winding road leading to the cliffs above the ocean. From there, he chose a lane that seemed to be more of a long drive than a public street. He slowed the bike even more once he turned away from the ocean and back toward a slight hill all overgrown with tall shrubbery. The road narrowed more, the vines climbing high on trees lining the road, so thick they formed an impenetrable wall on either side, preventing anyone from seeing the landscape, other than the occasional glimpse of light.
They went through a long archway created by the tree branches. She found herself looking upward at the flowering limbs. It was really quite extraordinary. Breathtaking even. How had Steele found such a place? It was an avenue of pure beauty.
Then he slowed even more and came to a halt. Breezy sat up straight and looked around her. A house sat straight ahead, tucked into the hillside, rising up like a great palace. It was something out of a fairy tale. Unreal. There weren’t houses like that in real life. The structure stretched out in length with rounded turrets and wide long windows facing the sea. It rose up maybe three stories, she couldn’t tell because one of those stories was tucked into the hillside.
Steele took her hand and helped her off the bike. She kept her eyes on the house while she removed the helmet, afraid such a beautiful home couldn’t be real.
“Who lives here?” She didn’t want anyone to call the cops on them and she really, really wanted to look around.
“It’s ours.”
Her heart clenched hard in her chest. She scowled at him. “First, Steele, there is no us, so nothing is ours. Second, this place has to be worth millions. Millions. I don’t have a huge concept of real estate and what it’s worth, but this place is enormous. The grounds alone are worth a fortune, and it overlooks the sea.”
He nodded slowly. “Seven million and some change. We got it for a steal.”
She felt a little faint. “Steele.” She whispered his name. Shocked. It didn’t occur to her, not even for a moment, that he was kidding her. He wasn’t. She could see that on his face and hear it in his voice. He meant every word.
“And yes, we are together. There is an us. You. Me. Zane. This is our home. I bought it because we’re putting down roots here. I like the view.”
“That’s it? You like the view? Where did you get that kind of money?”
A slow grin transformed his face from dangerous to gorgeous. He looked mischievous, as only Steele could look. “The Swords.”
EIGHT
Steele never did anything without a plan. That was why he was vice president of Torpedo Ink. Like Czar, he saw an entire picture, the problems and every possibility along